001and i also want to acknowledge um we had some uh difficult uh difficulties in connecting on our streaming for the work session that is all recorded that's correct dr ricky smith correct that is correct um anyone who was unable to um watch us that wanted to do that is certainly welcome to um watch the recording that will be posted for your viewing um so we apologize for that i thank our technical team i think we're squared away so we'll be good to go um going forward and with that um as i mentioned we did meet at five for work session to talk about um our policy jhh student suicide prevention review which is also a discussion around our plan that would be in support of the policy and at this time we will move to
002the art of community board members and rowan and emily um it's been a lot the last few weeks and so um just let's just do a quick round um with dr ricky smith joining us i would have everyone do it but we'll be um sadly you know an hour or 45 minutes into it but how about uh board members and our student representatives and dr ricky smith let's pick one um that we're going to focus on um this evening as we do our work and i will start and i will say we strive to be in community with one another with care and welcome everybody i'm going to focus on we acknowledge that we bring our lived experiences into our conversations we will listen with intention to learn something new we remember that conversation is
003a natural way we together i guess i'm going next um we bring our lived experiences into our conversations i would offer we slow down so we have time to think and reflect we will listen with intention to learn something new we try to stay curious about each other and how about i add and i promise to know when i'm on new times and um cabinet members i'm sure you are all individually reflecting on um those aspects of our community as well so um with that uh dr wiki smith are there any changes uh to the agenda there are none chair this evening's consent agenda includes the may 20th budget committee minutes human resources personnel and action report our preliminary august financial report second reading of board policy and um that was included i don't have
004the number right in front of me or lettering um and then the review of board committee assignments um uh board members anything you would like removed from the consent okay with that i would take an action to accept the agenda as presented i moved to accept the agenda as presented a second motion was made and seconded to accept the agenda as presented and as always i will do roll call if you approve please signify by saying aye director bowman aye director emerson aye director fox aye directors art smig aye and director wolfpas and i'm motion carries and we are off to the races uh recognition and good news director um do we start with director honor director rose um actually i will say that this evening will be the first presentation of a series that
005we plan to bring to the board that will um introduce you to the work that our affinity groups are doing and tonight i'm going to turn it over to director anne um so she can talk to you about our black student union and director n hi thank you um i'm wondering if we have the slide deck open i can share it actually i have it if you don't um hello everyone it's my pleasure to um introduce octavia and i think amera is on here i do not see abdi abdi is going to be like two minutes late he's he's at work so oh okay okay well that is important yeah well um actually i would um like to uh project first of all and then um i would like to uh introduce you to octavia
006horn um i'm really excited to uh to share this uh um the series that we're gonna be uh sharing for good news and i'd like to again introduce you to octavio horn and she'll take it away and octavia just tell me when to move to the next slide okay um thank you everyone for having us here tonight board and um our superintendent and vice president thank you so much um on next slide my name is octavia horn and i'm the cultural responsive liaison for the ttsd and our district bsu coordinator um i also want to honor tonight my mother flora horn who also helped me with this work this is her last year at ttsd and i know for a fact that i would not be here without her so i wanted to honor her
007tonight and i wanted to introduce you to our bsu president so next slide please so abdurfi muhammad is our bsu president for tiger high school he's with his work uniform on right there he's at work um so bsu at t uh tiger just started this year in january so he has spearheaded that as well and i'm gonna have amira introduce herself hi um everyone i'm amir horn vaden and i'm the bsu president at towaliton high school thank you next slide please so in this series um we have three components that we work with right our emotional um support system and that kind of consists of the bsu group itself why are we here we're here for support to be able to talk to one another with like minds like ourselves and um we want to
008be able to have that space for for them to be able to know that somebody is there for them um we also have the knowledge com i mean the knowledge proportion which kind of consists of our cultural history knowledge along with processes along with policies so a lot of knowledge in that component there to loop in our advocacy portion which i know you've seen a lot of that this year um just our students being involved and being able to be a part of that change and um and see what those outcomes are next slide please and so along with that knowledge this is some of the things that bsu had been up to this year um every year to wally hold um a traveling black history museum which um this year uh the the background
009was uh the history of hip-hop and how it correlates with with different like uh things that happen um politically or civil rights um so in this particular in january we were able to host that equality and we were able to have all three levels represented for the first time in bsu history so uh templeton elementary bsu tuality fowler hazelbrook was there and then tualatin high school was there so as you can see it was the first time at that time that all three levels were represented and then we had um other uh other uh knowledge uh times where we bsu went to blackened space which we were invited by comcast um african-american urban um uh group that they have um in that particular time they had a question and answer portion by the director who
010directed black and space and um they were able to learn so many things about uh what was going on at that time surrounding that and not to mention they had like a five course meal which i think our students were just like what is this you know they were able to experience that experience as well so they really enjoyed that a number of other things that we've done um gone to ufo and we had so many other things in the process before covet hit with psu so that knowledge component was extremely important next slide please and then community and connection we were able this year to do our um bsu ttsd community event where um our middle schools really band together matt kingsley mary patrias and julian christie you really helped out with that um
011i have to give a shout out to my dad who is an amazing cook and every time we need him we call him and he comes through so a lot of that food you see is from him thank you dad elmo horn um and then we were able to get a lot of um resources from ezell's chicken as well they helped out a lot so that community event took place um just a time that our students were able to give back to our community and let them know what we've been doing with bsu and then um also this year we were able for our february event for black history month put together our first bsu spirit week where our students in this particular picture we were able to host all three bsus in both high
012schools at the first time ever at our tualatin um at 12th and high school at a time during school which coordinating wise was was was a was was an experience but um definitely beneficial um the students were so excited so happy and not only our bsu students but the other students were were excited as well they were like what is happening what is this you know um first for everybody and i think everyone enjoyed themselves and then our bsu um annual family picnic that we do uh our barbecue we do at cook park just more time for community and connection next slide please so our our social emotional supports um this year we were for the past two years we've been able to pilot our lunch made program a program that we use that came
013about with working in partnership with jordan mills and her equity uh her equity department there um just being able to have faces like ours in these hallways um a lot of feedback from our family uh connection series is that we need to see more people like us and my first response to that was like well how can we make that happen right now because you know our district was in in that process but we weren't there yet so um this was the way that i felt that we could do that right away and we've been together as a group our bsu group and we were like we're gonna go and we're gonna see what this is like so uh what this day would consist of is like our bsu students would eat lunch before they
014go so our high school students and then they would either go to bridgeport elementary or byrom um with matt coleman and um they would the first initial meeting would be all three lunch i mean all five lunches from k through five um and just have that conversation with the students be able to sit with them um and and just get to know them um a second round would be like okay um let's go into some classrooms um those meetings would would consist of either a panel so you see they're they're in a panel kind and the students um have pre-written questions that they've already went over with their with their teachers and they asked the the high school students questions about you know what it's like to be a high school student or what or
015what it's like to be uh what do you like to do just just getting to know um other things that we've done were uh we for black history month we we had black history posters and we brought them in and we helped create them and the the the second graders i mean they were so excited um we took some of their posters we took them back to the high school and posted them up at high school and they were like over the moon over the moon about it it doesn't like it really doesn't take much but they were so happy um so just that that connection with the with the students and then of course they went to lunch and recess which i think our student the high school students enjoyed that way more than
016other students because when they went outside it was like all that you know that built up pressure of high school just went right out the door and um they were able to to have that time with them so our lunch mate program is almost like a mirror right it's it's benefiting our our students it's benefiting our teachers and it's also benefiting our high school students as well so definitely a great program that i can help continue next slide please and so the advocacy part um a portion of this is is um one that i feel um our bsu presidents really took by storm um the work that they put in this past year from visuals to marches to um to the policies that we put together they really outshine and i'm extremely proud of them
017um for the work that they put in and i just want amira to kind of speak on how she feels that this process has led her um thus far american uh yes um being the voice for the for my people and the people that um like my bsu people and all that it was really um hard at first but um getting i'm getting better at it and having um abdi there to help me because he's really good at being a good advocate for everyone um it really helps me and it's helped me as a person to grow as a better person as well so it's been really good a really good experience and something that i will never forget um hello to everybody sorry about being like i'm in the middle of taco bell right
018now i'm just at work on my lunch break um it's been a long time because this year very good see maureen wolfe um bsu actually just all i can say has been amazing man um the advocacy you've been doing it's just like one of the best things i think the best moments so far has been like one of the best people swiping up on my story and saying thank you you know or thank you thank you for doing all these big stuff or you're gonna do big things when things like that are said i feel like it gives them hope and as far as hoping them that they didn't have previously and um that's all that's all you can really ask for you know when you can you can shine you know a spotlight on
019somebody you can say oh my god i'll be using all this and that but i'm telling you guys right now i would not be able to do anything i've done without the support of um my tiger high school bsu um we're just like a little squad we do we roll together and uh yeah i think that's all i can say um yeah thank you so this here is just um like we we were saying there was a lot of feedback from our um family um with any connection group about how we can be more um have more mentorship towards our students and what that looks like so right now our high school students are are mentoring our with our lunch mate program and our middle school students also as well our quality goes to templeton
020um there those are our mentorship for our elementary school schools but we wanted more for our upper classmen so student voice community um from our community uh organizations would would help mentor our high school and middle school and also um another uh component that i feel would be beneficial is using our cabinet leaders for mentorship you know we have our infinity groups consist of a president vice president communications i see over there tracy um you know we we have a we have secretary so just having that that that connection with our cabinet leader leadership and um being able to provide mentorship through them um is another component component to to um connection with our community and our students and and adding that also that transparency right and then the the invitation to the board is
021just to have you guys come and participate in our our lunch mate program and um also adding that um community connection and that transparency with our students um so they can build that relationship um i feel like would be beneficial for all of our students so in a nutshell that's bsu tonight and i thank you guys for for listening and thank you all right thank you octavia and abdi and amira um so octavia i have a question for you so i so first of all congratulations amir and abdi what outstanding student leaders and all that you've accomplished and thank you activity for you i'm sure your mentorship and your guidance and um just always the the back up there i'm sure just even as you did a shout out to your husband for the food
022all that is really important you know items for success um but i my question is um this board has always been eager to you know to to jump in when the invitations are extended so how do you see in our distance world and our zoom world some of these programs looking um as we you know will likely um be in this mode for a while how do we get involved how do we help with that um definitely um i feel like um probably the same way i've been getting involved i've been dropping in on a couple of bsu meetings here and there um our middle school has started their hour meetings i know we have some high school meetings starting up next month i think that's a good um a good way to just do
023an intro and definitely being in this distant learning age so it's i can i know that i know our students are eager to just get face-to-face but i feel like that could be the first step into uh gradually getting to where we need to be that's great um and um thank you for that and so we'll work either with tracy or with um director and to get those invitations connected uh board members do you all have questions comments i think um sort of a broad question that um i'll i'll ask to anyone who wants to respond and maybe zinnia you can jump in here but because this is our first uh our first highlighting of affinity groups and there might be community members who aren't familiar with affinity groups or maybe they didn't have affinity
