December-2-2019-Regular-Board-Meeting-Segment-5
[00:00:00] Dr. Spencer  and dr Flossie. Oh, just mr , dr Flossy tonight. I'm gonna switch things up late night. We need that change. Well, welcome. So we know that some of what we're going to queue up at the beginning is review for you. Nevertheless, we're just going to touch on it lightly because we may have members of the audience viewing this for the first time since they know this is on the agenda.
I may not have observed other board meetings. Um. So we are excited to present to you the continuous improvement plan, um, as prescribed by the state. But also, um, um, what we choose to believe is that this is our district work plan and it's integral to, um, the work that we're doing in the district, even though the template is one that's been given to us.
The contents, um, we're really proud of displaying the work ahead, uh, ahead for you. . [00:01:00] Just a quick review. We'll go through these pretty quickly. Um, as we know, um, in may of last year, the legislature's voted to approve a $2 billion investment in K-12 education called the student success act, um, to generate funding through an additional tax that would fund three large areas, an early learning account, education initiatives, and what is called the student investment account.
And it's that third one that we're going to, that we've been focusing on the most because the other two areas really, um, have come from the state of Oregon with either current programs already in place or ones that we'll hear more about in the future, in the near future. But the student investment account is the one that all the districts in Oregon are now working on.
You can see 50% of the budget is allotted to that. The funding. And it didn't, uh, with a goal to, um, work on those five [00:02:00] priority areas that are listed there. And for the district to engage the community in, um, feedback around those five areas. So the steps that every school district is taking is to conduct a needs assessment with the community, to see their priorities with those five areas.
Then to develop a continuous improvement plan, and then once that is approved, we can apply for the grant, um, to address those areas. Um, in developing a continuous improvement plan or sip, um, in the past we've called them district work plan, so you can think of it, um, synonymously. Um, although the template is different, the contents around looking for areas for improvement in our district are essentially the same.
These are the major components of a sip that the district address and share its vision mission. How they conducted the needs assessment, what they learned from that, and then identifying some [00:03:00] goals, strategies, and outcomes. The timeline from the state is that we present the plan to the state of Oregon by December 6th and that we presented it to the board prior to that.
So here we are. Um, we like to go right up until the last minute. Um, we'll present to you tonight and then we do have plans to Morrow to meet with, um. A technical assistance team at the Clackamas ESD that the state has provided, so that if there's anything that comes up, um, from staff between now and then, we can run it through them.
So, just in terms of, I know this font is small, but just in terms of sharing, um, I know her to issues with the temperature. They're hot or cold. Well, we'll find a happy medium. Um, that's okay. Um, in terms of how does this work plan fit into our nested thinking? Um. I can't think of a better example than what you gave with the school work plans that you saw this coherency and this alignment [00:04:00] and our goal would be the same for this work plan that what you'd see in the contents tonight would seem to be this perfect fit in this sequence of nested minus that if the board is responsible for the board goals and policies that support those goals of the district, then the district leadership is responsible for.
Um, district goals and the, and the district work plan, which we're presenting to you tonight. Out of that, it informs school work plans and school goals. And from there, a teacher might see the connection for their teacher goals and their plans that they bring forward to their classroom. And then within that final nested, you'd see a student saying, these are the goals that I'm working on in math or with my.
Emotions, um, and you'd kind of see this, this real alignment and coherency and Michael Fullan talks about what an organization gets to that point where there's coherency, um, when people can explain themselves. When you see the, the, the walking of the [00:05:00] talk and the talking of the talking alignment, then those, um.
Those become mutually influential of each other. The board influences the district teachers influenced the district, teachers influenced the school. They become mutually influential. And when large groups of people start to do this, then when folks come new into the district, it's just the way it is and it becomes a socialization of this is how our district operates.
And I think you described that so. Well tonight that no matter what school you went in, you felt this articulation. That doesn't happen by accident. As you mentioned. It's very intentional. It happens with the board staying connected to their goals, district leadership, staying connected and so forth.
So when you think tonight and you see this plan. Well, you're not the ones writing and developing it in. It's the district leadership staff as informed by the community. What we'd like you to do is look for that coherency and alignment and think about those kinds of questions for us or engagement tonight around do you [00:06:00] see this as one of within the nest of system, do you see how the district plan connects with the goals and the school plans and so forth?
