School Board Mtg. - Apr 27, 2026

001[WAITING FOR HOST TO START MEETING] We have composting at our school. This helps turn waste into soil that can be used for plants. Another way that we learn about sustainability is through our community. Students help plant, water, and care for the garden. We learn how plants grow and how to take care of living things. Also helps us to understand where food comes from and how we can take care of the earth. O, we also try to reduce paper waste, our school often sends messages to families electronically instead of sending paper home. This helps us save resources and keeps our families informed. We also practice sustainability by reusing materials for engineering projects. For example, students use recycled materials like cardboard boxes paper tubes and other items to design and build projects such as working -- this

002helps us be creative while also learning how to reuse materials instead of throwing them away. Later this year we will be taking a field trip to Lake Oswego. During this trip we will learn how water moves through this environment in order to protect rivers and streams. We also learn how actions can affect the water in our community. Next year we are excited to partner with our city's Sustainability Advisory Council. To improve our composting program. This will help us learn even more about how communities can work together to protect the environment. Thank you for supporting sustainability at our school. [APPLAUSE] As Robbie was joining us he connected that to things that they talked about at outdoor school, as a sixth grader when he got to do some composting on one of the rotations for his outdoor

003school experience, and then connected that to the zoo field trip in seventh grade science and connected that to what was happening in eighth grade on Earth Day as they worked on recycling and some of the applied science for eighth grade standards. So Robbie was able to create this through line in our conversation about sustainability and how it connected to a number of touch points for him across his middle school experience. So she really credited the project in her group and the research that they had to do to prepare their presentation about bamboo and other wood materials and their use in sustainable building practices for their Stem class. And so both of those girls really had a lot to say as well about the things that they are doing around sustainability and class. And then I

004also know that their architecture class and their extreme engineering class frequently look at features of the building and some of the sustainable design features of the campus that help them with the learning that they are doing in their classes. So lots of exciting things about sustainability but certainly I am in awe of the folks that get to sit next that I get to sit next to here as I get to share kind of what other kids are telling me. So thanks for the opportunity tonight. [APPLAUSE] High school Board thanks so much for having me come my name is Millie I'm a senior at Lake Oswego High School and I'm very grateful to be at a school that values sustainability. You know there's a lot of opportunities for our students to learn about sustainability in their

005classes, their ecology class or A.P. Environmental class and a lot of farming class with the lovely setup out there. I'm actually in that class right now it's a great opportunity to just get down with the earth. And, also, your guys's support really helps make it a lot easier for students who really care about a lot of sustainability personally to take action. Our school's green team which I am a part of is our main environmental club and it's been able to get a lot done this year. We have the privilege of going on trips to the state Capitol to lobby for bills like the Make Polluters pay bill and the 1% for wildlife which actually passed. Which was very exciting. We have been doing a lot of work related to food waste this year we did

006a food audit to help measure our food waste in the cafeteria. We got to visit some elementary schools to help teach about food waste, and we got to actually talk to you guys a few times about possible improvements to our food waste system which was very exciting for us. We got to participate in the Klamath on this year which was run by our future and our future network of green teams across the state which we actually won which was very exciting. And we also got to join their network of our dream green team James actually got an official internship there which was very exciting for him. We also get to do community events like the sustainability Fair where we got to run a stand and just talk to neighbors who care about sustainability. It's more

007of an emotional point of connection which is very nice. And none of this would be possible without the help of dedicated teachers in our school like Miss Foster who's our student liaison for or our teacher liaison for our green team and the backing of you guys. So I'm super grateful to be supported by a network that lets students have these types of opportunities. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Do we have any questions first? I have a question for Leona:. Are there things that you have done at school that you brought home that you started doing at home? Once in Stem I built something, I forget what it was. It was back in like second grade. And I brought home study and that kind of inspired me at my house to start actually building stuff at my house.

008So I build quite a few things at my house now using paper and recycled boxes. That's very cool. Yeah like Nolan said at Stem we do projects and sometimes I'm at home and I'll just do like a project with my friends. This wasn't necessarily in school but at our Stem night a few years ago we did potting plants kind of, and I took the plant home and took care of it for a while. That's great. You've been working in a garden right? At Westford? What have you grown that you tasted and did you like it? One time I think I brought home a tomato or something, a couple maybe. And I had it with my dinner and it was really good. Well I've sadly never had any of our fruit from our garden. I'm not

009sure why. Maybe there wasn't any that were quite ripe, or they didn't make it through the whole growing process. I'm not sure what happened. But I haven't tried any. I bet they would be absolutely delicious though. (laughs) I bet you're right. Maybe that can be a goal for this year see what you can snag out of that garden. I know that we had onions and we've tasted those and we had basil for a while I think but we also had pumpkins but I haven't eaten those. [CROSS-TALK] I have a question for you Millie. You're a senior. How do you feel about sustainability as you leave it going on after? There's always more work to do especially with like you know the state of climate change nowadays, it definitely can feel hopeless, but in a system

010like what we have at ello there's a lot of support coming it's helped me with mental health related to climate change because I feel like that's a big strain on people as they know the situation. And I feel like as I am graduating we've got a lot of great freshmen this year that actually joined Green Team so at least I'm leaving green team in good hands. Yeah we've got good plans for the future I'm excited to see what happens. That's awesome. It's really wonderful example when we set a strategic goal around sustainability and to see the fruits of its labor literally. So thank you so much for all of your amazing work and advocacy. I'm sure your parents are all very proud of you all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah thank you. [APPLAUSE]

011All right, so comments from patrons. We had received written testimony (Indiscernible) on behalf of the Lake Oswego parents for Responsible Technology and Dominique Alpin Johnson in lost parent. And we have submitted requests for in-person testimony from Emily Adams. There you are. Yep. Board thank you for allowing me to come speak, I wanted to just bring back to the conversation the two cell towers at Lake Ridge High School that are 100ft from my house, 50ft off the ground. And as I've been doing research I actually had people reach out to me that had this happening in their communities. So some interesting stuff came from those conversations. The -- there's litigation going on with with the trust since the SEC since 2021 where they said why is the study for the SEC from 96, and they lost

012that the SEC lost that and they were asked to go back and do an updated study and they're really slow to respond so I did some research on that. One of the reasons could be the $300 million in the wireless community supports for political lobbying for that space. And so they are trying to put more towers in there fighting that locally and that came up when the lady from SAG Ellen called me and said hey I saw that you had this issue and they're gonna put a tower next to a school here and Verizon has hired two lobbyists to sit in Multnomah County to fight off whatever public comes to protest at. And that brings us back to our issues, there's going to be some testing there was some testing done, we haven't heard anything

013about the results yet so hopefully those are coming up I think at the last meeting it was going to be at this meeting but I don't see it on the agenda but hopefully it's there. We haven't heard anything as far as testing at our house because of the again, something that we've talked about is the proximity to our house and the continued exposure there. But I wanted to just bring that back here and look at the FCC and why that regulation hasn't changed in 30 years I mean our technology has changed a ton in 30 years and why would they not do that? And what's the underlying factor as technology has changed with the FCC to do that. There's a lot of studies that show that there's damage to people who have long term exposure.

014Cancer, diabetes, cell mutation. Especially with children for which I have six of them. So, please let's continue to partner and work on finding a safe solution for the two cell towers right next to a house with six kids. And again we would love some feedback on the testing that has been done and when they plan to do that. Thank you. Next is Dominique Alban Johnson regarding screen time and AI. Good evening chair and members of the board and superintendent Chile thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight, I will keep my remarks brief as we have submitted significant written documentation and in connection to this meeting. First we want to express our sincere appreciation to the board and to the superintendent for your active engagement with us. Since our last appearance on April 13th we

015believe meaningful change starts with education, and so we want to ensure that the district parents and teachers are all operating from a shared understanding of the digital landscape. So in connection with that goal of education, we have shared some resources with you, we have submitted first a white paper outlining the critical differences between a closed and open internet, and why a deliberate browser based approach to education with a significant white or curated wall garden is necessary to protect our students. We have also submitted a second white paper regarding early learning. This includes research on specific impacts of screens on K through five education and why limitations are vital to protecting the integrity of early learning. Specifically K through one. We have also submitted, we did not have time to prepare, but someone did it for

016us. So we are submitting a New Yorker article which details the potential harms and harms of which are starting to show up regarding generative AI and its effects on the learning process. This is for those parents who are interested in responsible technology. This has been a great week. On April 26th in Los Angeles we unified the second largest school district in the country. To take a significant step in following the evidence by limiting screen time and placing much stricter restrictions on student led exploration of platforms like YouTube here to be clear, Lake Oswego parents for Responsible Technology is not anti-tech in fact I myself work in tech. We are advocates instead for responsible tech. We believe in technology that serves our students, not the other way around. We look forward to continuing this dialog and