024groups when they were in high school um you know and i think you made the case throughout your presentation but if folks were wondering what's the value of an affinity group um why why do they matter or might have some questions about like where they come from how would you respond to someone who maybe doesn't identify with an underrepresented group in our in our district and you know is curious about that yeah i can share about that and it was um on the cover sheet as well uh you know you actually look in corporate world there's a whole bunch of uh research around um you know affinity spaces as a way to engage connect you know employees um on you know feeling a part of a community um but the other part of it too
025uh what we know around what we actually reviewed during um the hate speech listening sessions is that when you have a space where people feel connected um not only um does it speak to having an affinity space but it speaks to the broader community in their um acceptance understanding and connection uh with the need for that so that it all adds to the the process of feeling seen heard and and connected um and like we said earlier it's really a space especially in education knowing um our demographics uh of you know we in nationally we have um you know 82 percent of our teachers are um are white and our um demographics are we're heading to um 52 of our demographics being um uh students of color um or culturally linguistically diverse um in oregon
026it's 90 percent um uh and uh students is um 40 40 um so it it offers um you know an understanding that as a broader community we see students um for who they are and and um give the support that they need so that's i think a longer way of saying it but you can also see review it's really creating a safe space for community that's great thank you and i don't know abdi or amira if either of you want to jump in and just say you know what what does it mean to you as a student from uh an underrepresented group where there aren't a lot of students who who look like you what does it mean to you to be able to have this space why is that a good thing for you
027i do want to go first or should i just go i'll just go yeah okay um that's all good um i think it's nice because you go through all your classes and you probably don't see people who look like you and you're like okay cool you're talking about some subject that affects you know black people and you look around and nobody looks like you the whole class is looking at you and um then you have the space you know you go to lunch and you see people who look like you all around you you can have conversations that you previously couldn't have had and it just it just it makes you feel comfortable you know it makes you just feel like i can finally just be myself in this position because that's one thing that
028i've noticed about the students of color in our schools often times i have to put on a front to fit in and i feel like when you're around people who look like you you know who have the same slang as you you know you can talk about things that can relate to you um it helps build that connection it helps build up a better um culture in between you guys so yeah that's all i can say about it um yeah i have to definitely agree with some of the things that of these things just like a comfortable place to go to like you have your friends that understand what you're going through on a day-to-day being some of the only colored people to walk the halls and like it's a big struggle it's pretty hard
029to do and but they understand it and they get it and like most of your friends there that aren't in bsu that aren't you know colored they'll just be like well you know like i don't get it you're just uncomfortable and you feel kind of out of place but in bsu it's the complete opposite like you can just get along with everyone and just say how you feel about everything beautifully said by both of you i really appreciate your vulnerability and honesty and sharing that and i think it's helpful for other folks to to hear those perspectives too so i appreciate all of you being here tonight yeah i echo that thank you so much for for your honesty and your words that was very eloquent thank you i just wanted to say thank you
030as well and also um i just i did not know that flo was retiring um this is her last year and she's going to be sorely missed i'm happy for her she would be slowly missed huge huge person just of presence there i mean she's been there for so many years at tualatin high school so congratulations for her and i'm glad that uh both of you are the leaders that you are and the creative people that you are i know that you'll figure out a way to keep the momentum going for your group uh in this virtual world so thank you for that okay i um i wanna um again thank you guys and we will um segue director rose to the second one but i do want to do a quick hello to eddie
031um i see uh that you're here and and we'll finish recognition and good news and then give you a moment uh to introduce yourself and let us get to know a little bit more about you but i just wanted to say hello and welcome okay director rose all right i am excited to be able to share with you we have four educators here this evening to give you all their take their impressions observations um successes and opportunities from the first two weeks of school so we're gonna start out with the littles uh we have rachel bates here from templeton elementary she's a kindergarten teacher and i do want to call out that um principal ferguson shared with us she is homegrown she came up through templeton quality and graduated from tigard high school and now
032she is back um working her magic as a kindergarten teacher a couple of these folks that you're going to hear from this evening you read um letters from parents about last week so we're happy to have you meet them and hear their thoughts so i'll start with you rachel hello and thank you for inviting me here to speak tonight uh the first two weeks of school have been overwhelming teaching in a new way is unsurprisingly hard and frustrating with so many unknowns and changes i have often struggled with the lack of control that i feel however there have also been some incredible positives over the last two weeks although we are meeting virtually i am already in awe of my students every year i learned so much from them i can tell this year will
033be no different as a teacher i felt pressure to be prepared for the unknown an impossible task but i am already seeing how although it has been exhausting work my team and i have pushed ourselves to be better and are making a difference in these students lives i already incorporate a lot of visuals into my teaching but this year has taken that to a new level i have icons for google meets course cards and maybe most importantly the mute unmute icon the templeton kindergarten team also had a community member donate five books to every kindergarten student when i read one of those books my students love to get their copy and follow along at home i know these books are special to all of them and it helps to create a sense of togetherness even
034when we are separated by a screen although this work continues to be challenging i know that at the end of it i will be a better teacher both virtually and in person i have also been very fortunate to have a class full of families that have been incredibly kind to me despite the stress and pressure parents are feeling i believe much of this camaraderie was built through our connect meetings before school having these connects as your first meeting ensures that these relationships start off in a positive way that is an important aspect every year but especially this year when we are coming into families homes through cameras every day and asking our families to support their students in ways they never have i have been lucky enough to have families reach out and tell me
035how much their students are enjoying coming to school how they love the songs we are singing and the puppets who come to help us with math and reading most of these messages are just a ps at the bottom of an email but these are the messages that let me know we are doing the right things for our students and tells me how important live instruction even virtually is our students know that they are loved and cared for and want to be with their teacher and i believe as long as we keep building those connections that the learning will happen too thank you for having me here tonight thank you rachel next we have amy martin from metzger elementary she is a learning specialist there amy hi yes learning specialist at metzger um i thank you
036very much for having me um i decided to just jot down some opportunities and successful uh moments that we've had first as rachel mentioned all elementary teachers had connect meetings with individual families at the beginning of the first week of school and i was able to attend those meetings for all the students on my caseload so it was a great opportunity right away to start collaborating and communicating with parents and teachers um i've also had the opportunity to work real closely with the basic needs teams at metzger and supporting our families on many different levels um we always strive to have a partner with well we always start to partner with parents um but this virtual setting actually provides many opportunities for this partnership to be stronger as there is a constant communication between school
037and home and i feel that the this setting has increased the involvement of parents in their child's education we also have a better understanding of families cultures and norms while we're serving kids as they um learn at home um another positive or good opportunity is during classroom morning meetings each day i have been able to check in on all my students which in a normal school day that usually doesn't happen um and i can easily pop into their google class meets i can see who's there i can see if they're participating how they're interacting and then do a quick check-in with that progress with parents and teachers as needed um a big success i feel is i have some students that we barely saw in the spring and after many phone calls and home visits
038we were able to get them connected walk through all the steps so they knew how to navigate canvas and they're in their small groups and they're in their classrooms every day another success is that we have some students with behavior needs in a brick-and-mortar school and that have actually been very much more engaged and successful in this virtual setting and then last like all the teachers i was really nervous to start using canvas and teach live but it really considering that we're doing the best we can it's been amazing seeing the students seeing their faces and how happy and excited they are to see these familiar faces to see assistance to see their friends um it's been very filling for them and for their families and then in talking to families they've said that they
039even see their children light up and that these small group friends are familiar and very exciting for them to see their friends and be in that small group each day so thank you again for having me you're on you're muted tracy oh first time okay um next up we have josh morris who is a twee language arts teacher at fowler middle school you also read about him last week so before josh you start i think we need those mutant unmute icons [Laughter] uh good evening i just wanted to thank everybody uh for allowing the space for the teachers to kind of share out some of these things that are happening uh so thank you everybody um i really wanted to just kind of start uh by sharing out that it it has been difficult it
040has been a difficult beginning um learning canvas has been uh pretty difficult and i know a lot of teachers are continuing to work really hard with it and trying to get around it but with that said i have to say that i've never seen in 12 years of teaching i've never seen teachers come together and you know the outpouring of creativity and collaboration is you know i i couldn't be with better people right now the team that i've been able to work with i have to say at sixth grade level has been incredible at fowler middle school i'd only have great things to say about them um the coaches you know wow it's the work that they have put in the tech coaches is just it's really unbelievable to know how much they've put in
041i know they've put in blood sweat tears and hours and hours of doing videos and trying to create systems to make it all a little better um and it's been so nice to be able to see my students you know be able to be in this setting that you know sometimes is even more intimate in a classroom i mean i'm in their living room i'm in their bedrooms with them there you know parents are there with them at times and it's just it's nice to finally be able to be face to face with them again we've really missed our students um and really it's you know we're coming around to i think starting to figure out how canvas is really going to work i think it really has been a challenge but we're in that
042space that we're learning it and we're getting better at it and we have a lot of teachers just willing to help out and willing to help everybody else um just want to thank you again for giving me the opportunity to just give you a little bit of what's going on thanks thanks josh we're going to round this off with high school with principal michael delurba from tualatin high school first off shout out to all the teachers that came in and spoke before me your uh your story resonates it's a very similar story to what i've heard from our high school folks who have uh just really been really working hard to learn canvas and to get um get familiar with setting up their courses in canvas it was a it was a big lift for
043our staff but they they've done it really well i've been uh going into classes today in the ninth grade classes and spending some time with focus students like we do every single year and i've been asking them about their experience and they've said there's a very clear set of expectations about what they do every day knowing what their schedule is being able to come in and know exactly where their classroom google meets link is in the canvas what assignments and discussions are coming out it's just um it's a much more predictable environment for our students is what i'm hearing from our students and that's a really that's a that's a big marker and and that was not easily attained our our teaching a staff across all levels had to learn on the fly and and
044they've done it marvelously really impossible feat that they've accomplished some other great positives we've started our ninth graders out on i think on a positive note um we had a welcome back to the pac night um just last week um for community members and then also they during the first week of school we had our kind of uh student pack leader day so we had ninth grade breakout groups and there were some technical problems as we went along but it was still a chance to try and do some of the things that we do with students in person virtually and the feedback from students has been really great we handed out thousands of textbooks last week at both high schools uh um checking them out by name to students you know running out to cars
045and uh you know a lot of shout outs to our classified folks secretaries and librarians and security folks and volunteers who came out to help us hand out textbooks at both schools and supplies for courses it's been a pretty amazing opportunity to to get material students for our normal classes we really one of the i think the big celebrations is despite all the limitations of kovid we really have not pared down our offerings students are still taking pretty much the same classes they took when they were in person at least at 12th and high school and i know it's true at tiger high school too so i'm just very excited that um as students get into the rhythm of distance learning and comfortable distance learning they're going to find the rigor that we've always expected