Okay. So now I'm going to turn over to dr Flossie who has been, I have to say, magnanimous in this endeavor because we haven't gotten a lot of direction from the state, and the state knows that they're still hiring the staff to do this. Um, it's a new legislation. Um, they've given us a template and asked us to just go into this and work on it.
Um, so we're going to just walk through those components and, uh, we'll give you a little bit of overview and then we're going to give you the document. And, um, you know, there's always the danger when the teacher hands the class the document, and they start thumbing through it before they get the directions.
Right. So it's okay. We know you can do more than one thing at once. Feel free to thumb through it, but dr Flossie will kind of. Walk us through with this PowerPoint. Um, so if [00:07:00] you get too far ahead of yourselves, you might miss the directions on a place. But that's all I'm going to say. As a former first grade teacher.
So, uh, as dr Lubbock said, the state did provide us with a template, and so we built the plan off of that template and I backwards. So, um, the template starts with. The district vision and district mission. And, uh, and we also added our district goals to that cause it felt like, uh, all four of our district goals are represented here in the, um, in the work of this continuous improvement plan.
Um, certainly raising rigor, uh, eliminating opportunity with achievement gaps in goal number one. Um, but then also. And goal number two, the integrated system, special growth assessment cause of practices, accountability. Those [00:08:00] things are very much in here. Um, and that idea of building competence, confidence and self efficacy for the students.
Big focus on social emotional learning. And, um, as director hides pointed out that connection between social emotional learning and, um, and student achievement. And. Um, and then the, uh, goal number three there about operating in accessible, transparent manner. The process of this is, uh, is very much a, um, interactive process with the community.
And I'll go into some more detail about how we've been gathering input from a variety of stakeholders over the course of, um, of course, if the time is, we've been working on this and then. Um, once we submitted this and we move into the next steps in the process, we'll continue in, um, that [00:09:00] interactive communication, collaboration with community.
Um, and then, and then going to the before, um, gets at the, uh, the longterm financial stability and sustainability. And, um, and part of this is, um, working towards how we're going to be investing. Uh, the. The science on the student investment account. So, um, so for the next, uh, the next slide, as we look at this, the, um, we're gonna be talking about the comprehensive needs assessments, and that was an important part of the, the process and stuff.
The first. Couple of pages of this. And by the way, you'll notice in the top here in purple is draft number seven. So we've been working on, um, generating this and bringing it to our teams and, uh, getting feedback and working on this for, um, for a while. And as we continue to get inputs [00:10:00] from stakeholders as well, we've been revising.
And so, uh, so we are currently a draft number seven. So. Near, we ready smoke. We have vinyl input from the, um, from the ESD, uh, technical support tomorrow. So, uh, the comprehensive needs assessments, um, the, um, the last bullet point on their engagement members, strictly underserved groups.
Um, we've, we've done a lot of intentional outreach, uh, to ensure that. Um, but we have a really rich variety of voices concerned about that. Um, coming up here in a minute. So the, um, as we're gathering input from the community, one of the key things that needs to be within these. Five priority areas, and these are outlined in the student success act.
And so we'll kind of keep coming back to these [00:11:00] over and over again, but these are key things that we've been gathering input from the community about. Um, and so,
um, so on, um. On page two here in the plan, there's a list of all of the different ways that we've been gathering input. Uh, some of that is information that we've gathered over the course of a vast couple of years and, uh, from a whole variety of sources. So the first one there, the, uh, um, on the slide is the Wesson Wilsonville education association.
So gathering input from. Uh, from teachers. And, um, and then several of those things up there, the board members were a part of as well. Um, got the [00:12:00] bond summit, the, um, health wellness, curriculum, adoption, lots of those things. And so, um, and, uh, and this, uh, know a whole range of topics that are important to our community that we've been gathering information.
And, uh, and that has. Gone into informing this plan. And then, um, over the course of the fall, we've been, Mmm. Gathering specific information related to those five priority areas and . And we've done that in a variety of different ways. So we've had some small focus groups come together, um, particularly.