017to having feedback on the papers that we have presented, we'd also love to hear from you if there's other evidence that you need coming up on a deliberative approach to technology in education. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Okay. I do want to thank everyone who provided testimony this evening both in person and in writing. The board definitely appreciates and values hearing from our community and carefully considers all of the input that's shared shared. I want to remind folks as chair I respond on behalf of the board and acknowledge all written testimony and while I do not engage in dialog none of us engage in dialog during in-person testimony, so please do know your perspectives are valued and help to inform our work. And for those of you who are here you are welcome to stay and enjoy

018the remainder of the meeting. And you can also leave as it is convenient for you. All right, consent agenda. >> will to approve the consent agenda as presented? Thank you. I will second. Thank you director Gupta. All of those in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Comments from student representatives? It's just you. Yes. (laughs) so I will maybe try to keep this a bit brief because my throat is not feeling well. But essentially it is now almost may which means it's that time of year again for all of the students favorite two weeks start of May AP testing which is incredible for that's what a lot of features and classes and students in our classes are talking about. A lot of stress, a lot of nerves, and a whole lot of cramming over the next

019week to hopefully get this done pure Lake Ridge Prom is also on Saturday which I went with some friends and we had a great time here I'm sorry you don't feel good. I know you can also take care of yourself. You do not have to stay up here thank you for being here though. Okay. Board business 6.1 Rotary gift card presentation. Thank you. You all can come up here these amazing people here my friends from rotary I have Malcolm Paul and Wade here, and they are so generous, they are our local Rotary Club and they have a gift for us. I'm the president of Lake Oswego Rotary Club and joining me are two of our 156 members. And we have 176 $25 gift cards (Indiscernible) [APPLAUSE] Thank you so much. [CROSS-TALK] [APPLAUSE] Lobster feed is

020coming up in June. Thank you for mentioning that! It's lots of fun get your tickets. Thank you. All right superintendent update. Thank you very much for the lobster feed is a huge fundraiser so we encourage everyone to buy tickets and go. I wanted to do an update on technology and thanks again to the families who have provided feedback and all the testimony about technology in our schools. We are still in the middle of a time audit so we can no specific times that students are using technology throughout the day and that includes instruction and practice, assessment, drills, and research. So what happens is our teachers at each grade level we're completing our audit and will compile the data and be able to report that out to the board as well as the public. Like you

021should Mary Kay and I did go here doctor Jared Lacunae or Beth last week in Portland, and he wrote the book Digital Illusion which some people have given some testimony on that so I just wanted you to make sure that we went and saw him and he has a great speaker. Very informative. Just to answer a few of the questions that some people have been asking we're trying to compile this to fit in one presentation but I wanted people to know what I have put out, our district does maintain a list of approved apps that our students use including information about what grade they're being used at and which subject area they support. We are working on getting that on a list it's online for anybody to access. So that's something we worked hard to

022make our website look pretty so I'm trying not to make a long list of that. I'm teacher requests an app they do start with their principal and after their principal approves it goes to CMS which is the compartment department that checks for all compliance after that happens it actually goes to district administration or my cabinet to be signed, so there are a lot of steps involved in someone getting an app, but there's also been a lot of questions on activating a fully closed whitelist only network as what we just heard and there's been some references to Tiger 1210 system and we have spent some time with Tiger 12 and they do not use a whitelist they have the exact same filtering system that we have which has what we call layered safeguards putting filtering and

023monitoring systems to provide appropriate access while maintaining safety for our students so that's what we're currently using. I'm investigating whether or not we can change that system to be a whitelist for elementary but not for secondary. So that's something that we are trying to figure out if we can manage that. I also want everyone to understand and Dominique said this today that we're not trying to get rid of technology, and we actually can't because we can't remove technology from our schools. And the reason why is because the state requires us to assess all of our students on technology. They don't give us a paper and pencil option and that is now going to be three times a year as well as the state assessment at the end of the school year. So although our district

024continues during adoptions to try to find materials that are books and paper and pencil, we can't get rid of all technology. And then lastly, there was some questions about the I-ready gamification, at the elementary level, and I've spent some time playing on the games to see what they're all about, and what happens is as they work through their own path they earn coins when they get so many problems right at the end they can cash in their coins to play the games, and depending on how many coins you have, is how long you can play your game. So I think one of the questions from director bills is how much time do you get to play the game, and it depends on how many coins you have if you never use your coins you get

025more time, and if you save them all up you get longer time if you don't save them and use them every time it's like a minute. So it depends on how you want to use it. There is though the ability to turn this off come on we can turn it off by class or by school or by district. So that's something that I'm kind of playing with at this time, they also have this game part of the diagnostic experience so when you're taking your test, you do so many and then you get to play a game. We can also turn that off but we can't completely turn it off, actually instead of doing a game arcade type game, you can do one minute of meditation. So it's some kind of guided meditation that it walks

026us through so that might be a better option than the game. So that's something that we're working on with our administrators right now. Biz town com I wanted to touch base on this all of our fifth graders do get to attend Biz Town, it's a field trip that engages students in experiential learning to develop healthy personal finance habits and empower them to explore the potential of becoming an entrepreneur and provide them with the skills and knowledge of different careers. And so I was really lucky to be able to go with Oak Creek last week to Biztown com it was super fun. And I think Dominique's child was actually this the mayor of the city so I got to meet him and I also got to be interviewed on iHeart radio which was fun. But it's

027a great opportunity and it's something that I bring up because if you remember about four years ago it was something that the school board put into place to make sure that all students had that opportunity because at that time only some schools were built going. So now all of our kids get to go. At Career Fair we just had our career fair at the middle school so big thanks to 60 plus professionals in this community who came to contribute to our event, it was a successful school wide event. Students got to hear from 3 to 6 speakers in three different sessions and with careers ranging from health care professions to military and first responders and finance, in their case they did a wonderful job comments was a lot of fun things for kids that day.

028So I really appreciate everybody who volunteered. We also last weekend had River Grove School which was among the and our new electric busses were featured as a stop on the community tour from Sustainability and Earth Preparedness. So that was fun to be able to show off our school as well as our new electric busses. As you all know we have started our legal budget meetings, and with our community committee and those meetings are streamed online so if you're someone who's listening and you're interested in seeing how those meetings go, their next meeting is on May 6th. So if you're interested please join. And thanks also for all of the feedback that we've had on the strategic plan, I'm going to be reviewing the entire updated plan at the district meeting on the 11th and then

029we will set it up again for the public for one last review and then our hope is to finalize it and approve it for adoption in June, so we are getting close to the finish line with this. Another big thing which I have said a few times but I can't say enough is on May 11th is our ribbon cutting at 430 at the New middle school. I'm really working on it. She calls it longs which I just think that's such an odd thing to call something. Anyway we're gonna kick it off at the front entrance with a short statement by me and ribbon cutting followed by tours of the building. The whole community is welcome to come it's going to be very exciting it's a fantastic building and I can't wait to show it off.

030And then lastly common neighbors and families are invited to learn more about the upcoming sidewalk and stormwater improvements down on McEwen road which is long coming if some of you remember us talking about this years ago it's April 29th at 4:00 in River Grove. And at that meeting you can preview the project and learning what you can expect of your neighbor right there on construction and then also meet the project team and our community open house. So I'm really grateful to partner with the city and get that sidewalk fixed. Are there questions? Yeah I have two questions from your technology update which was great. Thank you very much. So common with the white request, that would apply -- how does that -- does that only apply to the entire district? Can it be done by

031sight? Can it be done students versus staff? That's what we're trying to look into right now. We have not typically different internet access for different buildings. But we do have different filtering systems. So we can filter anything different with elementary middle and high but to do the opposite means we don't open up at all except for what we put into it. So you're doing -- >> We're looking into it to see if it's even possible. I do worry a little bit about the capacity of our CNS folks, we have amazing professionals that we're talking about today as we celebrate our teachers and you know sometimes they want to look at something but they're providing and they would not be able to do that. So it would have to apply. They would have to apply for

032it so there would be no quick, no instant showings. Okay and then the second question, you made the comment that we are required to do testing because of technology. So that's something Were required to do testing by the state and use technology. You're right. To use technology to do the testing. Sorry. Yes. So -- that's our mandate. If people wanted to change that they should speak to the legislators. So there is a way it could be changed. But we can't do it. I think also to Director Wong's point, if you're doing assessment testing particularly at the younger levels where there's not a lot of otherwise access to working with devices, having had some experience working with the device before you take an assessment on a device I'm assuming that could positively impact performance. So I

033think there's that that we have to think about also. It's not just the three sittings for that. And then you mentioned -- we were talking about the amount of time relative to the amount of game time relative to instruction, and you said when they're done they can accumulate coins and when they're done they can play a game, so when I read that answer it's like unit or chapter or something they have to work through to completion, they're going to get coins based on performance up to that point but they're not stopping every couple questions to see do I have the coins I can play some portion of the game? They're completing the entire thing? Is that accurate? They're not completing the entire thing, but it's not like you complete one thing and then you can