046from our students at in person at tualatin high school the other thing that i'm excited about is is um that we spent the first week of school really anchoring in relationship and every student i've talked to including emily here our board liaison has talked about that was really um apparent and that intent is impaired i think in this virtual environment developing those communities in our classrooms is so important and for our staff to commit to to taking that time to do that up front before easing into content this week has been a good lift for students and i think it shows in our attendance i was looking at our tenants every day and you know we're right around three or four percent right now that we're still trying to chase down that's pretty remarkable considering
047uh what sort of drop-off we saw in the spring so i'm i'm very excited about these uh beginning markers and i know tiger it is too as i was i talked with brian most every day and that but but more importantly we are really happy to see our students coming and you know leaning into being in their courses and and opening up to their teachers and just building a great community as we move forward in this virtual environment so thank you again for allowing me to come in and speak on behalf of our staff and uh just one more time shout out to the teachers out there you guys are amazing i'm married to one and i see what you're you're working through on a daily basis and i just so appreciate the constant care
048you have for our students thank you michael and i um i'll just open it up for support members questions comments kudos i i am just in awe i mean i always knew we had phenomenal teachers so it doesn't really surprise me that that staff is just figuring out canvas and and going with it and working their tails off to make it work um because that's what you guys have always done right but i am i am extraordinarily appreciative and i am i really am in awe of how much energy and and and thought and care has gone into this because i know all of you know a lot of our teachers have their own kids screaming around them at home and so teaching a class when you got a you know three-year-old running around your
049legs or their cat running around your legs um it's tough and so i just want to say thank you so much i have a couple questions um and i'm curious the perspectives from the different levels here so one we know one of the big problems in the spring was inability to reach certain students who lacked wi-fi access or who lacked you know other resources to connect um can can you all share maybe one or two people from your experiences are we are we having those same difficulties are we able to reach most students pretty frequently curious what the what the perspective is from spring to today and in terms of reaching those students i think that's sorry that's something i can speak to quickly and then i'll let rachel jump in um that is data
050we're tracking on the daily um we have our support teams that we started in the spring our distance learning support team and also our re-engagement teams and they have been going through um some exhaustive training around uh a strong home visit process um just making phone calls and tracking those tracking those students down early on um i i think i was really encouraged by the data early on that we have a much larger percentage of students coming not just daily but also at least at least one to two periods a day so that those though that we know who those students are right away now and we were able to jump on them pretty quickly but that also that also is a major shout out to our basic needs team who over the summer did
051a lot of of tracking down communications with families and you know having some listing sessions with certain affinity groups and really hearing what the needs were and so that we're able to get resources to those people much quicker now than we first started in the spring so i'm feeling really great about the systems that we have in place and i know that we're already looking at a data even a weekend and i just wanted to share because i only see the classroom aspect of it but i had three days last week i believe where i had 100 of my students attend all live sessions and i have a class of 17 this year and yeah yeah it was it was amazing and it was awesome and it was so exciting to see because that does
052show me that they're able to access canvas and get onto our live sessions they have internet and access to that and that they also have buy-in like that they want to be there and be participating in those live sessions from the middle school like from fowler middle school what i've noticed is definitely there's a greater buy-in from the students right now at this moment the kids want to be there from the technical side of lack of internet i i think we've done a much better job at providing the internet to the people that needed it and also i know that our team at fowler you know i can speak for them are you know working tirelessly reaching out to the kids who aren't i mean we're you know keeping track of it very closely and
053you know someone is not there it's they're checking in on the house and seeing hey what's going on why is someone not there so definitely a more cohesive plan i would feel than what we had in the spring and i would just add that just the engagement and interaction of the live instruction and students feeling to see each other is a huge buy-in at the elementary level as well i appreciate all of you coming and just keeping us kind of informed and um i saw the article um amber fields um her and her daughter in that i don't know if you guys saw it in the entire times um and amber's quote is saying that she's never seen so much collaboration before and i think just listening to you all it sounds like um that's
054a common denominator is just extreme collaboration i contrast to how like the high schools hardly ever talk to each other five years ago right so it's um it's great to see that but one of the questions i do have is going forward um and maybe what you just said in terms of attendance i saw a little concern in some of your voices that yeah right now it's great but long term right because as interest wayne especially after um christmas so i'm just i'm just curious what are some what do you see as a challenge moving forward one thing i can think of is just some different behaviors that are already like the honeymoon's over and there are some different behaviors that are starting and i think the challenge will be um working with those parents
055and making sure that they have the incentives and the tools at home to you know continue to have their child be successful online i would i would add to that um just continuing to morph how we how we instruct um so you know speaking from my first grader who's at home you know am i thankful enough that my wife is an educator and she's working right alongside her but there's just no substitution for that over-the-shoulder work when it comes to literacy and i just know that that is something that is on everyone's mind and then also at the secondary level keeping our engagement up um and helping students work through this compacted schedule because we've gone to a 4x4 model where now they're doing a whole you know um semester work of work work work
056worth worth work worth of work in a in a shortened amount of time and then you know nine weeks to finish semester's work so just how do we help them navigate that process and how do we keep adjusting all of our pacing that's been so established over time with a brand new model so i think that's a big challenge for us moving forward is making sure that we're still you know meeting all of our um high standards but at the same time working for compacting in a differentiated curriculum i would agree on the younger side when i think about teaching my students reading i've never done that virtually before and i always think about those small reading groups and how we will get that really good quality instruction in a virtual model i also think
057about how i'm going to track their growth this year that's something that i know has been a big conversation with my team is how do we assess and monitor and progress watch their progress that they're making virtually um just quickly i thought that uh one of the things that i can see is this the fatigue setting in you know of and what do we do with that fatigue of how do we how do we keep the teacher spirits up as well you know how do we it takes a lot to lessen plan creative things that can actually get interaction um and i think we need when we're planning with teachers we need to be careful that we're not just overloading teachers with new tools or new things that they have to learn and given them
058space to collaborate and be able to develop great lesson plans and you know i just for myself i know and speaking from what i've heard other teachers is there's a fatigue of new tools right now and so you know that a lot of teachers still like i've learned so many things i can't can't hear one more thing and i think we need to be careful with that going further if that we need to back off of like here's another thing you can do and another thing and instead allowing space that teachers can collaborate on what's working what are things that we can already do with what we have and so i think going forward with that would be really helpful thank you everyone that's really helpful appreciate your insight director emerson any questions comments okay
059um well i um again i thank you all and and i appreciate being honest about the challenges too um and i um uh to all of you um on you know i i think about that how do you kind of over animate uh to connect in this virtual space versus what you could do um when you're together the behavioral concerns um attendance engagement i love the conversation rachel about assessment we we're just talking about that as i know dr ricky smith and her team are so we'll be curious and excited to hear how you think that will be successful in this year because um as you might imagine we're really interested too and you all are the experts in trying to figure out how we really um measure success and to josh to your point
060right that's going to be a lot of different ways on how you just manage this is enough for now and let's stretch and grow and then um go again it's kind of like when you're building up a muscle and you kind of have to break it down and then you know build it back up again so um so i appreciate that this is um just unique times and how many times have we all said that so appreciate you guys taking time out of your resting time um to come speak with us and the upside is you can hit a leave button and then you get the rest of your night instead of driving from hibbard so um board members any other questions or comments thank you all and uh keep up the good work we
061really appreciate it truly thank you all um so director rose is that or okay all right so you truly are all free to um hit the leave button so thank you all very much um so great uh recognition and uh good news this evening with some honesty on you know what are those next steps that we need to be mindful of as we continue with school so from that we will move to our student representative reports and director bowman or director emerson if either one of you would like to do an introduction for eddie and then we'll have eddie start since he is just beginning with us and then we'll go to rowan and then emily uh to give their uh high school reports so welcome eddie um so director army center dr bowman yeah
062no i'm happy too um yes this evening we have eddie aguilene recon right green cone yes hi my name is ready and i am a student from uh quickside community high school this is something that is new to me i am stepping out of my comfort zone to help support our district and give my opinion as much as i can and i just want to say thank you for this opportunity so thank you very much and i'll just chime in and say uh eddie had an exceptional interview um with karen and i he comes with a ringing endorsement from russ at creekside community high school and i think along with rowan and emily we are not going to have shy board members this year representing the high school so eddie welcome and uh congratulations on
063on your selection and we're really excited to work with you thank you very much eddie i also want to welcome you i don't know if you remember we you we worked together on um i don't know what that structure was in that building class but i met you at that time at creekside um we were building something i can't remember what it was but anyway good to see you and welcome thank you very much oh yes eddie and please always reach out director emerson uh director bowman really to any of us if you have questions rex is also just a tremendous mentor on um i remember him working with serma on things to share and bring into this space during board meetings um so definitely and i love that you were honest about kind of
064pushing the envelope on your own comfort zone um please know that we are here for as ben said um you know good conversations challenging conversations but we um welcome your voice um and it is always uh respected and truly uh all you guys do an outstanding job um so with that i think i said rowan was next so um rowan take it away all right yeah um so i guess two weeks into school the main takeaways that i have are we still have good attendance which is definitely good and students i think are definitely getting more comfortable with the systems it's still not perfect there's still a lot of times when either students or teachers are trying to figure stuff out as we would expect as i'm sure the district knows we did have i
065think two days where candace went down and so it was not during class time i don't think but i'm not sure if we can if there's much we can do with that but that does hinder stuff so just making sure that we have you know systems if if that were to happen for a whole school day then i would think that it'd be very necessary to have some other way to connect teachers with students so that's one thing i would be worried about um some other things with google hangouts um the the way that teachers like i know or i think there's a breakout feature um similar to zoom maybe i haven't actually used that at all i think most teachers are just creating different google hangout rooms um and then that seems to work
066i'm not exactly sure what goes on with breakout rooms that teachers don't like using it or it doesn't work well but that's something but using multiple google hangout rooms has worked to have smaller group discussions which enable students to participate more not not a whole ton to change has been going pretty well thanks rowan any questions for rowan you guys or we'll go right into emily emily thanks rowan so much um so participation has been consistently high in classes well not participation but attendance has been consistently high in classes participation uh has not it has is still very low and i think uh the unmuting is still a hurdle for us to get through we still have some awkward silences students have reported that the long hours of screen time is really taking a toll
067um and that students are getting headaches and eyes are sore even with the 15 minute break in between it's still really tough on us to just sit there and stare at our screen for an hour we started 12 10 asp we started a weekly video series for 15 minutes during the 15 minute advisory period on mondays and that has replaced our daily morning assignments um not assignments announcements and yes breakout rooms has been a hit or miss some are saying it's helpful and friendly and productive some have been complete silences and students not turning their cameras on and not wanting to unmute themselves but teachers have been very open to constructive input and adjusting their teaching styles to their classes i also think teachers are trying to balance the class time of teaching for an