Uh, focus groups of, uh, migrant families in our district, um, focus groups of students with the first generation in their family to graduate from high school. Um, we've done one to one phone calls. So we've, uh, identified [00:13:00] families, for instance, who, uh, are homeless or experiencing housing insecurity and, um, we've connected with those families and under one phone calls, um.
And then we've, uh, we put together a survey that's, um, hopefully you as members of the community or, uh, uh, participated in the survey. And, um, and we, uh, we reached out to high school students to take the survey. Um, and then also, um, we had overall about 1100 people respond to the survey.
And that was a students, parents, uh, staff and community members. So that was. I felt like that's a pretty robust response to the survey. We also held two community forums, one at Rosemont Ridge and one it would middle school, and we had several board members there have participated in that as well.
Um, and, uh, um, throughout with, um, [00:14:00] with survey, with community forums and with other, uh, ways we've been gathering. We've been looking at those five priority areas. And, um, and we've been asking the question, um, um, just kind of a simple question is, what is Western medicine bill doing well in this area and what could Western doesn't bill do better?
And, uh, we got some great responses in both of those categories. Um, one of the things that we found actually is that, um, sometimes the, the responses to both of those questions were the same thing. And so, um, so we found people say what's most of the schools are doing a great job with social emotional learning, and then you can do better.
And, uh, and so that's, that's something that's was a theme that emerged, um, both, um, across the survey. And, and then even, um, within, uh, you know, by, by grade levels maybe, um, [00:15:00] by. Uh, content areas or by demographic groups. So, um, let's see. I don't want to pass out this packet. Here is data that we have, uh, Pfizer from the.
Various different sorts of inquiries, largely from the survey, but also from the community forums and from, um, some other groups that we gathered with the same focus, the same five priority areas, and the same questions. So the front page of this is kind of a quantitative response. And, uh, and on this.
The [00:16:00] first thing to notice is, um, w what these numbers represent is on the survey there were, um, for each of the five areas the respondents had, the option of question was how big of a priority is the story? And they had. Four options, low priority, up to high priority. So four was high priority.
And, um, and overall, the, um, all five of these, uh, if you took the average score for all of them, uh, they were within the same range. The average score were ranged from about 3.1 to 3.4 out of four. And so, um, so. The community overall feels like all of these are relatively high priorities.
Um, but then when we broke it down to, um, which ones received [00:17:00] a selection of four, four stars for the highest priority, um, then it, uh, . It was shuffled out a little bit more. So most of the responses were either a three or four. Um, and so we felt like looking at the ones that were, uh, selected as a four for the highest priority helped, uh, see this a little bit more clearly.
And so you can see that, um, overall down at the very bottom there, the color coded ones, um, 62% of respondents listed mental and behavioral health as there as. A high priority. Um, and, um, and then kind of on the other end, 39% list of community partnerships as four stars high priority, um, doesn't mean that they didn't want community partnerships.
It just, um, that was the one that received the least votes or high priority. And, uh, and respondents could list all of them with before. So it wasn't, it [00:18:00] wasn't a ranking order. They could, they could choose that all four, all five of them are high priorities. If they wanted to. Um, so a few things that we noticed on here.
There's, um, we're not going to go into deep analysis if the numbers on this, but, um, uh, looking at the teachers, staff, the, um, they particularly selected mental behavioral health and time for collaboration as to particularly high ones. Um, students. Um, list of community partnerships higher than any of the other groups listed.
Um, so those are just a couple of, of observations there. Um, another thing just to be aware of, uh, if you're looking at these numbers in parentheses after each group is the number of respondents that identified themselves as belonging to this group. And so, um, so for, for instance, for parents, we had 419 parents respond.
So those are probably pretty [00:19:00] robust numbers. Um, for, uh, students in foster care. We had five respondents. Uh, and so, um, so those numbers there want to do a little careful inferences from, that's. Um, and then, I mean, inside the rest of the pages of this are some qualitative, um, kind of collection of the things that, um, each stakeholder group identified as things that wasn't Wilson build as well, that we could do better in each of the five, um, areas of focus.