034play. So it's not consistent relatively it's a lot more instruction time. And then the last thing I was saying on that is once we start getting the customization if it's possible to have it a user setting as opposed to a class or what have you, so maybe parents could opt for -- my kids really like that and I think they could do more of that so it's like I want them to have the game and the reward or whatever the case would be. I know you can make it for a class in a school in a district, I don't know what else. But I can look into that. I can imagine that gets tricky, there checking computers in and out they might not make the same computers. Will they log in by themselves. Every student

035would log in. But I do want to also preface, and I know I said this like two months ago, but I don't want it to get lost in the system that next year elementary students will not be bringing their technology home. Will be staying in the carts have been ordered in that part's already done. I mean some of the things when we talk about LA and what they're doing, they did take away technology for K one, so they won't have a device. But again, we would still need it for our assessment. And they did come up with limits on how much students are using and that's something I can make a recommendation on once I know how much they're using. So I really need this audit information so I can make a decision that I

036think would be appropriate. I just want to say thank you for all your work. I really appreciate the idea of meditation. That sounds great for the younger ones. So thank you for sharing that information. And can you remind me when you're coming back? I think it's May 27th? Or 26th. The next meeting after the district. And that will kind of drive what our next steps are. There's a variety of options that are on the table. Just as we are closing this up one of the things I've heard in the last week is that when the students take their devices home the parent legal guardian parameters stop working at 7 a.m.. And they don't start working until 4 p.m.. So if your kid has access to a device ahead of time, because their rationale why not

037closer to the bell time eight and three. Well the first one had to do with middle school doesn't get out till four. And so whatever we set it up is kind of what you set it on. There are ways though, and one of the schools two months ago when we first started talking about this pilot, you know YouTube at middle school, now the other middle school's going to be doing that and they're just putting those filters in place right now. And so there are things that we can do as far as filtering goes but again it's about noticing to the teachers because sometimes they have lessons that they're using they will not work. Go now does have -- actually the more we can learn about Goguardian the better it is. But a teacher could actually

038turn it off during the class period and then turn it back on. But they do have to become experts at being able to do the turn on turn off. And they are real busy. And there's not a lot of extra professional time for us to be able to explain all of this. So far tech (Indiscernible) that would be a really great use of AI if you look like if they could block YouTube with the press of a button. Yeah and that is what we try to do at language middle for their filtering of YouTube, it's just like I said we did some weeks in advance to make sure that teachers knew so that they could find alternative videos during that time period so there's just a little prep work we had to do and that's

039what we've done now. So that we can have them follow that to. I had -- you know I follow different professional groups, and today the little video was all about both and. Because and leaning into the end and because we're meant to be binary and making things black or white or good or bad or this and that, and the importance of stretching our brains to realize that two things can be true at the same time. And it just makes me think of this conversation and how important it is because my high school daughter was really upset that she tried to find something on snakes, and couldn't because it was blocked. So two things can be true in a really complex situation that we're looking at. So I really appreciate the way that we're trying to

040understand and nuance this because it is an important conversation. And thanks. And we did meet with Senator Wagner and we did share with him the frustration going on with technology right now. And we encouraged him to consider what options might be at the Senate or legislation level. And we did share this with him. All right. Thanks. Okay. Next conversation, we have our awesome elementary students who are going to do another sustainability presentation for us. I am so excited to learn! Are your microphones green? Do they have little green buttons? Are they lit up? Yeah. So I'm actually going to go first just to introduce who we are and why we're here. So my name is Tiffany Filter I'm a first grade teacher at Lake Elementary thank you so much for having us and having the

041time for us to present. We are here this evening because as we understand the strategic plan is still in draft form, and we really want to emphasize the importance of specific consistent and organized sustainability efforts and actions and steps specifically in elementary schools but also throughout K through 12. We want to normalize daily composting and recycling in all schools. We would like to have K to 12 lessons that support green habits and we would like to implement green team clubs at all grade levels to create lifelong students. The high Schooler that spoke earlier was very inspiring, and we feel like we're doing quite a bit but we would like that to be consistent throughout the district to see changes happen. So to highlight the importance at the heart of this work, here are just a

042few of very many students who keep sustainability alive in our school. We are going to start with Esther. My name is Esther Anki and I'm in second grade. I've been on the green Team health kids learning to recycle. I'm here to tell you that I think recycling and composting are important because it makes the world a better place. It will also help cute animals to stay alive because they'll be less need for landfills and more room for forests. There's also going to be less plastic in the ocean. (Indiscernible) I want the world to be filled with less trash and more trees. Hello my name is Jordan and I'm in third grade two years ago my friends and I started with the green team we started this as green and sustainable pure green team helps other

043students be aware of what resources we use and how they can help with them. We went through recyclable items and we sorted through things (Indiscernible) our school believes in using resources wisely. The green team helps students to do that. We want all leftover food to be composted so it doesn't go into landfill. Thank you. My name is John I'm in second grade, I'm here to talk about composting oh sorry. My name is John. And I'm in second grade and I'm here to talk about composting. We compost by using food that we don't want to eat and putting it into a composting bin. We do this because we don't want waste. I want us to be a healthy green planet. My name is McKenna and I'm in first grade. And I wish for there to be

044more plants and gardens in Lake Grove because sometimes plants are trees and they help us breathe. My wish for Lake Grove is that me and my friends learn how to help two. Thank you. (Indiscernible) [APPLAUSE] Are there questions? I really enjoyed your presentations, you all spoke so well. I'm curious what was the most challenging thing about composting for you? Was there anything that was difficult? No? I think sometimes when we did the composting there was a lot of flies going around. And we tried to like put stuff in the compost bin and then there was flies flying on us. It's also difficult because there was so many kids in every school that it's hard to manage how many kids put stuff in the compost. Do you have any ideas for how we might fix that?

045We could put up this chart for like how we could compost everything? Yeah. That's a great idea. The same to what he said, it's hard for all of us to help other students when they're coming to put their lunch trays away to help them sort into the bins so we can make like the bins that we put extra food. So yeah. That's one thing that's quite hard. And we can try to fix that by having more green team helpers. I'm agreeing with what all the other people said. I just want to say you guys are kind to all of us (Indiscernible) We're really proud of you you make Lake Oswego look really good kiddos. [APPLAUSE] [BACKGROUND CONVERSATION] Okay Asian American Island Pacific heritage month. Great. Excellent. Well have you guys all come up and read

046the resolution. And share what you're doing. You guys gotta tell us some goals. I can start so me and Braden are from Anchorage High School. So in the past month we did the festival which that was really fun. And we partnered with the library as well. If you want to add anything? I don't have too much to add come I think the event itself ran really smoothly and I feel like we just need to spend every opportunity that we have to expose the community to this kind of culture. I'm Alexis so, I'm a senior at Lake Oswego High School. I'm here on behalf of the Lake Oswego High School Asian American student Union, first, thank you for having me. But also, the past month we organized our fifth annual Asian Culture Festival at Lake Oswego

047High School. For us this was really big milestone because this meant that we were continuing our work to make the community a more welcoming place for over five years now. So, at our festival we had a wide variety of performances ranging from Taekwondo to lion dancing, -- line dancing. And we had free food available for all of the community also we made sticky rice Mariani and then we also had activities open to everybody. So we were really proud to be able to put that on since we are student run. And we're grateful that we got to contribute. Great. Thank you. You guys are gonna read the resolution? Yes? Absolutely. Yes. Would you prefer we do it one by one or all at once? Maybe you can each read one of the little Whereases? Whereas Asian

048and Pacific Americans have lived and worked in Oregon for more than 200 years contributing to the state's rich history, economy and culture. Whereas Asian and Pacific Americans have helped advance our community's prosperity through their contributions to all fields of education, business, the arts, economic development, science, technology. Whereas Asian Pacific American histories struggle for freedom equality and justice prevailing over the adversity of exclusion persecution incarceration and disparities. Whereas many Asian and Pacific Americans have experienced exclusionary acts. And denial of citizenship. And land ownership is where interment land ownerships. Whereas the 2026 theme for Islander Heritage Month which is Communities and Strengthening Communities Together. The collective power in telling our stories and being rich builders in our communities. Whereas the vibrant histories and cultures of Oregon's Asian and Pacific Americans are here to be honored as a

049central part of our state story and shared across all Oregon >> Whereas additional education is needed to increase the knowledge of all citizens related to the contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans to the development of education in the learning Society. Therefore the end result of Lake Oswego School District will celebrate the month of May. As Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And encourage our public schools to infuse instructional learning activities to incorporate contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans throughout the school year. Thank you. All right. This is excellent. [APPLAUSE] So I will take a motion. I'll make a motion to adopt the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month resolution? Thank you director Gupta up here because they're a second? I will second the motion. Thank you director bills. If I could just say a

050few words just because you know I got to go to the wonderful Lunar New Year celebration, and the very recent amazing fifth anniversary and it was just also a wonderful holy event that you put on just want to thank you so much for you know, just creating such a wonderful community. Not only for yourselves, but also for everyone here in Lake Oswego. It just was wonderful to see all of the families, children, you know, the young kids who felt so proud to be Asian American and Pacific Islanders. And I know when I was a child I didn't have that. So it was really really meaningful to me. And I'm just so proud of you, and yeah it just gives me so much hope for the future. Thank you so much. other comments? Or All right.