068hour with time for building relationships so it's been really hard obviously to connect with students and i think that because now we have that compressed schedule they don't really know how much they're supposed to teach or when they're supposed to allow time for you know students to talk and discuss and because they've been really open about the fact that they've had to compress their schedules and our curriculum we've been a little bit hesitant to maybe have some of that free time and then um on the extracurricular side some sports have started practice and that's all i have for the report so eddie now that you at least got a little bit of a sampling from rowan and emily on kind of their feedback you're welcome to share if you'd like um your experience at um
069creekside as they've also kicked off school eddie you're still on you bud i could decide everything's going great i know one challenge for us is attendance because it is an alternative school and it is to help uh students uh more in depth with what with what they need so usually class classes are smaller at keekside but usually they're around like seven students in each class um we are trying to uh contact students and help them by enjoying class and you know it's just it's just a struggle because it's even without uh virtual learning this was a problem so i know russ has been contacting some uh some families as well so thank you for sharing um and i'm sure that you guys will keep us suppressed as we continue on on how things evolve um
070so um with that uh board members any other questions okay um so from there we will go to uh superintendent and board communication dr ricky smith thank you chair uh this evening i would like to share three things with our board and community uh the first is a summary of findings regarding the anonymous instagram posts alleging district staff failed to respond appropriately to student reports of sexual harassment sexual assault rape or grooming behavior the executive summary found the following in evaluating the instagram stories together with subsequent specific information provided anonymously by the authors parents and staff it appears that student reports of sexual harassment sex abuse rape are appropriately addressed within the buildings in adherence with state laws district policies and procedures the data indicates that staff documented student reports contacted school resource officers implemented
071student conflict agreements i.e non-contact orders and return routinely referred students to counseling support the lack of printed information however regarding the district policies procedures federal and state laws and counseling resources to provide to student victims and parents created confusion unrealistic expectations and general dissatisfaction in tracking the student reporting process within buildings and evaluating the data the external investigated noted two system deficiencies the first is what appears to be a lack of a central repository or record system confirming that staff made mandatory reports pursuant to ors 419b although law enforcement officers were involved at some level in most cases reviewed the investigator was unable to obtain a copy of a completed mandatory report form for the incident the second issue is the lack of availability of title ix sexual misconduct incident reports staff indicate that title
072ix reports were routinely electronically filed via synergy and forwarded to ode but the investigator was unable to retain obtain a copy of a title ix incident report or a black blank form actions then that need to be taken by the tiger toleration school district 1. title 9 trainings as updated by federal law for director debbie ebert hr and additional staff at all levels two a centralized location for all title ix documents in the hr office three additional printed material for victims and survivors who report to our staff or safe organ this will give a reference to victims and survivors to be available when resources are needed immediately or later this would also give a place to explain the difference between on and off-campus investigations and follow-up in addition a clear explanation of due process rights
073of those accused of sexual violence and or harassment four increase follow-up with all students and their families who are involved either as a victim survivor and or complainant or respondent and or perpetrator five continue to educate and encourage our students to report to staff or safe organ additional remedies to pursue one review how the district responds when there are incidents of sexual violence in our school communities a team of counselors school sites principals and cabinet members will begin this work on september towards the end of this month to review current policies practices and best practices two create a working partnership with sarc which is the sexual assault resource center and cares to support students impacted by sexual violence and or harassment at the school in our facilities and outside of school they could also provide
074training for our counselors and administrators on response protocols and strategies for our students three in compliance with senate bill 155 the district will be instituting mandatory training for all students on sexual harassment and sexual misconduct which is the terminology used in the law resources will be reviewed by various stakeholders stakeholders regarding students this is a required piece however more preventative education on healthy student to student relationships will also need to be implemented students need to understand their rights and obligations in relationships four increase follow-up and accountability with no contact orders including a schedule change as needed year to year and employ a no contact order during ongoing investigations to ensure the safety of all involved part of a no contact order will be a frequent check-in from administrators and or counselors to ensure that the
075no contact order is working for both parties five consider a cultural lens and utilize cultural supports when students of color are involved as well as students with an iep when investigation and follow-up second this evening just a reminder and emily thank you for sharing that some students have already begun to engage in osaa phase 1 conditioning that is to begin today and will continue throughout the week at both tiger and tualatin high schools student athletes either have been or will soon be contacted by their coaches regarding times for phase one conditioning sessions this week and going forward and last in closing my remarks this evening as we begin another year continue to be anchored in remarkable community state and national context ttsd affirms the following one the district continues to be committed to academic excellence
076and high achievement for all students two that to support high levels of learning and academic success students must feel emotionally strong and safe if they are to stretch their capacity to take on rigorous learning up until the code outbreak last year the work of the district was centered on understanding our students social and emotional needs and developing district systems and structures that affirm that we saw every student by race culture and need this work was and is essential to creating conditions that fully engage every student in instruction and that will ultimately accelerate their learning towards our goal that they have a clear path and plan forward for post-secondary baccalaureate study and or starting a career of their choosing three that our schools are community centers where students of all races cultures identities beliefs belong and
077should feel welcomed specifically a student's social religious and political beliefs whether conservative or liberal are encouraged as they enrich not diminish the instructional experience if a student experiences other they and or their parents should first discuss that concern with the teacher and certainly with their school's principal fourth the ttsd believes in community process and input student and parent feedback is both welcomed and valued as we work towards continuously improving every student's learning experience nttsds continued pursuit of academic excellence beginning in october district community communications will provide parents with information throughout the school year focused to understanding the assessments for learning that teachers use with their students to understand the student's current baseline knowledge of course subjects such as math and reading as well as and this is important their rate and level of learning that
078will guide instruction that produces academic growth throughout the year and you certainly heard examples of that this evening from our teachers two tips for parents for building a strong partnership with their teachers their students teacher or teachers regarding their students academic performance and steps to promoting academic growth throughout the academic year three data updates provided not just to the board but to the community as a whole regarding student growth and achievement by level school and district as you heard this evening our teachers are highly engaged and working hard to create exceptional learning experiences for all our students in beyond challenging conditions of a pandemic that continues to rage i have no doubt that we will navigate current challenges successfully because we are collaborative and in united community of educators committed to excellence of outcomes for
079all of our students regardless of the circumstances in which we do that work thank you dr ricky smith um for those updates uh board members do you have um anything that you would like to share this evening i don't have anything to share but i would like to ask uh dr sue a question about uh what you just said so when you talk about sharing achievement data with the community how do you envision that what does that look like i think it is um basically a return potentially to our data dashboard concepts that we had many districts had many years ago when we were under the no child left behind but this is different this time this is not necessarily focused to um the way in which data was used previously which was relatively evaluative
080of the system but relative to us understanding how our children are glo how our students are growing and even in extraordinary circumstances such as the ones we find ourselves in but that every student is uh and we're going to talk about that this evening when you get to your board goals and looking at the assessments um for learning um that you know this is the benchmark here our baseline and when we get to the second base benchmark how much growth does that show or a shift in learning as the rigor increases and then again by the third benchmark where are we and we have a number of new um items this year that we are pilot we are using not piloting but we'll be using i ready math and i ready reading uh which will
081also provide teachers that you that information that they need relative to um where is the student now and what does what's the next step that the student needs to take in terms of growth towards excelling academically thank you dr stu for for that statement i think that was very comprehensive and um appreciated i have a i have a question that's semi-related to all of that that i i know you're tracking the coveted numbers um pretty carefully but just uh um any sense from you on what the latest numbers mean for us or timing on um uh k3 um or any sort of covid related update from you yeah and thank you direct bowman for that question you know certainly none of us i think are excited about the fact that the numbers can are now
082beginning to trend up following uh which unfortunately i think any of us could have predicted given the impact the labor day weekend and then certainly um as our um youthful charges have gone into their post-secondary um careers and have unfortunately not made the choices that we might hope um as part of their their beginning their college um uh careers um there's been a great deal of conversation both on the washington county and clackamas county sides with superintendents relative to can we get to the k3 metrics and begin slowly introducing kinders first because again you've heard some of the challenges this evening trying to engage kinder's um relative to online learning even if we could do it in uh more of a limited in-person model which would be even smaller cohorts of 10 for no more
083than two hours can that can we model that and do that in a way that does not create an outbreak and i don't think it lost it's missed on anyone that uh the oregonian over the weekend reported four school districts that had already had outbreaks none of which were related to in-person instruction opportunities but came from the from the external community and so put a a stick in their wheel if you will to being able to move forward i do wish to commend oregon department of education which is now gathering weekly datas from every district relative to what how much in person are you able to do and what are your current coveted numbers i think that they are working hard to differentiate where are the outbreaks and how how we can still get to
084more in-person time but our goal is certainly um to you know incrementally move in that direction k3 and then if as we add each layer to that based on on metrics um then you know continue to hope that the metrics will drop so that we can get to um six you know to to i'm sorry grades four through twelve uh for in-person learning but we provided you two weeks ago at the last board meeting with a plan for limited in-person and that has begun by invitation and we will continue to push on that system again not putting anyone at risk but striving hard to get to as much in person as as possible under the current conditions thank you i appreciate that information i have a question oh sorry you you can go ahead oh
085okay um i have a question of whether or not we are increasing our notifications about um the district officials responsible for taking names of um not names but reports of sexual uh harassment following this report are we doing that or is it just additional printed materials for victims and survivors no i think it's all of the above emily um and that is part of the work of the of uh taking a look at the recommendations from uh the external um investigation and then determining how do we best do that so that we are actively closing loops um with individuals who have filed complaints um and or and and what's makes it a little more complicated in this process is that that of if indeed there has been sexual assault um that then may well rise
086to the level of law enforcement um and dhs reporting and i think that is also part of the challenge is how to close that loop because once a district has made that report it is passed off to those agencies and it is for them to follow up um and so working with those uh agencies as to can you give us feedback so that we can be we close the loop with with the individuals who filed the report great thank you you're welcome excellent question thank you are you going maureen no i was just talking okay um i i um so i don't have a lot to report personally just because i got back from vacation just last week was catching up with y'all just accomplished a lot over a few days or a week um
087but i did want to make a comment about the investigation um and in terms of just i'm thanking the district for taking it seriously for your responsiveness as soon as um it was discovered and um i appreciate that we did a thorough investigation and and um even though it was anonymous we tried our best to to determine um you know where they were coming from the nature of the um of the allegation and lastly just the opportunity to learn and to improve from it so i just wanted to thank you because i know the staff i think met on a saturday and that was that urgent so so i just want to thank you it's dr sue for you and your staff thank you director fox and i agree i i as well appreciated that
088here's what we can approve and that already these are our next steps and this is what we plan to do so um thank you for that and i um actually don't have uh anything to add at this time um so if we are um oh thank you director emerson you need to chime in there um i was able to um join virtually the deer creek and mary woodward pso meetings and it was a wonderful opportunity to see the dedicated groups of parents who want to continue the work of teacher appreciation creating community events and of course fundraising um and they're being extremely creative about it and thinking outside the box taking advantage of maybe drive-through parades or goody bag distributions virtual contests but definitely looking for ways to um engage their community and it was