And, um. And you'll see that there's a lot of common themes in there. And, um, but it is also, um, helpful to see, um, differences that emerge from different groups. Well, and, and again, these things are, are the things that we have up there on the side [00:20:00] as, um, needs that our data elevate. Um, and those also are on page three of the continuous improvement plan.
Yeah.
Um, so this then leaves, um, once we've done the needs assessment and gathered information about what our community thing that we need, um, leads us to thinking about our longterm goals and metrics. So that's, um, beginning on page. Um, you're getting on page six of the plan. And  these, yeah.
Identified three goals. Um, the one that's sort of a salmon color in here is our high school goal. Um, and that's focused on [00:21:00] graduation with plans for postsecondary learning and careers. And, uh, and it was really important in this goal to not just be about. Um, graduation rate and getting the diploma, which certainly is important too.
We want that. Um, but, um, we felt like it was also important to recognize that when a student crosses that stage and gets that diploma, what do they plan for their next, um, maybe that's attending a four year university. Maybe that's, um, engaging in, um. Internships and, uh, work experience, um, to, um, career and technical fields.
Um, and, and so our, our, our goal there is not just about, um, the finish line with a diploma, but for the next steps after the finish line. And, and having students be prepared and have a plan for what that's gonna look like. Um, you notice in goal number two, and goal number three, there, uh, the word growth is, [00:22:00] uh, in there, uh, as, um, as.
Came up during the board reports. Growth is a really important part of what we're looking at. Not just achievement, but, um, but how are individual students, um, making growth and particularly from, um, the learner groups, um, are not performing as well. Uh, and then, uh, so the, the three goals there are, um, by levels, but, but built into all of the goals.
Is, um, a through line of social emotional learning. And, uh, and this again came up in your board reports. Um, it's encouraging to hear that you're seeing this in the schools. Um, there, there really is a strong connection between social emotional learning and academic engagement. Um, that idea that, um, that if students are experiencing emotional regulation, um, then they have a.
Better ability to engage in [00:23:00] that productive struggle that you're going through the pit, um, learning pit to be able to persevere and murdered on the other side with that confidence and competence. And so, um, so embedded in the goals is, um, social emotional learning and, uh, and strategies for. So then, um, with the goals, we, um, we have metrics for how we're identifying, um, whether we're making the progress that we're looking for.
And the state has identified, uh, four metrics, their graduation rates, ninth grade on track, third grade reading and attendance. Um, and then they've also, um. Provided the, the, um, it's ability for the district to identify metrics as well. Uh, and so you'll see in the plan things like, [00:24:00] um, map assessments, which, um, interim, uh, data three times a year, which is more responsive to student learning center on the annual, um, Oh, SAS, smarter balance.
And then, um, social emotional surveys. Survey provides some annual data, and then we're in the process of, um, adopting and developing a, um, a survey that would give us more frequent data, kind of like the map assessment. Um, a survey called the Panorama survey. Uh, we don't have that actually identified in the plan because we don't yet have it live and ready to go.
And so we didn't want to say that that's what we were going to be using, um, because we don't, we don't have going yet. Mmm. And, um, and then in these, cool. [00:25:00] So after the, the initial, uh, on page eight, there's a blue section here. This is, um, other initiatives that support these goals. So they may not be the things that are specifically, um, uh.
Back way related to the goals, but we know that, um, chronic absenteeism having students present in school is going to contribute significantly towards their, um, towards their academic growth, towards their progress towards graduation. And we know that  practices. Social, emotional learning contributes.
Having strong data systems to, um, to help us know where students are, recognize patterns, those, those initiatives are all things that are helping contribute towards, uh, the progress that we're making on those goals. Um,
so that's kind of [00:26:00] a quick overview of the, uh, of the. Process and how we got here and kind of brief. Okay. Look at the plan. And obviously there's a lot more detail into it, but that's, it's kind of that the process of where we are now. You're now going to move to your third microphone. So what we'd like you to do is take this home, breed it.
Feel free to engage with me with any questions. If you've signed up for a learning walk in the future or we want to have a fireside chat, we can go into more depth, but essentially what you see then following on pages nine through the end of the document is each of those three goals is fleshed out a little further.