051All of those in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us. next agenda item is library month presentation Washington and Miss White? I love it. These are the best topics. Thank you my name Carrie Light I'm district librarian for Lake Oswego and I want to greet all of you and Doctor Sheely and Miss Washington and we are here to honor school library month, April is so busy it's also school library month. And you may have a link to and infographic of kind of library by the numbers and what's happening. As of April. And I just want to emphasize that our libraries are so much more than just quiet rooms full of books. They are high traffic hubs of lots of learning, research, and community. I want to take

052a moment to point out that our wonderful 11 library tech assistants are the engine behind all of this activity. They are in the libraries every day supporting our students and managing everything from tech troubleshooting to book fairs to hosting obob battles, I'm so grateful for their dedication, Lucinda Watson of course tills is here this evening, and these people truly make our libraries engaging and welcoming spaces. But, while these numbers may show the scale of our program they don't necessarily show the impact. So to give you a better sense of what these bases mean to our students I have invited three of them here tonight to share their own experiences or anecdotes of their school library. We didn't talk about who wanted to go first. But, I will just turn it, do we have a volunteer

053that wants to go first? (laughs) Jack would you like to go? You get it since you're right next to me. I'm going to ask you if you would introduce yourselves and tell the board members your name your grade, what school you attend, and then share your thoughts. Bonjour. Hi my name is Jack I go to Lom's, (laughs) Good job. My favorite book is mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Eald. Most of the time I visit the library multiple times a week, and I think the most I've gone in one day is twice. I go a lot. The first time I went to the library I asked my librarian Miss Wharton how many books I could check out. She said five. I was disappointed. Although it was more than my last library. (laughs) I asked if

054I could borrow more and she said she could go up to six. The library has been a place where I could find books, I can research, I can find a quiet place to do homework, and I can read. Awesome. Jack you are gonna love your new library. I've already seen pictures. I'm in love already. (laughs) Unreal. Alexa would you like to go next? Hi my name is Alexa Clayberg I'm a fifth grader at Forest Hills Elementary School. I really like the library because sometimes we get books from the library for Ela and social studies purposes like right now we are reading a book about the Revolutionary War. Miss Watson, our librarian, she also helps to introduce us to different genres in new books. She helps to do this by pulling out the cart with all

055of one type of books like all the mystery books. So it's really easy to just try a new book. She also encourages us to try different books by doing this thing called Lucky Duck Passes where she puts little pink slips of paper inside books and then if you get one you can take it up to check out and she will give you a little cute plastic duck. (laughs) this is one of the little slips com and then she hides them inside random books. Did you find that >> No she gave it to me. (laughs) so, I really like going to the library even during my free time and during recess. And I really am excited for the new middle school but the one thing I will miss from Forest Hills will be the library. Thank

056you. Hello members of the board my name is Stine Van op. Speaking of ducks. (laughs) Are we good? Okay hello members of the board my name is Stine van Hise I currently attend Lake Ridge High School I love our library for many reasons. From its simple and easy to understand donut shaped layout of classes on the end with piles of books in the center. Sometimes Literally. Once I made a Christmas tree out of them. To the wonderful staff that work there. Especially Miss Baumler. But most of all I enjoy the diversity in the books. Ranging and the more easy to pick up comic book section all the way to the banned book section which you can find more in a college library. In fact I think going to our school's library and finding a book

057in any skill level is quite an enjoyable place to be in my opinion. Great way to pull in donuts. Thank you. I just want to give a big shout out to the students and their families for taking a busy Monday night. [APPLAUSE] And and honoring our libraries with us. And, thank you. Thank you. We heart libraries. (laughs) Right. Thank you very much. Good [CROSS-TALK] Wonderful thank you Okay we have another celebratory agenda item. Next up is National Teacher Appreciation Week resolution, and this will be something that we all take a stab at. Yeah come on up. Come on up. We are going to read it. Okay I'm going to pull it up here. Hi. Thanks for being here tonight. It's my pleasure. All right colleagues. Nathan we're going to start with you and then we

058will -- go this way. Whereas teachers mold future citizens through guidance and education and -- whereas teachers come from widely differing backgrounds. Whereas our country's teachers depend on quality information to all students. Whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons, evaluating progress, counseling and coaching students, and performing community service. Whereas our community recognizes and supports its teachers and educating the children of this community. Now therefore be it resolved that the League of School District seven J Board of Directors proclaims May 4th through eight 2026 to be teacher Appreciation Week. Be it further resolved that the League of School District seven J Board of Directors shall encourage all members of our community to join with it and personally expressing appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and devotion to their work. Excellent. This is an action item.

059So come I will take a motion. I will move to adopt the National Teacher Appreciation Week. Resolution. Thank you director wollen. Is there a second? Thank you director Lupton. I'm just gonna have us go to voting. So all those in favor say I. I. Motion carries. [APPLAUSE] Thank you so much for being here today and for your unwavering passion for everything that you do. I think one thing that's unique about today is that we have a lot of students speaking. A lot more than we usually do. And every time they speak I'm always so proud of how they do, but we could not do -- they could not do any of that without the amazing teachers that we have. But what you do for them is so fantastic. So I'm so grateful for everything that

060happens in the classroom every day. Yeah it's inspiring to see them of all ages up here speaking. So I'll just say something really quickly if I may. My name is Amy Ryan I'm the president of the Lake Oswego Education Association so I just want to say thank you very much for your recognition on behalf of the educators in this district. And you know we pour our heart come a soul come an intellect into the work that we do every day so anybody else who's listening out there you have a week to start getting ready for Teacher Appreciation Week. So please shower your beloved educators with the love and appreciation and even gifts that they deserve. Thank you. Absolutely. [APPLAUSE] Thank you so much Amy. Okay. Educational data. Miss Washington? Hello. Hello! Good evening chair air

061and fellow board members. Thank you for having us here today. Tonight tonight's update focuses on the K through five Iready diagnostic assessment data and reading and Math. The goal is to share what we have learned from the data and how it is informing classroom instruction, intervention, and system level support. And I'd like to start with introducing Kelly Chakki who will present the dimples. Thank you Chair and board for having me back, this is one of the reasons that we do -- one of the small reasons that we do what we do and why we are so passionate about it. So I'm going to talk a little bit about giggles -- Dibbles. I want to give you just a quick refresher of what Dibels is. You may remember that Dibels assessment system assesses students on a

062series of foundational literacy skills three times a year. And this data is then reported to us through the level of support needed based upon the proficiency that they performed on the assessments. They come out in 3 or 4 levels intensive support which you will see in the red, strategic support which is in yellow, and green or blue support which refers students who are predicted to make typical growth within a regular school year. So, a couple of things I just want to kind of back up a little bit, so who is assessed? We assess as per state guidance and we kind of go a little bit beyond in the Oregon Early literacy framework, we go a little bit above and beyond that and we assess all kindergarten through second grade students. We also assess all students

063in third through fifth grade and new students to our district as well as students that we are tracking for likely needing more progress monitoring based upon other data points in classroom performance and their history and our assessment process. So we have a robust assessment process, and then, with the data tells us is it gives us risk factors, it's a very reliable assessment, it has very strong validity rating to predict later reading success. So it follows our if you will the science of reading recommendations, we assess specific indicators such as awareness phonics, rapid letter naming, or reading fluency, some comprehension. And so we use it for a couple reasons, obviously it's a screener so that means it's very efficient, it's quick to give, but it's big bang for our buck. It gives us a lot of

064information where we can weed out students and take a look closer at what they need. It also helps us measure our efficiency and our effectiveness in our teaching. So we can see if the students are really needing help and are moving the needle in their progress. It's a barometer for them and for us. And then also like I said it's tracking we're able to do it three times a year. So -- if you go to the next slide Mary Kay, so -- this is our current data from the 2020 526 school year, because of our school calendar, we only have the beginning and middle of year data to show, obviously we don't have end of year to show yet. But -- this is how we are falling so far, you will notice -- I want