089it was fun to listen to them like what else could we do what else um because tradition is great and it's wonderful but i think they're finding that trying these new things is fun and exciting and so um i appreciate i appreciate them and i appreciate that they know that they need to um show that appreciation for all of their staff members so it should be good i actually have one more question if that's allowed um i um do you think or not do you think but will the district also be extending um explanations of the internal process for complainants because it says here that there will be an explanation of due process rights for those accused of sexual violence but i know that a lot of um of the the reason why a lot
090these reports are coming up right now is because perhaps there wasn't an explanation of the internal processes that these investigations were happening so is that something that this year will be increasing on okay so emily much lined it if you remember the ar written to accompany the anti-bias and hate speech which you know outlines a process this is a conversation that director ebert and i have had about how we make sure that regardless of of what the the disciplinary issue is um that the process is the same and that the loop closing is the same to the best of the ability depending on on the nature of um of the incident um but basically this isn't from you know sharing this is information i can share this is information i cannot share either in in
091terms of sexual assault because there is an ongoing criminal investigation in which case we step back as a district and allow law enforcement and or dhs to do their work um and then typically they you know at the end of that if there is another role for the district to play they will circle back with us and close that loop but as to the outcome of that investigation and who it involves uh only those that are directly involved with with that situation would receive that information that may not be made public depending on on the nature of of uh the prosecution if that is in play um and so that has to then play itself out in the in the public domain um but to the best of our ability we we want to align
092um investigation and communication loops regardless of whether regardless of what the the infraction is so that people feel that that loop is being being closed and they're getting the information that they're that they should have and are allowed to have under law uh right i'm aware of the fact that you know does not allow the district to reveal that information but it says in our policy or the policy i don't know if we're addressing the unadopted policy but um that complainants are allowed to know when the district when the investigation has been started and conclude so is that information correct and that will continue okay thank you emily for the follow-up questions um so i think with that we will close our superintendent in board communication and move to public comment patty are there any
093public comments there are no public comments okay thank you and so um immediately close that and move to reports and discussions and we start with director ebert on an enrollment update getting new board chair and directors the board uh you have an updated enrollment packet uh for this week and i believe that you also have the supplementary materials that maureen has provided in an additional spreadsheet um they aren't added into one so i do believe there are two two separate links correct in your packet okay so do we have any questions comments this week about enrollment and what we're seeing anything i can clarify um it's it's not a clarification uh debbie but i was just curious in terms of outreach um by particularly our elementary which makes more sense right the young students are
094going to be the most difficult to do your work while you know and it plays out just by looking at the students um that ha are not enrolled with you know ttsd this year that it's much more at the elementary level uh than it is um at the secondary so my question is um you know principles or our school administrative assistants are they reaching out what are we learning and is it just the distance world is is a challenging climate so a little bit of everything yes so we got one report this week that was enlightening from northwest regional around homeschooling and the amount of homeschooling registers registrations through the esd has really gone up in at in nearly every metro district um that reports to the esd so that's one place that we predicted
095that we would see an uptick in our students being homeschooled and being registered through the esd we also know that you know through our our different elementary schools that kindergarten and first grade or the are the grades where we have had a loss of enrollment and we are we have not set up a system yet to have our office staffs track down students who were enrolled the year before we plan to do that we're just trying to let everybody kind of settle in and then we can do some more systematic consistency across all 10 elementaries to start a process of of beginning that some schools have done some of that already and will be able to to give us that data fairly quickly but no we have not started a consistent system across all telemetries
096to start calling and finding out where kids have gone director ebert i noticed in the financial report that uh director moore pointed out that statewide enrollment in public school is down between it was one and five percent have you had conversations with some of our neighboring districts to see if they're roughly parallel or looked at our comparable districts in the in the metro 14 yeah i have i meet weekly with um hr directors from both clackamas county um being that we have one school there and then um i meet bi-weekly with the washington county hr directors and except for our smaller districts and both clackamas and washington we all have seen a significant drop in enrollment and i think uh dr ricky smith even put in a report um last week just the variance between
097uh the big ten um the top ten districts that have more than ten thousand students that we all have seen a significant drop and it's very it's fairly consistent across all the larger districts so do you have a fairly high degree of confidence that once the pandemic is done and we're all back to a brick brick-and-mortar school that some percentage perhaps even most of these students who are being homeschooled would would come back to public school do you suppose i would suppose i mean i would predict that we would absorb many of them back into our district i do know that we've had a couple of schools tell us that enrollment is down due to people moving so i also think the pandemic has affected families and in terms of housing and stability with their
098families and employment and all the other reasons that you know what that we're seeing in our world right now are affecting all of our families so i i have heard that from a couple of our our principals who have done some work around trying to figure out where kids have gone so we'll see you know i i think that definitely we will we will get some kids um back into our classrooms as we begin to file back on campus but i think that there are a lot of factors at play here kind of following up on that question and maybe we don't have this information yet and i think i probably know the answer but um do we have a sense of uh demographic data of the students who are not enrolled who were previously
099um are is the assumption that this is uh you know more affluent students or students who have parents who can who can teach them in homes or is there a chance that it is um folks lacking the resources to actually do the enrollment itself and lack that connection to the school or do we just not know yet we don't know yet director bowman but that's definitely something that once we set up a system to track this data um we can definitely do that after we have it all good thank you and director if i might offer as well what we are seeing is that the less affluent um the the district in the in the in the 10 10 k districts the fewer students they they've lost in terms of enrollment so i i do
100believe that that there appears to be that their causal one of the causal effects could very well be the fact that parents can afford to pod or or whatever you know homeschool or whatever else that they're they're currently able to do um versus those who are not and depend upon us um depend upon their school district for you know a number of supports and services i would also add that as i shared with with several directors our biggest concern is that we want to make sure that the student is engaged in some form of learning this year um there have been reports nationally of people just sitting the school year out and that causes me great angst as an educator um that uh you know we what we want to make sure that you connected
101somewhere with some form of learning during the school year whether hopefully it would be with us but if not with us either that you are actively homeschooling or you you have you know reached out to to another provider um because that is is a huge concern for for us for me personally for us as a state and certainly nationally dr just a question follow-up question that do you think that um have you heard of whether that's more of a um elementary issue or high school for example if they're having to work to support their family or whatnot do you have any feelings don't have a sense of that it appears nationally that again it's more at the elementary level but again data is really spotty and early and i think it'll it'll depend over time
102in many ways we have created you know covet has has recreated the conditions of the great depression or recession that we went through um again and i think certainly the mobility in seeing people move um indicates that and then we say have a jet to understand the impacts of wildfires in oregon as well um so i just have another question but i did want to thank um director ebert for just keeping us up to date i actually reached out to a friend of mine who's worked with a neighboring district and asked her about their enrollment a couple weeks ago and she hadn't gotten any reports at all so so thank you i just wanted to ask about creekside community high school and how their numbers are um you know quite a bit lower than the
103other high schools in terms of and i would i guess intuitively i would think that would flip since it's a smaller school um you know more personal and maybe eddie has some insights i don't know but do you have any any insights about why that might be well quickside is a smaller school uh i think it's about 700 students um usually like 20 in the class but like i did say earlier um like creekside is a school that kids are working on to showing up to class because they have like in the past they originally were from a normal school like maybe like not not normal but like a different school like like 12 or tired and they did get they did transfer to creekside and the majority of the students that transferred uh did
104have a problem with attendance so i know last year um russ our principal uh did work on uh like having kids like on a like a certain program or whatever to help them come to school but i feel like it is difficult right now since we can't really see the students in person and the majority of the students that were on those programs or uh whatever uh are not showing up and there's no way to contact them i'll just um comment too i just looked up enrollment at the same time last year um and we were at 183 um so we're not down terribly actually um at creekside compared to this time last year i guess it's just for dealing with the smaller numbers so the percentage looks a lot bigger yeah right yeah thank
105you eddie for your thank you that as well thank you all right anything else around enrollment this evening we'll hope for continued good news thank you director ebert um okay the second item the cbn report discussion is board goals discussion this will be brief um the purpose of tonight is as you all remember and we kind of identified the key areas of the goals that we wanted from that dr ricky ricky smith and her team the cabinet met and started working on specific assessments on how are we going to measure those goals they have completed two of the cornerstones so i think what i'm going to do is just kind of read the goals as we discussed at our work session uh dr ricky smith if you want to chime in anything specifically about that
106please feel free to do that um our plan will be at our next board meeting um that we will have those goals recommended measurements from um from cabinet and dr wiki smith and then we'll walk through it as a complete process um but i just wanted to make sure before we move forward that we all agree um on the goals so um so essentially the goals were in that category what will the priority goal be for this year so under achievement um uh you guys are following along in my word table um there were three students across all levels and demographics are making academic progress and demonstrating growth during comprehensive distance learning that is number one number two is opportunity gaps are closing related to academic achievement and attendance and i think you all remember
107we had a you know debate around attendance whether that's academic or climate i think it's both but i think as we've already heard our teachers talk about engagement participation emily talked about it i mean it's it's a huge um factor in both and then the third is students are engaged and actively involved in their classrooms which again speaks to both rowan and emily talking about their experiences so far so um dr ricky smith you want to share any kind of high-level thinking on that and then board members if you have any thoughts and then we'll move to the next one no i think those are our most appropriate relative to that cornerstone [Music] okay perfect karen looks like she's making copious notes over there thumbs up is that thank you okay um all righty and
108then we will move to um equity and again with equity there were three um parents are active partners in their students education second one is students have access to resources essential for success during the covid19 crisis and then early learning programs thrive and reduce the opportunity gap for students enrolled in our programs so fly for everybody okay all righty and then um moving on to talent there were four hiring and training for department of equity and inclusion are completed and the team is empowered to take action second one strengthen the educator pipeline by actively recruiting from our own team third is ttsd maintains buildings that promote wellness during covet 19 engages with staff so all thrive in a distance learning environment and offer resources to encourage mental health and i think that we heard that
109from our teachers this evening on just the amount that's happening already as they try to launch into distance learning and then the fourth building a workforce that is reflective of our students is critical for student success retention of these staff members will be prioritized when budget shortfalls require a reduction in force additionally ttsd will be known as a workplace that values and promotes a culturally diverse staff questions comments that one's a mouthful but very important okay and then the final is climate and culture um there are two uh the east plans will be effectively implemented in our schools which of course is educate accountability solutions and healing and then the second one is all parents community members and students are receiving critical information in a timely manner and the district is responsive to community members