And again, this is, this is a template that came from the state with the idea of what are you going to do? What's your strategy to meet that goal? How will you know the plan is working? What evidence do you see in the adult actions? In other words, when we do [00:27:00] walkthroughs and when we're going to classrooms, what are we seeing teachers saying and doing?
What kind of plans are they writing? Um, what will you see in the evidence for students? That's the outcomes. How will you get the work done? Kind of who's responsible. So you'll see that laid out. Um, and then this, um, or. I S Oris domain alignment. It's a way of looking at the comprehensive nature of the school district in this rubric that has these five areas, leadership, talent development, stakeholder engagement.
So do these goals fit in those five areas of this organizational rubric? And that's something new that the state is also providing for us to see, um, how we're, how we're thinking of this plan comprehensively. Um. If you want to look more at that Oris rubric, it's quite a big document that there's kind of like a one page.
Overview that I can go through with any of you at any time. So you'll see the goals there in our sip. [00:28:00] Um, again, my hope is that our hope is that what you see is an alignment. Do you see that high school goal overlaid with what you heard in the school work plans? Does it look like it fits there? Do you see in the middle school goal, that idea of how assessment for learning and improvement with reading and math, um, connect to the data.
That, um, just that schools we're working with where they want to see some improvement with some learner groups. Um, and then you certainly saw the theme of mathematics, um, in primary and see that this is a goal across all nine of our schools to increase, um, that mathematics growth across our school and in particularly among learning certain learner groups.
So that's a focus for us. Um, on the back, the state says, how are you going to monitor. Okay, this plan, what are your self-monitoring routines? Is what they call it, and we've categorized them. And what are those things we do annually to make sure we're reporting and [00:29:00] self-monitoring? What are those monthly structures?
We haven't placed weekly structures and then, um, things that are ongoing. Um, so again, Joe, the next slide. We want you to think about while we've written the plan and we're going to submit it, and these are goals we're going to be working on. Um, you've got that overlay as a board of thinking about how all these connect, does it fit what you've described as your board goals, what you're hoping.
We're working on a board goal number one, do you see some concrete plans to make improvement for closing the opportunity achievement gap? Um, and then as you were connecting with schools, did you see the plan further fleshed out in those more specific. Um, school plans. Um, the state doesn't require school plans.
Um, we create those, but hopefully they're all connected. Um, and you see the nest madness. The next step is for us to, again, so Joe, the next slide. Take this final draft, um, [00:30:00] tomorrow to the ESD. They'll give us some feedback. What we've already heard preliminarily before we even did some more work on it, is that our plan looked really good and we could submit it.
We worked on it some more. Um, today with the team added some more specifics, um, got some more clarity around the social, emotional embedded goals that we wanted to see in those theories of action. So it should be even better and even more ready to submit. Um, again, you know, the threshold for this is they know that everybody is doing this the first round.
They don't want people spending inordinate amount of time get it in. Um, get started with it. We'll give you some feedback. That's what Odie is saying. If there's an area that's not quite up to what they were expecting, and then they want people to get that grant money and start working on these plans.
So there isn't any sense we're getting that. They want to hold these things up. Um, or make it too complicated. They want to know that we've got some thoughtful plans in place, um, around reducing academic disparities around thinking through this with an [00:31:00] equity lens. Um, and having a comprehensive plan that now we can go out and fund and do we see in this plan places where the community was giving us some feedback, um, when we apply for that grant.
That's the next slide. When we apply for that grant, that's going to be, um, specific strategies with this funding. If we put these, um, staff members in place or these programs in place, um, it should intend to move the dial even more with the plan, but also to address some components of that needs assessment.
That we believe then should dovetail with this plan. So we should be getting the template for that grant either next month or in the next week or two next week or two. If it arrives in January, we'll work with that timeline, but so far the state has said that by February. Um, we need to have, engage the community [00:32:00] again and, um, put a plan in place for the board with that application.
So that's a very tight timeline. They haven't given us the template yet, so we're hoping to get that pretty soon. We'll have some small teams, again, going through what we just handed you this neat, you know, peeling the onion a little further, reading more of the comments, looking at each of these areas and thinking about those allowable.