065to repeat what I said earlier, does look a little skewed when we start looking at third fourth and fifth grade, don't be panicked when you see some of those red bars, that is because again, we don't assess all students at that level. No longer. We focus on the students who may need more support. So, a couple of things that came out of this, we're trying to see some trends like some key trends from this is good news is we are on track to moving the needle and having less and less kids needing more intensive support. And more kids who are moving into the green and the blue ranges which is what our desired outcome is. And -- just for a little bit of a barometer if you want to go to the next slide Mary

066Kay, this is last year's assessment, just to give you a little bit of an apples to apples, we are pretty close in that and how it compares to last year, our last year comparison -- our intensive this year at the middle of the year is just slightly higher about three points. But our strategic is slightly lower so we know we have had some kids who shifted from that intensive to strategic. And our core at this point is pretty much leveling the same as it was last year so we're heading in the right direction. A couple of things to consider our assessment calendar was a little bit different this year than it was last year, we actually -- because of our calendar we did our assessments much earlier this year, we did them early in December

067following a week after our Thanksgiving hiatus. Whereas last year we gave these assessments in mid January. So we did have it was a little bit skewed we wanted to get the information early so that we could keep the cycles going and be able to reach those kids earlier. So it does give us a little bit of a different snapshot at that time of year. But the data was quite close. Do you mind if I ask a quick question? I don't quite understand (Indiscernible) could you explain that? Yes that's really great question. In fact can you just go back because that's last year's? Here's a good >> Excuse me Kelly I don't have my glasses on third line down on the right, or just tell me like I'm not asking you to get up, but I

068can't see where the fifth grade line is. So if you can just tell me there we go. I appreciate that. Thank you Mary Kay. So here's a perfect example of that so at the beginning of the year what we do is we take other indicators can we look at Osa's data, and students who have been in our multi-tiered systems of support from years past can we look at their iready data and we look at their beginning of year assessments from their classroom teacher and we identify any new fifth grade students or students who fall in that criteria and we assess those. Now, in cycle two we are in the middle of the year, those students who are showing proficiency are no longer assessed, so that red bar actually you can see 135 students were assessed

069at the beginning of the year and 111 were assessed their. So -- we were holding down and assessing more only the students so that percentage represents only the students that were assessed. So not more kids got intensive but -- If you look at the next slide last year it went from hundred and 25 students who were assessed at the beginning of the year down to 70. So those students had layered off that need of that assessment. So -- that data, yes, you see that red one we want to see that go away on the far, and to your point, both can be true pure actually only 70 students were assessed. I would almost expect it to look that way in a way because you're honing in on those who need the most specific support. And

070when you're honing in is that the red and yellow group? Or is that the red yellow and green groups? In that second assessment period The red group here we start with our intensive and we put as much of our resources and allocations and our people. We put our people on the red. And when we have time more we like to spread those yellows in for a lot of different reasons, we're working with the instructional specialists at each building and working closely with the teachers to help them differentiate and provide some of that differentiation from the yellow group, but this year's resources we are really really honing in on the red. So if I understand this you take an assessment, the students that are in the red group are the only students that get assessed in

071the next cycle? Is that what I'm hearing you say? Correct. Yes. So that's amazing because what that means is that middle and that high that have these in blue must be students who were previously in the red. Because those are the only students who are being assessed and they are leapfrogging all the way up here That is outstanding. That's why it looks scary because it's actually kind of an inversion when you look at it. And then you just can't help but look at that primary. The primary blue and green. Each bar is not equal right? Like each bar in total is not -- >> You can see the numbers underneath changing right? But even though it kind of looks like it's equal, it's not pure right? I was gonna say is this the only visualization

072you can use? Because it seems like having a proportional bar chart here it just really Undersells what we're seeing here. Maybe stacked columns or something. This is what Dibels gives coma this is the only district wide barometer it will give us at this point. Now we do drill down at our building levels and we use that for our Mxf tier level working with teachers for their student learning goals by class and by student and by name. Thanks for answering my questions. So the I-ready -- well I'm going to talk to you about this I-ready assessment. Something that I really want to emphasize about the I-ready assessment and I feel like we need to ensure that the narrative and the mindset around this assessment is clear, that this is a formative diagnostic assessment. At the beginning

073of the year it is a diagnostic assessment. And then the assessment administrations from there on are formative assessments that are focused on addressing the needs of students in the classroom and at the school level. This is not a high stakes summative assessment. We all know we take this assessment three times a year fall winter and spring, and so this is for teachers and teams to monitor progress and adjust instruction. And we use this data as part of our NSS process to support tier one classic instruction, tier two intervention, and more targeted supports when needed. And so, this is our third year. I also want to emphasize that this is our third year of implementing the I-ready classroom Mathematics curriculum. So -- this map math data will help us monitor implementation and student growth over time.

074One more thing I want to say about this year's calendar assessment calendar is that the I-ready administration dates were -- they came earlier because we wanted to align it with the MTSs directly with the MTS cycles and begin providing students with the support that they needed early on in the school year. So -- you will see as we go through the data this time last year we hadn't done the spring assessment but we have completed all three assessments so that now there's room to support kids from now until June. So so, the overall story is that we have strong growth in both reading and math from fall to spring as you can see on this line graph and on the table. Reading increased from 56% on grade level in the fall to 83% in spring

075which is a 27 point increase. And math increased from 41% to 76% which is a 35 point increase. Which is significant growth. At this time, math remains seven points behind reading in the spring. So math continues to be an area of focused instructional support for us. We also see fewer students in the most intensive need category by spring which suggests that our instruction and intervention systems are moving students forward. So, I already reading. Reading shows a strong and steady increase across the year moving from 56% on and above grade level to 83% as I just stated. Just as importantly the percentages of students who are two or more grade levels below decreased from 9% to 4%. Which tells us students are moving out of the highest need category. This suggests that core instruction and intervention

076supports are having a positive impact in reading. So -- I-ready reading I want to do some grade level comparisons for you. Reading growth is evident across every grade level. As you can see the table and to the upper left hand corner shows you can see where there is increasing students on grade level at each grade level. Kindergarten and first grade shows especially strong spring outcomes with 97% of kindergartners and 83% of first graders on or above grade level by spring. Grades two and three are also strong, both above 80% on or above grade level by spring. Grades four and five are still growing, but they are lower than the primary grades, and grade four is at 77% and grade five is at 73%. So the takeaway here is that our early literacy foundation is strong,

077and we need to continue strengthening upper elementary reading instruction, especially comprehension, vocabulary, and complex text work. Okay before we move from this slide, these numbers on the bottom right of the graph, I think that first one is pre-K and the second one is k? In one through five? No. Let me go over that. This first set of bars are overall. So that's the district overall percentages right? And then this graph on the bottom right hand corner is only representing students reading on or above grade level. At each grade level for each test administration Pirkko? So when we look at one through five, we are in the mid 70s? Looks like 80 in third grade and then back in the 70s? What is I mean obviously the district -- would be great if everyone was 100%.

078But what is historically kind of where has that been? Is this showing growth? Are we just kind of plateauing? Where are we at? Oh my. I knew. You know I grappled with the data presentation. I did. I knew you were going to ask this. But I was hoping that I would make it clear, I didn't provide trends, I didn't provide previous years data because, it's not 1 to 1 because of the way that we change the calendar. And so if you look at it and we compare spring this year to spring last year it's different because the administration was like so much further along in the spring than it was this year. Absolutely and I can expand that I can respect that but that actually wasn't where I was going here I guess that's a

079question I'm just wondering what's our target? Like at what point do we feel like yes, there's always still room to grow, but we feel really good. We're here. You know we have graduation rates and we're trying to get that to 97, 98, 99. Obviously everybody wants 100. But what's our target in this metric? I would like to say that that is something that we need to discuss because if you were to ask me that now I would just be pulling a number out of what I think is a good number. 80%. 85. I mean -- I think it takes all of us to have a discussion about that. If you have any recommendations we are open. But I can't give you a solid number right now. Do we have comparables to other districts that we

080can look at and say okay here's where -- >> I think if you wanted to look back at kind of the highest that we've been in like the last 15 years it was about 85. So when we're sitting at 86 right now it's like we are moving in the direction of getting to where we were prior. I don't believe I could be wrong here but I don't believe I've seen numbers in the 80s on this report in a while. Remember she said our last reports where the winter not for spring. But our spring was about this last year but it was further down. It was like in June. This early I don't feel like I've seen us here since before COVID. And that's -- because we've talked a lot about where we need to put

081the attention especially in that third grade reading line. Because that's a big outcome measure. And so at this point of the game, of the school year, this is exceptionally impressive to me as someone who's constantly complained about our numbers here at. Because I don't remember them being this good at this point. Again it's at this point. It's not -- >> And I can put together some data to give you the past data, I can get that to you later, but I just really wanted to focus on this year because it's different, the timeline is different. But if you want it I can get it for you. You don't have to do it on my account but I just more want to have a sense of you know this is where -- I understand the numbers