110questions and concerns students are supported and thrive in the district comprehensive distance learning or hybrid environments and those are the big ones for this year any thoughts as we kind of walked away from the details or are we good to go i think we're good to go i just i worry on that one about effectively implement the ish plans what constitutes effectively um and how are we going to measure that and so i just as we as we move into that i i i've been mulling it over and i i can't find what it should be so i don't know if anybody else has has been mulling that over and has come up with an aha i would love to hear it that's a good question um director i think what comes to mind for
111me is um one of the consistent themes was uniformity of implementation and how different it looks at different schools so i think that's one clue that we'll look for for effectiveness is how how similar are um how similar does implementation look in uh at each school um so i think that's a big part of it and then just fidelity to what the policy says um are all the components there um is the data collection complete um you know when i i i love the update from from dr sue that kind of in the board report that said here are the instances that have happened so far here's the processes that were followed that kind of data i think is what we can use to evaluate yeah okay so um directors which mean that i mean
112those are great points jill so i i can noodle trying to be more specific instead of using the word effective which could mean a lot of things to different people or we you know we get that clear in the measurements right to ben's point and then that's becomes how we account for that so um but great feedback so thank you for that so any other thoughts i wanted to share my thoughts about um canvas and having parents be active partners maybe it's just because we opened up canvas to parents where maybe we wouldn't have done that with another um if we were brick and mortar but um i have been able to see more work from my boys than ever and it's been wonderful i signed up for every notification so i get everything that
113it's been assigned it's been graded it's been turned on i'm sure they love that here well i know i figured i would change them later that i just in the beginning i wanted to see what i was getting um but being able to read what they're writing and turning in and seeing their math um and maybe just my guys aren't big sharers but it's been good dinner conversation that i know what they're doing um so i i know i've heard frustration from parents about navigating and everything but i am hoping that they um find similar benefits um and i did want to throw out earlier that the kiddos are doing art in the community part of community um and so that came out too that that's a big part of wednesday uh wednesday time so
114i i i'm hoping that because we're releasing canvas to the parents that that ends up being a really great tool to help them be active partners so that's all um so karen would you see that and maybe something how we measure i don't know if we can measure parent you know sign ups or participation or or just just kind of a shout out that there's tools out there for um the parents who want to you know be more engaged well i kind of a shout out but um but maybe there's a way i feel like it's going to be more like a survey kind of thing though that right now we're hearing they're frustrated with navigation and there's all these boxes on the screen and they don't know where to what to click on when
115um or to find they just want a to-do list and there is a way to get a to-do list anyway um i think as they continue to figure it out hopefully the feedback we'll be hearing is that it is a good tool to help them be engaged okay um very good and then i i know look to director rose and dr wiki smith to kind of you guys think about that and um what is a way for us to look at how we can measure family involvement um as well um because clearly that's um as the year progresses right and as we've talked about concerns as the days get colder darker faster and you know enthusiasm starts to wane how do we ensure um kids are showing up for class so um okay all right
116well with that and again we will get back in the weeds um at our next uh board meeting when we walk through the assessments um with uh dr wiki smith and her team so with that uh we will close uh reports and discussions and we will move to our action items and the first one on the agenda is ttea ttsd fiscal agreement director eber all right thank you so in your packet you do see the tentative contract agreement for 2021 these are financials only as you know in april of uh 2020 we started bargaining and then that was um quickly delayed due to covid uh we made the decision to um just do a financial package for the 2021 school year once we headed into a little more understanding of how long covid was going
117to have us home so um this is the exchanged proposals back and forth what we ended on with ttea and as of friday uh the licensed teachers ratified their contract with a vote of 98 yes two percent no that was with 12 minutes left when i checked with president herren um but i i confident we were you know right in there at the the same percentage at four o'clock uh when voting closed so we turn it over to you our board um for the final vote are there any questions about the agreement i don't have a question i'm i'm really impressed i don't know that we've ever had a ttea vote on a contract that was at 98 i think that's the highest we've ever had by a lot so that's that's very cool we'll
118come back to the table this uh spring of 21 um you know to bargain language and and financials again so yeah gets us through the year i'll take a win i mean i i like it when i know that all of my teachers like the contract that has been put in front of them i have a um a question about the retirement incentive package um do we have any sense yet of what the projections might be for you know how many employees are eligible and what we expect participation to be and what the savings from that will be do we have any sense of that yet we don't um we've done some some quick blushes at you know looking at the possibilities um but until we really have this out to our licensed teachers and
119um and you know marketed to them so that they understand it and what it is i don't think that we'll have a really good idea of how many people will be interested i've already gotten multiple emails of people that are you know that have you know read their contract and i know that scott has as well so we'll work with those folks to answer their questions and um at the same time we we also have um folks that you know fall under the evergreen package as well um and so just a reinvigoration of you know do you realize that this is is here for you as well for the people that qualify for that package so um now that we have this uh you know then director moore and i can get it out to
120everybody in a in a clear and concise way and answer questions and get people set up if they're interested and then we'll be able to come back and and let you know we certainly know that we have many teachers that are at the top end of their career um and that you know when we look at our our curve of of the age of our teachers and the years that they um have in pers and in our in our district or in education um that ttsd um has teachers that um you know are very experienced so that doesn't mean they're all you know retirement eligible but um you know we may have a couple handfuls of folks that are interested in learning more so director ebert just for those um that maybe aren't familiar with
121the term evergreen agreement um obviously that was an early retirement plan do you recall the year that was put in place and then um just to kind of get perspective of you know how long that's been around and now i was also doing another economic that was you know 2090 you know pick your recession but again that kind of purpose yeah i i don't have the data off the top of my head um but i have my i'm pretty sure it's from the early 2000s i want to say like 2003 that sound i have it right here 2001. yeah yeah so it's been a while since we've you know offered something um and that was certainly um of another yeah uh downturn and so anyway so thank you just want to give that perspective for
122those who wouldn't be familiar with the plan and any other questions board members for director ebert um okay just wanna say thank you to the team for negotiating the contract that was i know that was a lot of work it always is so thank you yeah there's been a lot of collaboration back and forth um between both our unions and the district uh it's just taken a a lot of collaboration and teamwork together to not only move um something like this but the mouss that that we have put into place and you know just getting together weekly and talking through so many of you know the reinvented ways that we are trying to do school um and it's just required a lot of conversation a lot of clarification and i just i really appreciate the
123collaboration and teamwork that has continued to come to the table every week to try and work through these these issues and then on top of it you know trying to to do these kinds of things as well so it's it's been a lot for everybody involved i move that the tiger to alton school district board of directors ratified the 2020-2021 collective bargaining agreement financials only between the tiger charleston school district and tiger 12 education association second motion was made and seconded to approve the 2021 collective bargaining agreement uh between ttsd and ttea as presented any further discussion okay again roll call if in favor signify by saying aye director bowman aye director emerson aye director fox aye director deserves me aye director wolf is an eye motion passes unanimously and again truly thank you director
124ebert director moore um and the team um for all your work um on this um on this contract so with that we will um move again to director ebert with a second reading on board policy all right in your packet you have gbla disclosure of information uh and this was a policy that director emerson worked with osba on and dr emerson maybe you would would you be willing just to kind of summarize your conversation uh with osba and what you were able to accomplish yeah you might remember this is the one where um the policy opened with talking about releasing information to a prospective employer but then when he went through the list not everything had to do with releasing information to a prospective employer so um leslie was able to um as you can
125tell rearrange and just end up making a list of three different circumstances where information can be disclosed and um so there isn't any new language other than that leading sentence but she did agree that as it was written it was confusing so she totally understood our confusion and same with was it gbl that we had in the consent agenda yeah so we put this on as an action item um solely just so that you could see the amount of you know changes that were made um and i i think the thinking was that we we wanted to see the dirty copy and the changes that were there and then um director emerson i wasn't sure if we were going to try to approve it tonight or do we want to put it on consent so
126we'll need to make that decision i guess i would say unless um anyone has additional questions that would give us pause that we just get her done okay i just need a motion director emerson i moved to approve policy gbla as presented second motion was made and seconded to approve policy as presented any further discussion no just thank you karen it's much clearer good job yeah truly karen i really appreciate you doing the work to get in the weeds and and get the policy organized and osba probably appreciated it as well so um admit i didn't expect quite this many changes which is why i didn't want it to go into consent as a clean version because i don't think you'd even recognize it if we just went to the list of three because it
127would look so different um but i just appreciate that leslie admitted that wait a minute this is confusing and that she was willing to make those changes yeah no that's perfect um okay again roll call signify uh by saying i if approved director bowman aye director emerson aye director fox aye director zurchmate aye director wolfes and i and policy passes unanimously and our final action item for this evening is the community-based organization focused on student leadership contract uh director moore uh good evening chairwolf and members of the board uh director ahn and i are bringing forth a recommendation for a contract award um for student voice and youth advocacy services as a result of a rfp we issued about a month ago [Music] related to securing the services of community a community-based organization to partner
128in serving historically underserved communities and um we recently completed the process and are recommending a two-year contract to be paid with the student investment account funds and i'm going to leave it at that on my part and turn it over to director on i think she wanted to discuss a little bit about the process and um the scope of work that we were looking for as part of these services and it all started uh back uh when we convened our community under the student success act process so director hen thank you director moore um yes i wanted to share a little bit about the process as you all know in winter 2020 we went through the student success act and um at that time the community prioritized equity initiatives and services specifically supporting our communities
129who are um historically underserved and underrepresented um as given feedback from our affinity groups as well as our um our black um and uh indigenous and uh latinx latino communities and our pacific islander communities and um so at that time we um were able to last week a last board session connected with our family supports and this time we were looking at services to activate and support our student youth voice and so um on august 31st we issued the request for proposals for the scope of work listed here um knowing that we are in um uh distance learning and knowing that there were some adjustments that we needed to make we were looking for a partner that were willing to co-construct and and had a collaborative stance given this scope of work so the goal
130was to support staff pillar in cabinet and district leadership and uh improving systems to utilize youth voice as drivers for decision making um staff pillar um supporting administrators and building equity coordinators um to support their student pillar and more and creating more formalized ways for student feedback and then also supporting our affinity group advisors as we saw today the benefits of having a coordinated effort to support affinity voice not only lifting student excellence in advocacy and um you know uh creative creativity and collaboration um which are all uh tenants of the four parts of the four c's um of 21st century instruction we're also looking at building the capacity of our equity department to utilize student voice and impact our school improvements as well which i think will benefit greatly um to our each plans
131and then again supporting our student affinity group so that we have more culturally relevant and aligned staff as you had heard from earlier are bsu affinity groups knowing that we want students are wanting more staff to be culturally aligned and have similar mirror experiences and then also um uh we wanted an organization that understood how to create bridges across affinity groups i know that um with this work affinity groups are not the answer um to equity but it's a step forward so that we create safe spaces for communities to come together but ultimately our goal is to ensure our broader community is inclusive and that requires um that strategic alignment and bridging of um student services and and supports for for students in our school community so that was the process we had um convene