Uh, places in the grant where we now can put our funding. Um, we're going to have a, again, one more community forum where our community can see our sip plan, and then they can also see the draft of that application. That's one of the recommendations from ode is that your community after doing this, gets to see what you're proposing to do then with that grant funding so they can.
Come for a meeting and hear about it. Just like we hosted the ones before. Um, but there'll be, up until then, some small groups working on developing that application and that will come to you for approval in February. [00:33:00] All right? We went to that kind of quickly, but it's also late in the evening and we know that may be, um, as much capacity as there is this evening.
But to get the invitation stands that if you'd like to meet with me further and go through any of these individually or in pairs, or when you're going on a future learning walk, um, engage in, in the sip plan together, we're happy to do that. Thank you, dr Fauci and dr Ludwick for your completing this together.
All
right. Thank you both very much. You've laid a good foundation, like we knew this was coming and like made it very easy to digest and see where you're headed with it. So thank you. Yeah, I would just echo that this is, you know, we've been talking about this for some time and have seen it in motion and this is not so far away from the work that you're, that you've already been engaged in and that's really reflected in the quality of the work here.
So thank you. It's [00:34:00] very reader-friendly. It's very inspiring. I'm thinking when, um, my kiddos who are currently seventh graders graduate from high school, that we have a goal that 100% of the cohort is going to graduate alongside them. And I am. Thrilled to be a part of that goal, so it's well done.
I again, just want to thank dr Flossie because what he was tasked to do, and he said yes to the superintendent, was really take all of this information. He worked with each of those teams around their goals and bring a lot of information into a very short document. And so that takes clarity of thought and incredible organizational skills, perseverance, grit, all those things.
You know, in zones of regulation. He was in the green. Um, so I want to thank you very much, dr flossing for all your work on this and we know you'll continue to work through it with us as the next application comes to. Thank you. All [00:35:00] right. All right. Then we will move on to our last and final agenda item.
And, um, this has to do with, um. The board potentially supporting a joint affirmation or communication. And Chelsea, if you don't mind, uh, running with this, explaining our thinking. That'd be wonderful.
So the is being passed to you. This, um, idea was presented at a, a meeting. Gosh, probably a week and a half for so ago, two weeks, um, between myself and chair Mala, Tor, um, dr Ludwig, director of communications, Andrew Kihlstrom and Dr. Aaron Downs, I think were the folks who were in the room, um, in response to what we had been hearing from students and parents and our community about, um, what had.
[00:36:00] Been going on at West Linn high school. Um, I'd like to just take a moment to echo a couple of the, um, requests that I had made during that meeting. Um, uh, primarily the reason why I'm echoing them is because I heard them come back up from the public again this evening. And that is an ask that the district bring in, um, basic rights Oregon or an organization such as basic rights Oregon that specializes in, um, training, um, organizations on how to identify, um.
Issues that are pertained to the LGBT community, particularly in managing microaggressions and interrupting comments like that, as well as just this focus on restorative practices and restorative justice and the potential we have and using those tools to address things like this that come up in our schools and just ask to continue to develop our skills and our teachers and staff.
And then the third ask was about this letter. And so that's what you have in front [00:37:00] of you is just a request that the board and the superintendent collaborate to make a statement to our community. And so, um, that's why this is before you is just to ask. Um, you know, w will you put your name on it?
And, um, hopefully everybody has their name on it along with our superintendent. And it's just a way to assert to our communities that all of our students shall have a learning environment that honored or honors their dignity as a human, a unique human. Just drawing your attention to this second paragraph.
It's on the second page of the letter that States that we want to make it very clear that there is no place in our schools for threats or overt acts of bigotry, bullying, racism, or any language that denigrates others based on their gender, religion, race, sexual orientation, gender identity.
Cultural origin or ability. This behavior does not represent the best of who we are as our community. [00:38:00] So a statement there, again saying, you know, this is, this is what we're asserting. Um, I do believe that it is imperative that the board, um, act and send this letter. Now, um, obviously we, you know, we've been hearing from our community that this is an issue that they're facing.
And, um, if we don't. Send out a statement that's clear and community-wide. Then we risk the perceived or actual complacency with the events that have been occurring at West Linn high school. And I'm just echoing that the situation at West Linn high school was not necessarily about a particular business entity that the walkout, that might've been an inciting event, but that there has been a, um, a history of.