082as a snapshot in time, but I want to understand the aspirational like I did with graduation rates for so many years. This is where we are trying to >> Okay so I just pulled up the state assessment which is really -- this is getting us to that. Last year our third graders were at 74%. The highest they've been since 2013 was 83.3. I'm just so proud of these numbers. But again it doesn't mean that because of this the state is going to show up there's a lot of reasons. But -- >> But it's encouraging. As I said we could look at it as an indicator. Right. Remember when we started Iready during the pandemic? Yeah. In six years later -- Just think about it the last years that the spring I-ready was administered further out

083than now. So -- we're doing pretty good. And this is a digital platform right? Yes it is. That we learned early on because kids didn't know how to use their computers and we had to -- because I remember that. You remember when we kicked this off? And our numbers were not good and everyone was so mad that no one knew how to read. [CROSS-TALK] There were some growing pains. (Indiscernible) And you know there's questions of I-ready like is it a 1 to 1 comparison? Can we predict all SATs performance based on I-ready performance, and based on what we've seen it's really not 1 to 1. It's off a little bit. There's different platforms different types of questions different ways of administering the test We'd like not to teach kids how to do test. We want

084to teach kids how to read and do math. Are you ready for me to move on? Yes Ma'am. So now we want to do student group comparisons peer all groups demonstrated growth from fall to spring not matter if you're however the data also showed that students are not yet experiencing the same outcomes across groups. Overall 83% of students were on or above grade level in reading by spring, some student groups remain below that overall rate peer we have our Hispanic Latino students at 75% of black African American students at 61%. Our English learners at 53%. And students with disabilities at 63%. So the message is this growth is happening but equity gaps remain. Our next step is ensuring targeted support is strong enough to accelerate growth for students who are furthest from grade level expectations.

085I just have to -- in our strategic planning conversation we are talking about centering everything around achieving academic excellence. But some of the reason that we had equitable academic excellence in there is because of this. And that is what I -- if we lose sight we are never going to get to 100% if we can't fix this. And so, we have to stay laser focused on the equitable academic outcomes. If we want to live into what we value. It's hard to see that >> Yet. And trying to figure out how to find what supports double dashes the science right? It takes more than just having a cookie cutter approach to intervention. We need to understand are there cultural differences that are impacting learning? Are there you know language differences that impact learning? You know disabilities?

086Neurodiversity? And that cannot be solely left up to the classroom teacher to figure out. You kept talking so now I'm gonna say something. So, the data issue for me is the size of the gap. That is alarming. We have had gaps traditionally, felt like at times those gaps were close to progress. And I don't track the numbers, but I feel like this gap is alarming. So what I would like to hear -- and I don't expect that now. But I would like a general understanding of exactly what you said the problem is. Like how do we double down so now we see this number. At 46% I think you said? What's the model? What are the tools that we have? What's our approach? How do we target that? And those ancillary numbers. I do think

087it's important, the ends here are so small that it makes something seem potentially bigger than it is and I don't want to take away that that's a big gap, and that is why it is so important again equitable is actually an important leader in getting to academic outcomes. And I don't want to be false in saying that everyone gets the same thing because we know that's not going to work. Well another thing is because the ends are so small it should be easier. Absolutely. I just want to say I really appreciate you know this disaggregated data because that's so critical for us to be able to understand the interventions that are needed. And again maybe this is all for another discussion. But I'm curious what we're hearing from -- like we're looking at data, what

088our teachers saying? What are teachers who are looking at this saying? Do they know this? I mean they can live it and experience it but do they see it like this? They don't see it like this. I mean they see their school data. But they don't necessarily see it broke down like this by district. I think their wish or ask when it comes to reading would be to have a lit specialist. I mean that is real. We don't have -- we used to have one at every school. And now we don't. It does put a lot more pressure on the classroom teacher and the instructional specialist in order to try to come up with some interventions, but at some point there just isn't a person. That's like the only intervention that they have. Them next

089K through five I-ready math, so math shows substantial growth moving from 41% on or above grade level in the fall to 76% in the spring. The percentage of students two or more grade levels below decreased from 8% to 3% which is encouraging. At the same time math remains slightly below reading overall. So this continues to be an area where we need sustained attention to tier one instruction and consistency and targeted interventions. And this is how many years into the math curriculum? Three. This is our third year. It goes by so fast. Given that this is probably still shaking itself out. Softening the edges. It is. I will say that this year we have been focusing as far as professional development is concerned, we've been focusing on instructional leadership and we actually began that in the

090spring with trying to build the capacity of the school principals and providing instructional leadership around math and instruction and providing or making meaningful classroom observations and providing meaningful actionable feedback to teachers. In general, but also focusing on the math framework and the math curriculum. Okay. The math grade level comparisons math growth is visible across all grade levels as you can see by the table in the upper left hand corner and the graph in the bottom right hand corner which focuses on or above grade level comparisons. Kindergarten made particularly strong gains moving from 38% on above in the fall to 89% in the spring. Most grades ended the year between the low 70s and mid 70s on or above grade level. Grades one, two, three, four, and five were all clustered between 71% and 76% by

091the spring. And the takeaway is that math growth was strong, but we need continued attention to consistency in tier one instruction, math discourse, conceptual understanding, and intervention alignment. And I will say that many of the -- since I came into the district I've been hearing things about we need math intervention, and the voices have gotten a little bit louder over the years that I've been here. Is this my fifth year here now? Yeah my fifth year. And we have been heavily focused on literacy. We all know that. And there are many principals in elementary principals who are now experimenting with math intervention. And I'm really proud of them taking the initiative to experiment and try to create systems to support students who are struggling in math. So we are trying to find ways to do

092that. What is interesting here and it will be interesting to see how it shows up on the demographic breakdown is the red, the two grade level differences, it is -- that's meaningfully -- doesn't seem as high as it did in the reading one but maybe it just didn't stand out. The zeros stand out. And then those other ones come in particularly in the spring. They seem like I -- better. The numbers are better. The percentages are lower. Do you want us to go back to the reading one so you can see it? Sure. I'm just really curious. I guess there were a couple zeros. But yeah I mean it is -- like it seems like math is more in the green and yellow. The graphs are a little tighter. There's not so much in the

093red. Yeah. . Can I ask a question? And I'm assuming we probably don't know this, and it might take lots of teacher observation to know for sure. But I'm just curious how much teachers are teaching literacy on the iPad or on the device itself versus printing out the paper for the kids? And the same thing with math. Like are they using the device more often or are they actually printing off paperwork more often? I'm just curious because I don't know if that can make a difference for the kids. I know for me it made a difference to write it down. We don't use I-ready for literacy for curriculum we don't use already. So you can't really compare those two because they're not the same. And there's workbooks for math as well. They're not all on

094the computer all the time. That's what I'm asking because I don't have a good scope with what that's like. Do want to shed some light on the HMH curriculum? Both of them -- our core literacy is H and H and use, and they use the structure and literacy model along with the comprehension pieces. And it's all -- it's all paper, pencil. Very little interaction with that, they do a lot of writing using digital productivity, but any of the activities that they're doing they're not using it at all. Now they do use the I-ready as a practice section so after you take the diagnostic it will adjust to the needs that you have based upon your performance on the diagnostics, and it will give you activities and lessons based upon what you missed. As for the

095I-ready math, even though we use the curriculum the curriculum learning is not based on the computer at all. It's based -- is a teacher, it's teacher and student discourse so students a lot of students don't even use the workbook. It's all teachers teach, kids use whiteboards or use big wall sheets of wall boards or cooperative group work or problem solving that way. And none of the curriculum is actually on their. But again they use that for practice. That makes sense. I appreciate having that spelled out for me. We're going to have more information when in the audit as well right? I just think people don't actually understand how our curriculum works in elementary school. I think they make a lot of assumptions. And there's a lot of like --. I just don't think they know.