132we held the the submission process for about two uh two weeks we got one proposal and we convened a community of um seven community members we had an administrator um some uh family member some staff and parents and uh we also extended the invitation to students as well and the folks that were able to participate are listed here and at the um we we had the score they um our proposal was from reap and they um the community members uh had high scores for further proposal and were very impressed with the work that um repub proposed so that's part of the process david did you want to i'm sure no i think i think you covered it i think we're we're ready for questions and discussion and or action i'll open it up uh first
133uh board member's question i have a couple of questions um okay first um i was trying to figure out what level this might apply to since a couple of the um oh not the interviews the resumes indicated elementary work and so i know that it says that we'll determine the two sites for the second year but do we have an early feel of whether we want them to be elementary or are we just open to what the surveys indicate um well actually this year we're really looking at building the capacity of if we were to look at our equity pillars we're really trying to build the capacity of our staff and student pillars this year um and so that's across um the the the school so like they would be working with um our building
134equity coordinators which include elementary um staff as well to support um the the affinity um spaces that we're trying to cultivate um at this first year knowing kind of we're at we're still at um uh distance uh learning when we were looking at um uh sites we were actually looking at our middle school program specifically because um they have the strongest more more most coordinated affinity groups and um they have uh so we were looking at that because then they can bridge the services for elementary and um high school and also if we looked at our contract with with erko um uh there are some there and latino network a lot of those services are actually in the high school level so um we would like to spread the love a little bit and give
135that to um middle school okay then i was also curious um student how how a student becomes a reap student is it volunteer or invitation or how might that process work um so when you say when a student becomes a reap student you mean just when who accesses the services and supports right for all these like all the one-on-ones that they offer yeah so we will actually uh be able to talk a little bit more about that towards the second year because part of this year would be evaluating um connecting with uh our our infrastructure for our equity teams and our affinity groups but um it would be uh in the um in the uh the second year when we're looking at placing in the in the middle schools they would work within our mtss
136process to look at which students would support um the recruitment process or would be part of the recruitment process and i think yeah so there's um there are some specific criteria that are listed around we want students that um are um are interested in leadership um and maybe have not had the opportunities to engage and want that um that mentorship and support from communities that are [Music] aligned with the what's youth advocacy did you have any other questions that was it thank you okay so director and i thank you for um david and director um warren um director anne for um answering many of my questions i just wanted to ask a few um just what which we might want to elaborate on in that and and i'm asking these questions um because i in
137my mind this is a unique partnership it's different than our latino network it's different than in my mind anyway erko and maybe i'm wrong about that but um but i i wanted to delve in to understand um those differences and so i don't know if is it just my imagination because i wasn't here at the last meeting but is this relationship a little bit different than our latino network in aruco um yes i would say so because um so um for i so so some of erko's work was um we expanded that with our family partnership but there were contracts um under measure 98 where they had already had some partnerships with the the high schools we we know that there were some successes and so we wanted to expand that because really they were
138um they were splitting 0.5 um across three schools uh three high schools where we knew that that wasn't sufficient to really support um families support students um this this particular um organization is focused on youth advocacy and um youth voice so as you know we've been my our goal is to really operationalize our equity pillars and we've been working um extensively to support our staff pillar and building awareness and having um more uh solid equity teams and and equity leadership the next component of that really is um the the questions how do we do we have a way of um of uh engaging student feedback do we have a way of using student feedback to make proactive decisions do we have a way of including students in decision making and so a lot of those
139components are important we've we've built a structure to create safe spaces the next lift is really to how do we support students in building their advocacy uh skills to be partners in decision making and so um reap has had a history of um supporting that work and even at the state level they they've hosted a lot of um you know town halls with ode and and cosa and stuff like that so they they come highly regarded um in that way so that those are the pieces where i would say um is a little bit different um and and also they have um you know their organization is like 97 um uh individuals of color and so one of the things that we heard from our communities was that they wanted representation that were mirrors to
140them you know as we bring back the discourse tools um we want mirrors and sliding doors as opposed to just windows and so um we know that we're building our capacity to hire um talent that is more representative of our demographics but that might take a while whereas these are um partners that you know we um we we need desperately to be able to show our communities that we hear them and we see them and we're supporting them as they had uh requested um in our listening sessions we're closing the loop i would say you know thank you for that explanation that's true that's really helpful um and i i did spend some time just looking at reap and who they're who they are and i actually made some inquiries to people i know and
141they it sounds like very positive things about the organization but um one thing i wanted to um ask you is so um one of the questions i asked was what framework does a model this reek used to guide its programs and you said critical race theory social justice youth development and cultural responsive education um are their their theoretical frameworks to inform their work can you elaborate on that for people who don't know what that is and even me i'm still trying to figure that out right so can you elaborate for us and um for people who myself and people who don't know what those things mean yeah um well uh so let me have those out real quick so um i can speak a little bit to critical race theory in that um it's really
142uh you know when we talk about um culturally responsive teaching and um uh critical race theory a lot of that there's the major a few components of it really it's just talking about um how do we ensure that when we make decisions we take into account um uh the things the the identity markers that are really important for students and families and so um so that that's a part of a critical race theory um social justice youth uh development um i think it's uh that so we've been doing a lot of work around um you know our equity framework as well and i know that there's some questions around like anti-bias anti-racist curriculum and um a major component of like any type of transformational change specifically in the realm of education being able to um
143bring in you know youth voice because they are the experts of being youth so to be able to anchor and honor that identity marker as well as those who have um other intersectional identities as race uh gender um you know sexual orientation all those components are all um parts of um you know bringing uh youth um uh issues at the forefront and who else to build that um that case and understanding than youth and then um for culturally responsive education we know we know that to be able to really support um our students um you know uh critical i'm sorry uh culturally responsive teaching and culturally responsive education really talks about um anchoring in um uh students and and and people's experiences um as like catalysts for for learning and and connecting so those are
144i gave a little bit of each of the components i don't know if that was enough i am happy to share more but i feel like in this short time that's uh what i can share if there are any other folks that might want to share additional knowledge to that i'm happy to to hold space for that too i appreciate the explanation i really do and um this is one of those moments that i'm i don't want to put you on the hot seat but i i sincerely have questions because um i think as we implement so the work's important but the how is the sticky part right it's how we do it and um so one of the things that um that um i guess i want to understand is let's say there is
145a student of color um or um a student a marginalized student who um doesn't necessarily agree with this critical theory critical grace theory or social justice youth development framework um in other words it's not part of the their belief system um what how will re-handle that so when we're talking about youth advocacy and whatnot um if they have a different lens different worldview or what have you how will creep handle that student what will be how i don't know if i'm saying that right but um if there's a clash in terms of world view then and that's still a student of color will they um i guess i'm trying to figure out because not there's so much diversity even among students of color in thought and culture religion what have you so um can you
146help me understand um how since we are talking about advocacy activism um i just want to understand of all um belief systems um political affiliations what not so um so can you help me out with that again i don't want to put you on hot spot this is just i think an important discussion for um just our community and and just moving forward with this organization yeah you know what's interesting about that that question and uh is and it's an important one is that when you think about so um i look at this as a layering right it's not the like that one part is a a centerpiece and that like it can't be moved i think it's because of the range of the the different frameworks here it's nimble and it's flexible and it's
147um inclusive in in in that way because when you talk about culturally responsive teaching you you are um really leaning into the um the center being the students and so being able to create um uh you know civil debate being able to create um environments that um secure not not just safe spaces because really we're talking about courageous spaces with care and so when i talk about um our equity framework it's really aligned to that because if you hear the way in which we move our um our equity work uh our goal is not to push people uh to the margins to include people in the margins our goal is to spread um those um the range far and wide enough so that um we we wrap all our students in so that they know
148that they're seen and cared for and so often times when we talk about um uh discourses and and um people get really nervous or scared about the word race because they they've either not really talked about it or they have not um really have the opportunity to flex their muscle around um hearing and and and understanding other people's perspectives so i think that's the beauty of um of them anchoring it also in culturally responsive teaching because the tenants are one uh uh building critical consciousness right and being allowing students and and and youth to be critical thinkers and critical thinkers think beyond the dichotomy of you know um uh one or two or like you know black or white or like all these you know um and so it allows us um to really focus
149on that and so um i think that supports that and also in our um uh criteria we asked what is your collaborative stance and it explicitly highlights are you able to adjust adapt and um you know revise given uh uh the feedback of your students and your stakeholders and they did a really good job responding to that so i don't i feel like they have a history of um being um models of inclusion and and and practicing that so i i feel like i feel pretty confident that they'll be able to adjust and adapt thank you for that um so i don't want to hog the floor for the people have caught questions well um dr fox i i guess i just have maybe a um a comment um and then i guess a question
150as i think about um um zinnia as we you know we just got done talking about what are our goals and what will those measurements look like right so as we think about the pillars focused on staff and their development do we see kind of that outcome at the end though how that still impacted students through that staff development and would you know that be a survey or or you know because my mind is going in a couple ways um what are the the district direction in terms of goals and and what is our success and i know we're going to have to do that for sia anyway right kind of lay out how we invested that money what did we want to accomplish and how did we do that and so um in my
151mind i'm more focused on how we know we're successful and whether that's through the district framework whether that's through sia whether that's through measure 98 you know i mean it's going to be a lot of lanes of of tracking but all those pieces are really important um to kind of just know what but that we're looking at and how we know we're successful as we build on those investments so um so kind of acknowledging all the data we need to be collecting to know whether we're successful and then um back to how will we know after year one with that to focus on staff development that we've headed down the right track that will ultimately be successful for students i don't know if that made sense that was a lot of ram yeah and i
152think with any initial uh especially with this partnership knowing where we're at in the current context one of the things that i would see as points of measure that would be successful would be given the heavy lift that we're um asking schools to do with their each plans and knowing that you can't do and follow through with that without student voice family voice and all those other components i would say a measure would be given the supports of reap our culturally um specific partners like latino network and erko um who are the representatives in your school that are sitting on on the advisory team for your each plans that is a very explicit and um measurable way of saying did we meet our objectives or not for that i think those those are um some
153pieces that we want to look at and um there are and have been um especially if we're looking at this the the programs that um are is being proposed for the second year they're um they uh reap has um measurements and tools that you know we use to track to see if this progress is made and then we that's those are some parts that we could get to co-construct right um upon uh upon the review so um and like i said with the scope of work i think there's a point of measure that you can include to each of those um points of uh a scope of work that i that i listed there okay and and i will tell you zinnia i've had the um the good fortune of of sitting with reap and
154many of their students in some of the osba work and and um listening to them so i have no doubt that they effectively engage with students across the state because i've been able to participate in that so thank you yeah and i just want you uh to know just as a already um you know mark jackson was you know really excited to um to sit in and chat and so he's willing to um connect as well if you have further questions so can i just follow up on another so something we mentioned um about you know just um respecting students belief systems and um uh that's right word and and political views um and that um because you're a particular in a particular affinity group that that there's not a narrative that you have to