Um, issues that students have been facing that occurred, you know, existed prior to [00:39:00] a business entity being on ground. So this is not about a particular business. It's about our school cultures and our school cultures. You know, they're microcosm. Of our larger culture. This is not just at West Linn high school.
It's not just in the West Linn, Wilsonville school district. Although I would venture to guess that if it's at West Linn high school, it's at all of our schools and that it's in other schools in our County and state. So. Hence the reason for it, a district wide communication rather than something that's simply goes to West Linn high school community.
Um, we know that this is not a one time incident. We've read the data. We've read the Oregon healthy teen survey. We heard our students speak at the June meeting where they talked about issues in their schools and the need to be able to address comments. And, um. Teasing or harassment. Um, so this is something that's been coming to the board, um, you know, over the [00:40:00] past year pretty consistently, and that's why there is an ask to yet again, send a bold statement out to our communities that this is not something that the board condones and that we will back all efforts done by our administration to support.
Um. You know, safety and belonging in our schools. Yeah. Um, I guess, I think the last thing I would say would be, I don't need to replicate or repeat the data that we've already heard, and we had speakers say plenty tonight, but just this last time. Statement in that final paragraph of the letter that we need our school community of which, you know, we're a part of that paragraph there to recognize and speak up for any injustice and to hold one another accountable to lead and live with integrity and kindness.
And so yet again, in a statement [00:41:00] about our values, and my hope is that this letter would. You know, go out to the community and Bay and basically say, we're not going to be complacent, and we hear you and we stand by the values listed in this letter.
so I have not heard that this is a problem and other schools in our district. The consistent, uh, communication that I think has come before us as a school board has been from muslin high school. I, um,
am not understanding why we need a district response to, um. I'm not going to assume that it's a problem. Other schools, I don't know if we have data to support that. It certainly hasn't [00:42:00] been a conversation. I think that has been about, um, other schools, um, in general. And, um, so I understand that the original letter, um, was.
Was prompted by something, uh, going on nationwide and not necessarily, um, something that we would normally ask to be dealt with at a building level and then move on up if there has been an inadequate response. So that would be, um, one of my largest concerns. I'm also not clear on what changes were made from one to the other.
I appreciate the recognition that, um, primarily what we've been hearing from has been West Linn high school students. And, um, I think that the data speaks for itself when we [00:43:00] look at the, um. You know, the Oregon healthy teens wellness survey, and it's, you know, looking at, we can desegregate the data to West Linn, Wilsonville to Clackamas County and other school districts around the state.
We know that students who identify as LGBTQ, um, have a higher incidents of harassment and bullying in their schools. And so this is an issue that we know this community faces, um, and all of our schools, just like they do in our community. This particular situation that happened at West Linn high school was on think national news.
There was a news story that went out much broader than West Linn high school community, and I was receiving emails from people who were not, who do not live in our state. About this issue. And so that's why I believe that this statement does need to go wider than simply just West Linn high school because this is [00:44:00] an issue that faces, that this community faces outside of just West Linn high school.
This the stuff that was happening at West Linn high school became more prominent of an issue. And so I believe we need to make a statement that's firm and that reaches outside the walls of West Linn high school. So I'm not clear. Why are the existing letter that we sent that was sent out in 2016 or existing policies or the actions that we're taking are not a more, um, pointed response or a more apropos response than the letter.
Mm. I would just chime in just a little bit. Um, when the letter was first proposed the T in 2016 we had an instance where, um. Federal law was creating circumstances around immigration that then was presenting itself to our, in our schools and to our school boards around safety, [00:45:00] um, in particular in an immigration context.
And so at that time, our school board got together and we just, like, we wanted to reassure, um. Members of our community who don't feel safe, much like we heard comments of that this evening, that you know what it is are in our schools, you know it is. You are a priority and we want to ensure that you as a student, a member of our school community, feel safe.
And in that process we reiterated. Um, without, not without citing directly policy, but for example, um, the paragraph that Chelsea quoted with regards to, there's no place in our school for threats or overt acts if they had to treat bullying, racism, et cetera, that is in line and consistent with our policy.