096The best person is the person who's teaching. Because they know. Back to school night be transparent of how you present your curriculum. You know we have a literacy night this is how it looks like to be a learner in my second grade classroom. Just model it. I think that's great and those are definitely avenues and paths to do that. But I think it's unfortunate that we no longer have a dynamic where parents are in the hallways. Because I learned a lot of this stuff about my oldest son's because I was there at drop off and I saw the teacher and I could ask a 32nd in passing question or what have you. I just think -- its access and it's communication and having to go through parent where to find the email to email the

097teacher, I mean I understand we're all parents and we should be doing these things for our kiddos. But -- easier access I think would be better. Well we are still accepting volunteers in the classroom just so you know. (laughs) I don't want anyone out here listening to think that's gone away because we would still like that to happen. I did not know that was an option. You can come still and we can hook you up with little small group of math interventions. You're a little too excited Jennifer. I know exactly where to send you. Okay. Moving on so student group comparisons. So again, we see growth across student groups which is encouraging. Overall 76% of students who are on or above grade level in math by spring. Some groups are close to or above the

098overall rate including Asian students at 34% and students identifying as two or more races at 79%. However gaps remain for Hispanic Latino students at 62%. Black African American students at 60%, English learners at 51%, and students with disabilities at 56%. The math equity gaps are clear, and they reinforce the need for strong tier one instructions targeted small group support, and close progress monitoring. Any thoughts come at questions? This is the last slide. And all of that to say thank you. Thank you very much. I mean amazing. Our teachers are doing amazing work. These are improvements. And since I've been looking at this I-ready data. And it's always good to have a North star to keep going towards. Absolutely. I think part of the reason it's a little bit heavier is because in years past or

099recent years past we've looked at these and said well we just adopted this curriculum. So we don't really know what this data means yet and now we're starting to get to a point where we can say okay come on this is what the data means. And so it just weighs more. Yep. Okay. Well -- in closing, in summary, growth in both reading and math there is growth. That's the main story here right? That there is growth in every single grade level, student group, subject. Reading and math. And students moved forward in both reading and math, all of them the reading outcomes are stronger overall while math shows strong growth but remains an area for continued instructional focus. The most important next step is not just improving averages, but accelerating outcomes with student groups who are

100not yet benefiting at the same level. And we will continue using this formative data to guide instruction, intervention, coaching, and skill level support. So the next steps, some ideas for next steps are identify supports to accelerate growth for our highest needs student groups. Continue to focus on coaching and instructional leadership attention where the data shows need. And when I say that, I mean supporting our school principals, continuing to build their capacity to provide the leadership, the coaching to support their teachers in the classroom based on the data that we see. Using it in real time just like classroom teachers are using the data to support their students. And also, ensuring that we are continuing to build the capacity of our instructional specialists who also support and provide that instructional leadership. The use of data for

101grouping and support is important. We really need to build the data literacy across the district. We have to change the narrative of what this assessment is. This assessment is a tool for teachers to guide their instruction and for school leaders to determine what the school grade level needs are, student group needs are, and it's real time data. When you think about over the course of the year right? Formative data. You keep saying Miss Washington we need to change the narrative to that. What is the current narrative? I think overall not just in our school district, but going to other meetings where there's other school districts there, I think people don't really understand the power of this as a formative assessment. I think some people look at it as a show of like -- kind of

102like summative. Like a show of knowledge which can be a badge of honor for some people when their scores are high, when they have a lot of kids who are scoring at or above grade level. But that's not what this is. O stats is that. This is about being thankful to get the information to use to guide instruction. So that's what I'm saying when I say change the narrative. Formative assessment is about providing real time adjustment and instruction to meet the needs of all students in that classroom. Versus summative is it tells the story of what happened over the course of the year. It kind of can do both, I mean it's showing how teachers are using the information to adapt and adjust because they are getting better. But, yeah. You get it on your

103classroom right? Every teacher gets your classroom scores so you can kind of see what the grouping is and you're like oh I need to make these adjustments here here and here because -- then I'll get my kids to where they need to be. Absolutely. It's just the mind. I want us to look at it as a tool. For ongoing improvement. And item one on your next steps is assistance on the focus on equitable. Academic outcomes. Yes. It is. And we're going to have to figure that out. And then we also want to continue creating math intervention cycles and figuring out how we can do more for the math intervention at our schools. And then continue the strong reading intervention cycles that we have. And that's it. Any questions? I don't have any more questions but

104thank you again for the data I know that's a lot of work. And it's a lot of new work right? These are new tools and figuring out how to make that data meaningful and what it does say and what it doesn't say is its own exercise in learning curves. So I appreciate the work that you guys are doing with your staff. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Mr. Kessler you're up for the next two. Yes members of the board I am pleased to share with you this evening an update to our financial model. And the information that we shared with you this afternoon I'm just going to call out a few things on it I'm not going to go over it in laborious detail. Apologies in advance this won't be near as exciting as the presentation

105you just received. But it does speak to me. (laughs) Which is exciting in its own right. So the first thing I will call out is when you look at the financial model itself, the projected 25262627 net results is about two thirds of the way down the page and you will note I have highlighted those two fiscal years projected results of this time are approximately half $1 million in this current fiscal year and then $1 million next year. That's my current estimate and as I've explained in previous meetings I try to be conservative and never over and under-deliver. And it's not that I'm trying to do the inverse of that, but I believe being fiscally conservative has benefits for us in the long run. And how we approach these exercises of trying to forecast results that

106in many respects are beyond our control or certainly with influence right now but you know staffing is central this year, what's harder to predict is how many subs we'll have over the next three months. How much utilities will cost, what type of tax rate a property tax rate collections we will have. And those details like that. As well as the final settling of the state school fund. Because what I've included in the materials you know for 2526 the odd formal estimate this year and then the 2627, those are both almost two months old now, they were dated in early March, and usually by sometimes late April but some years not until May, and a few years later. I do get updates, but what odd is focusing on right at this moment is the 2425 actual

107file reconciliation as a way the state school fund formula works is prior to each fiscal year every school district submits estimates as to what they project for local property tax elections that are subject to offset the fiscal fund and what we expect enrollment will be, how many students we expect to have on IEPs and other factors that are made actually in December of each year prior to that next fiscal year in the beginning. We then get a couple opportunities to update those estimates, typically not until fall time once we've seen the whites of our students eyes and have more information on tax collections as well. And then once we get into January beyond odd it begins to add certain data within their system as well. Like for example they will have collected two quarters worth

108of actual A D E and data. Which is based on actual attendance. So, those continue to get refined throughout the year. The 2425 actuals finals is reconciling those estimates from or that were made within fiscal year 2425 to the actual final results for our audit purposes that are closed out and totally submitted on our audits report. You know six months after the fiscal year end. And then their final settling out of what the actual attendance was on a district by district basis throughout the whole state. But I do have their latest estimate for 2425, and I'm not expecting any material negative adjustments from that, it's possible there might be small ones but that's why I'm comfortable presenting this information now. And my hope is that we will actually end up breaking even and maybe slightly

109better than that, you may recall that last year at this time if you looked at the April 28th 2025 financial model that's also part of your packet, and at that time I was projecting slightly over $8 million spend down in the last fiscal year, the actual spend down came around 7 million so we ended up with over $1 million more than the 5 million that I was projecting the last fiscal year at roughly the same time. So -- those are things that I wanted to call out, there's certainly a lot more information than this and I would be happy to take any questions at this time. Can also you know invite any questions after the meeting. And as is my practice I'll try to answer those with the whole school board. But -- I have

110two I have to let it be known that I wish my crystal ball was showing something slightly more favorable at this time. But -- I don't want to raise expectations that we can't meet there's just too many variables right now and the time that we actually have to close the fiscal books which we actually don't do until very early September because we have other protocols that we have to account for. And also some of our vendors don't bill us as quickly as I would like. But -- those are the updates and I'll stop there and we'll see if there's any questions. Thanks for summarizing all of this and the financial model com I did want to just briefly ask about -- I really appreciate you adding the things that aren't in the financial model at

111the S A and the school success rate. How solid are those numbers would you say? Can those be pretty accurate for the book this year and next year? Yes. For pretty much I don't want to say all, but -- the allocations and this is one of the benefits of being in the middle of -- they made their allocations last June I think it was after the close of the 2025 legislative session. And there was an opportunity recently that would essentially be one of the school districts where they roll the numbers now like they did last spring and you could ask for a middle of union adjustment. But as a moment is essentially flat, there was no advantage to us doing that amid by union adjustment. Like those are pretty flat and the federal budget you

112know it runs on an October 1st through September 30th cycle. And its funding in terms of how it drives school districts is actually you know somewhat delayed. So the current federal budget that we're in is actually driving federal funding for fiscal year 2026 it's essentially flat for all of the federal funds. And so I would say those numbers are much more solid for SPH which does change the AVM and ADM W as well as property tax collection. Not just on the local basis but statewide on a statewide basis as well. The Essar number for 2425 is the closest 7 million then it's dropping down to 6.3. So I was just wondering -- that still what you anticipate? Yeah. All right so if there aren't any questions on that -- another agenda item is 6.9 proposed

113fees for 2627 and this is brought forward as informational item at this time so that we can get feedback and perspective from the school board as well as from our community in relation to our proposed fees for the next school year. And on an overall basis I would note that our facility use fees which is the page immediately behind the blurb that those are increasing generally speaking by $5 per fee category, there's a few where they're increasing by $10 if the current fee is close to $200 or slightly more. So it's roughly a 5% increase overall. In line with our anticipated trajectory for costs that increases next year. And I would note that we do have a category you see now under grass fields? Like the lower halfway down on the facilities where it's LOJ