155have to believe to belong to it and the reason i'm this isn't just hypothetical these are actual feedback i'm getting from parents some parents of color um uh and so i i just want to ask how are we going to prevent that from so we have some staff standards in terms of in terms of our policies gpg and igda which is staff participation in political activities in igda student organizations so are we going to hold reap to the same standards as our staff in terms of just not pushing an ideology on our students but letting them develop their own ideologies and support the advancement of you know support advocating for their own um ideologies does that make sense as opposed to a group coming in because we've always tried to be protective of our students
156with our staff um and so i just want to i'm i'm we're this is a new thing we're bringing outside organization to our school um and giving access to our students so how are we going to protect them um with regard to that does that make sense i think uh david you answered that but um when we uh that i i don't think that would be um a problem because i think one of the things that our the organization does is uh to anchor on the the identity and the the um the goals of the student so it's really led by students as opposed to it being led by um uh the organization i guess so um my apologies if i'm not fully understanding um your question i just feel like that wouldn't be an
157issue because the whole um i think the framework of the social justice youth advocacy advocacy also is centered on the youth and it's their perspective as opposed to um you know it being led by an organization so i guess that's i'm i don't know david or dr sue if you want to chime in i i don't think that's going to be an issue because again going back to the framework it's centered on students correct and and i believe again that that director moore provided information as to our oversight that this is a one-year agreement and if we find that there are some concerns we will have an opportunity to discuss that with this new partner and if adjustments can be made to make them and if they they fail to be made um then we
158have a path forward as to not renewing that contract well is there any way we can embed um those two policies because i know that in a contract it says they're accountable for all uh policies related facilities and whatnot can we also include um these policies in there as well any reason why we couldn't uh i think sharon that has not our director darth fox that has not been your practice prior with our other two community um groups yeah um with the other two kirko and and with latino they are aware of what our policies are but again i leave that to the board for discussion well the reason i'm asking because this is a different kind of partnership right it's different from brico and because this is act advocacy activism um so yeah i
159don't know i leave it up for i want other report opinions i want other board members opinions i guess and students board members comments i think um because we do have because it is a one-year contract i think we do have the the opportunity to to review it um if if we see anything that we deem inappropriate i don't see it's that different from the the contracts we've already signed with erco and latino network well we're called so direct to search me um when i reviewed their went into their website why not it looks does look very different um in terms of just their program so maybe we're not doing all those maybe that's where the disconnect is um so i i guess i i have a different perspective on that um i think i'm
160sorry go ahead maureen yeah go for it i was i was just gonna say i think um this might be a definite definition question too because um like the term advocacy can mean a lot of different things um and i don't think um like this wouldn't be about advocating for political positions or you know anything along those issues i think my understanding of how i'm reading this would be the advocacy more about like self-advocacy and community advocacy in that context and it shouldn't be about um you know politics in terms of like partisan politics and i think that that should and probably is i hope the expectation of the district that that would not be a permitted um action under this contract in any way um but i do think you know advocacy in the
161in the sort of context of like advocating for oneself and one's family and one's community is a valuable skill set um but i think i i understand the concern where you're coming from and i guess i just read it in a different way perhaps i appreciate that um barack obama because i think you nailed it in terms of just um when we have such vague terms which um i'm learning that vagueness a lot of times um leaves a lot of room for like misperceptions or misunderstandings and so i'm trying to get better at like what are we talking about and so i appreciate that but is there any way that we can make that clear in the contracts that it isn't misunderstanding both for our community members too right because if i understand it that
162way are others going to understand it that way so i guess i just asked for clarity around that that's what we're talking about because i totally agree that we want students to advocate for themselves and learn how to articulate issues and problems and problem solve so yeah totally um but yeah i just i worry about going beyond that um because then you have you know again reap has a pretty good reputation but this is a precedent we're setting so i just want to make sure we have conversation and we understand what we're doing and set the parameters that we want right out the door so i guess dr fox i my wondering and this maybe goes to director moore ebert dr ricky smith so we as a governing body or an organization have a series
163of policies and we contract with an organization i don't see how this working directly with students could be exempt from these particular policies that if a student felt that they were excluded or in you know just out of sync with a particular message i felt that zinnia kind of attempted to reiterate the collaborative style right and to ben's point um i mean i guess i'm i'm gonna go i guess to a point of order director fox you can um make a motion to amend if you choose and then if you don't get a second um it would die on the floor i'm not hearing necessarily support to modify the contract i may be wrong i can take some nods one way or the other from fellow board members but in terms of just moving this
164forward i think to director bowman's point about what is advocacy mean i i think lifting students up and giving them an opportunity to find their voice is really important that many of us might take for granted um i think that there are wrap-arounds to ensure that students um that we're training our adults that we're working with our students effectively and if there's flags that those will be shared um so i am comfortable moving forward with the contract as is so i'm getting more just into the how we move this forward yeah well i'm not well i'm not very quick thinking at words to put in a you know to amend amend the contract but i i want to vote for this um so i um i would like to vote for it if we have
165some parameters around definition of um you know what we mean by advocacy or that they are they are accountable to um uh you know to gbd g gbg and igda or something like that just so i because i think it would make everybody in our community more comfortable too that my kid participates in this i'm not sure you know what the parameters are for their and what curriculum they're learning all this kind of stuff and so i just want to make sure i think it would put all of our community members at ease um if we were more clear but unfortunately i'm not quick thinking as i have to look at the contract um and uh you know and come up with some language um and i guess um for me also my apologies um
166is that um when we we put out the rfp it was specifically to highlight those that are underrepresented and underserved um to feel uh seen included um so i think um i'm a lot at the so understand um the vagueness might be um a sticking point um from what director bowman said that's exactly the purpose of the um the contract was uh to ensure self-advocacy um you know build self-uh determination and all those other components of self-advocacy and and community advocacy um the same same thing that we're seeing from you know our affinity groups and you know the the work that ttsu is doing like all that that type of support so i guess is there any is there any downside of putting that in because i and and i would say we this should
167apply to all of our partner contracts um i probably would have recommended even though they're not we're not doing that kind of stuff necessarily with erico and latino network but um but i you know the more i get involved these contracts and where i realize it's it's hard to keep external organizations accountable um and um so anyway i guess what's the downside of putting something into that language i'm wondering if uh direct yeah go ahead directly director fox uh one thing to consider is and we didn't um make this clear in our communication um as far as the boardman was concerned but the the rfp itself becomes part of the contract and we specific include as part of the scope and under the pillars that the services are to support the development of student leadership
168and develop advocacy skills so i know that's probably not as clear as you you want it related to what are we what are what type of advocacy advocacy skills are we trying to develop in our students but i just want to remind everyone that the content of the rfp and their response becomes part of the contract um and in our language in our our contract language we we have a blanket statement in there that um all federal state local laws and regulations and ordinances we don't specifically say policy but i think it's intended to to cover our board policies too yeah and our ars and that goes back to my wondering is i don't see how when a governing body has a set of policies that that especially in this particular area sharon what i
169would recommend um is zinnia mentioned mark jackson would be more to sit down and walk through because what i feel like from this contract i would think that mark and reef would want to go forward in good faith that um they have heard um the concerns and the opportunities um offered each child who wants to participate um so i would be more than happy to join you in that conversation and i i think to director moore's point that um where we are in this process um i would prefer to have that meeting um with mark jackson to walk through your concerns um and see how we ensure that this is moving forward to offer up an opportunity that interests all of our students that we're targeting with these programs [Music] oh sorry go ahead director
170chair wolf if if you end up deciding to do that one way we could get through tonight is um a lot of times we the board action includes uh the authorization for the superintendent or designee to to negotiate the terms of the contract and if following those discussions there's clarity around what reaps intent is in their their proposal um then we can maybe there's there ends up being no negotiation or perhaps if there is some some clarifications that we don't know about tonight then we can we can mark and i can or dr sue can sit down and talk about it and finalize the contract that way yeah ben go ahead the one thing i i would be okay with that i think the one thing that i in my mind any sort of like
171partisan activity would be would fall outside the scope of this contract um and and i think what you know the district staff uh acting at our direction would be i think probably able to um you know manage that contract appropriately and enforce enforce the contract as it's written um so i'm okay with adopting as is knowing that and knowing like here hearing and agreeing with the the idea that we shouldn't be hiring an outside contractor to do sort of partisan activity um and you know the clarification we heard tonight um i'd love to be able to vote on it tonight and and um move forward with that but wanna you know director fox does that are you in a similar place or do you feel like there's still more questions um well i still have
172more questions and i i appreciate everybody's good faith effort um you know to address them um it's just like this is a this is a big new step for i feel like this is a big new step for our district and i just want to make sure that we um and i really appreciate the conversation tonight um i just want to make sure that we consider um consider this carefully and that we um consider any unintended consequences and so to the extent we can build into a contract um you know be clear with them verbally or what have you but i want to be able to say if someone says what is this contract i want to be able to say it's this and here's what they're going to do i'm not going to be
173able to go through this rfp right with them um and so i just want to be able to be very clear about what we're doing and what their role is in our district and outside the district so um so i'm kind of rambling i i i think i might have a solution and um thank you too director fox tell me if this would work for you if i were to propose a motion to approve the contract um to provide the services with the understanding that they do not include any political advocacy services yes i would be totally okay with that with the rest of the board that seem like it's a reasonable clarification that we could put into the motion i'm looking for the director more to make directors i the reason i um i
174guess i would rather lean towards um director fox having an opportunity to directly have a conversation with mark jack jackson and amend the motion uh for further negotiation for dr ricky smith because here's the thing political is a pretty big umbrella these days i was going to say the same thing so i am not comfortable with that word because soup dinette that's why i threw it out there as a sort of supposal proposal you know emotion rather than an action thank you directors i would argue that almost everything's political nowadays so i'm going to is what i'm saying so i'm going to move to authorize the superintendent to negotiate a contract presumably a two-year contract with reap for a fee not to exceed 275 000 to provide student voice and youth advocacy services a second
175motion was made and seconded um to um uh adopt the motion as modified how about that and um and that is clearly to redirect um in terms of dr ricky smith having authority to finalize the negotiation and i'm going to slide into further discussion um and with that point director fox i um i i do think that it's really important that we schedule a meeting with mark jackson because your your questions are are fair um and um i'm certainly supported by members in the community and i think it's a tremendous opportunity to sit with mark jackson and i would like that can we have that in the next i mean before we sign the contract can we have that conversation yeah because sue would be negotiating it so i think so i'm looking at sue
176i'm looking at you in the corner of my screen [Laughter] yes certainly i would i wouldn't i would expect that you would have that conversation while we're in the midst of that negotiation okay okay all right okay good all right all right so now i will go to um the motion and um as we've done all night uh roll call favor the motion signify by saying aye director bowman hi sorry all good director emerson hi director fox hi sorry okay director search me aye and director wolf i am and i so motion carries unanimously and that is the last agenda on item and um uh director moore director and thank you dr wiki smith will connect to get that scheduled and have that conversation and really appreciate as always um eddie welcome um appreciate the
177dialogue emily rowan always um really appreciate your thoughtfulness and engagement in our conversations you all have a wonderful evening here at 9 10 p.m so anyway good night