114without lights and with lights? The grass field is gone. And so they'll only be able to do artificial turf field there once we open that field up which we anticipate we will be able to do in mid June or thereabouts. And then under athletic facilities, other athletic facilities we've taken off the tracks as a separate rental component. What we found is that at times we rent the tracks separate from renting the field, and then there are some conflicts that sometimes -- I mean not really. Arm complex. [CROSS-TALK] And for us it's a safety issue. Essentially this time of year with lacrosse practice and how quickly lacrosse balls can be thrown. And how dense they are. Its safety for us. So we are taking that off as a rental option to rent those separate from one

115another. And at the very bottom we are also simplifying our parking lot rental structure. Historically -- and this hasn't been on there but it was just a little too cumbersome with the differentiation between the school levels. So those are now one flat rate for parking. And then on the -- excuse me I that you've given this to us before so I apologize but can you tell me what the delineations are between the categories? Like which types of groups are accessing this and if an individual soul member wanted to rent a gym for $30 to play basketball which category might he find himself in? Great question. So -- category one A and B is our school district uses with no fees with those, and category two is in season based sports and city youth sports programs,

116after our needs are met they get the second bite of the apple if you will with a prioritization adjustable hours and category three are like city adult leagues so it's no longer youth. Not that we have many adult city soccer might be the only one that we regularly have use in our facilities. You don't do men's basketball much anymore? Maybe not? I think the city -- And you sports programs that are not L-l based nonprofits that are not l l based. And then category four is essentially private like I nine. Skyhawks. You know, the youth camps primarily sports related that operate not on a nonprofit basis. Have kids participate and be with them. So I haven't heard the use case for my buddy at. We were on category five. Sounds like it'd be category four

117unless you establish your own local nonprofit. Gotcha. Just asking for a friend. (laughs) And have a specific PHE or PHE categorization delineation and I will make sure I share that out. With our materials that are the next presentment of this. Just real quick, is there -- you mentioned you simplified the structure for parking, is there really a distinction between middle school small and that field? I'm just wondering how you create some kind of unintentional tiering system where people are always trying to get a certain one. I mean are they similar enough? Where we can just pick one rate and simplify the process? I'm talking about gymnasiums. they're smaller. The middle school and the high school small gyms are that size. And the elementary school gyms for sports are a different stage. Agree elementary. Definitely. I

118just seen one -- I just noticed the fieldhouse -- it doesn't really match kind of it looks like you were trying to be the same on some of them and then lower on some of the categories? It just didn't quite make sense to me. I'm I'm not that worried about it. Okay for example you've got $45 for category two and then it goes to $75. It was the same as the middle school main for category two but for category three it's lower. Lower for category four. I don't know. This was a little random. It's okay. It's not a big deal. It's a really nice facility and you get the whole thing.? [CROSS-TALK] I'm actually if we should charge more. just kind of doesn't go up the same And I agree with director. I appreciate you

119calling that out because as I review the detail more closely we should have differentiation between category two and three and four. And for the middle school small. So I think maybe that's the one that's off. Yeah $40 I believe category three is low. And you know whether it's at the 75 or something between 40 and 75. I would have to talk to tier chic. And you know she would know between category two and category three, we have so many people in category four that would love to have access to our gyms. So, the vast majority of our uses are out of category one. Yeah honestly. And then category two next and then category three. That's a small amount. I think she might have said something too about the one thing is that you can't actually

120run two games because there's like this dip when you walk in. Not a dip, it's on purpose. So I don't think you can go this way. So it really is a one quart game situation. Where even the small ones at the middle school, you can actually run two full games. These are two brand new facilities. They're very nice. >> Very nice. So I'm just wondering -- >> I'm wondering -- and I don't know how I feel about this but I'm going to say it as I'm looking at this and I know how much people are paying organizations even our own local ones. I'm wondering if the fees are still too low. I can't believe I'm saying those words. But I do wonder as we continue to upgrade all of our stuff, and we need a

121bucket of money to be able to take care of all of this stuff because the city is not doing it. It is our responsibility, I think these are super affordable, and I don't want to hurt the things that our kids need. But, there is money. That parents are putting into organizations and it should go into the things that the kids are doing. And I'm not saying that it is or isn't being pocketed, but I think we can raise the fees. I might actually say I'm okay if you want to propose something higher. For certain categories. Yeah. I don't want things that are -- [CROSS-TALK] I'm three and four I'm interested in teasing out two a little bit because you know there are some things in maybe two that could actually maybe -- >> Particularly for

122three and four, these seem like below market. I mean having tried to get caught time for basketball team this is pretty attractive. Particularly given some of the facilities that we now have. In those buckets. And we want to keep them nice and lasting long for a long period of time. And there's a lot of maintenance. It was three years ago that we kind of triangulated our market and fee structure. But we haven't -- it's not a manual exercise so it was years ago and it lasted because then when we brought back all the fields in-house, there was you know some pretty healthy discussion between us and the city staff as to what were we going to charge? What were they going to charge? We didn't really want to be starkly different from each other. Because

123then we would see people play games between us and the city and when our fee structures are very different from one another. We also triangulated some of our closest neighbors at that time. And that was three years ago. Or was that four years ago now? At least three years ago. We started four years ago. Yeah so we haven't undertaken that exercise in you know at least three years. I just know I know exactly what I would volunteer They're really nice, we need to keep them upgraded. I don't know. And it's below market. Is the L.L. Field house and other athletic facilities is that something different? That third line from the bottom? I don't know if it's a duplicate. Other athletic facilities third line from the bottom? Yes and it's got different rates than up above

124too. Excellent catch. That's quite the observation. I like that. So I'll clarify that with our facility coordinator. I believe we're using the gym fee schedule. But maybe she'll surprise me and it's actually the ones down. I like those rates better. So you want us to look at making them higher that's what I'm hearing? At least look at the city and see. Yeah. See what's around. I mean -- again, I don't want to keep like make it difficult for our kids to get the experience in the schools that have been built for them. But -- the other ones seem pretty cheap. And again it's the goal of keeping them nice keeping them up to date. Yes it's not to pocket the money. It's to put it into the budget for upkeep. Okay. Thank you for that

125feedback. And then the last page in the materials is what I generally refer to as school based fees. So these are fees that are much closer to our daily activities in our schools. And in our extracurricular activities in our secondary schools. And so several of the fees that have been proposed for 2627 have no change, but a few have you know again characterized as about a 4 or 5% increase. And the big exception being under food service, you'll note that other than adult meals and proposing all of those at flat rates, and that's because in this current school year we increased almost all of those by $0.25 a piece, to help make the change handling much easier. And doing another $0.25 increase on the rate increases last year would be pretty significant jump in just

126two years time. So -- it's fairly common that our food service fees only increase every other year except for the adult meal fee which lends itself to a 25 cent increase that's less than 5%. And a buck 75 is still an incredible bargain I eat there usually at least once a month for the salad alone you can't beat 575. Nope. Unless I really pile it on with my salad. But I still only get one boat for the salad. Stewards going behind picking up all the food left behind that the students don't want so it doesn't get wasted. All the broccoli and the carrots. Yeah that's the second school lunch. On the driver's Ed -- in district ll students, so if there's a student that is living in the district but is not going to school

127here, like private school, homeschool, whatever the case may be. Are they in the ELL student rate? Yeah we do it off of addresses. So just off of address so it's district more than it is -- okay and then and then the reason I wanted to know that is because again, my son just went through this process not long ago, and 650 for driver's Ed seems pretty reasonable. And I know there's always a long wait list for that to come especially for students coming out of district. And when we're trying to do things for the district I don't know if there are opportunities to take it to market. Again, I don't think any of the things that we're suggesting is to try to gouge the marketplace, but I think to the extent that we are subsidizing

128the things for our students like building these facilities and providing these opportunities, we should at least be charging market. Outside just to support those efforts. Yeah. So the distinction between in district and district is this current 2526 year it used to be there was no differentiation that you know, not that anyone called foul, but there were spots lost to outside parties where we had families in district that would like to sign up that were then put on wait lists that would have preferred not to have been on waitlists. So we did introduce the differentiated scale for district versus out of district, what we have proposed is a $20 increase in each, but it sounds like there could be appetite for making that increase a little bit larger for the 2627 year where I don't know

129if that's an extra you know add $10 more to that so it would be $30 more proportion wise it's a little bit more than roughly 4 to 5% increase that we have for the industry students. You know to your point, it sounds like it would still be within market and I would note too that these are the rates that are proposed for 2627 are for the rates that start in the summer session which is August. So you know our programing that starts this spring it goes into the summer and the new rates for the driver's Ed program take effect typically in late August is when that next round of classes is beginning. Cool. Okay. Last comment I just want to make, still says junior high fees now we have two middle schools. That's a really

130good point. I'm surprised I didn't catch that. (laughs) Thank you all very much for your input I appreciate it. Thank you Stuart. Thank you. And just double checking, is there any other business? Okay. I am going to adjourn us at --