And so the letter was more just trying to remind or refresh the recollection of our school community. Of what our policies are around, um, treatment of one another in our [00:46:00] schools as well as, um, what our expectations were and that we as a board, you know, back these expectations. And I think, um, that the passage of time, while this is potentially a separate incident, has caused . Us as a board to revisit our refreshing our communities, a recollection around what we expect of them.
I think it's just more an opportunity to take a step back and say, look, whenever we have students who don't feel, feel safe in our schools, that that's not okay. Especially when it comes at the hands of bigotry, bullying, racism, you know? Um, and it's just an, an, an opportunity to. Remind our community that, um, of what our policies are, what is and isn't acceptable behavior and treatment of one another within our school community.
And that was what about, um, kind of resubmitting this letter? [00:47:00] Um, and, uh, why it appealed to me? Because the reality is, is I, I kind of had forgotten that we had done this and I felt like it was valuable work and I thought potentially the timing was right too. Reaffirm that. Um, I think it makes sense to reissue the letter because 60% of the board has turned over since that first letter was, was put out there.
So it's useful to have the current board affirmed the principles that were initially set out in it. And I think, um, I like that it's broad. I think it should apply the district. Um, we did hear a parents night at Jenny tans, spoke about her middle school daughter here regularly hearing slurs, um, in her middle school.
Um, and it would. Seem exceptionally unlikely that none of this is happening, and then suddenly they hit ninth grade and everybody becomes highly, you know, problematic in this area. So I just, I think it makes sense to include the entire district because I imagine it's happening at all of our schools to some extent.
[00:48:00] Um, director Fitz, you mentioned that, um, you weren't sure what the difference was in the two letters. Um, only a couple things were changed as we went back and looked at it, we felt it was, um, pretty, you know, spoke to some pretty broad themes in the first paragraph. We, I just bolded the all children.
Um, in the second paragraph, the removal of that first, there was a removal of the first phrase in times when the world around us is grappling with uncertainty, intention. Um, that was around the immigration status. People were unsure what was happening. Didn't feel that that one actually serve for a general, um, uh, letter.
Um. For this circumstance. And then at the very end, right before signing out, thank you for leaning into this endeavor because our theme that year was around leaning in, and we had written several pieces to the community about leaning [00:49:00] in. That's not our theme this year. It may seem unusual for folks reading it, and so I just went with the.
Thank you for joining us in this endeavor. So those are the three changes. This also, this first letter in December, 2016 was accompanied internally with a memo, um, from myself, uh, supported with also a district legal counsel around statutes and policies that supported, um, uh, questions that con that our staff had around.
Um. What type of student information was protected with confidentiality, addresses of families, um, those kinds of things that there was a big concern, uh, around protecting families around their residents and their private information. Should an agency want to have access to that? Um, there were, so it was a company with an internal memo.
That's not something that we need to reissue today. Um, [00:50:00] should it. Should we need to at some point we have that memo that we could resurface, but it's not pertinent to what we're talking about tonight. So it wasn't the only document that the board was looking at. They had this letter to the community and then they had a glimpse of an internal memo that I had written to staff with those policies and statutes that supported, um, protection of rights for our families and students.
My concern is that this isn't in response to it and student that was a student led walk out and. And the response then from the community and the response from students who, um, were displaying a [00:51:00] different view than those walking out.
It is not a similar situation to what existed in 2016. It is a letter that follows and incident where students. We're exercising their right to express themselves on both sides.
I agree with the principles that we want everyone to feel safe, that we could receive more training, um, uh, staff or district level to make sure that we're implementing these policies. I agree that students should be able to. No, what the process is to feel like they can initiate a process for reporting problems and follow that at their building level.
And when things aren't satisfied, it can work itself up to the board. I am uncomfortable with the message [00:52:00] that sending this letter at this time after that, it's that expression of student, um, student led expression. Um. When I believe that that should work itself out, um, in that community with the processes we have in place with the existing policies and actions that are reflected in this letter.
I think, um, that it's a different message than the first letter and I'm very uncomfortable with it given the timing.
Standards you're saying. And I know you'd be someone who cares very deeply about all of our students feeling safe and belonging. So I totally get what you're saying, and I don't hear you as being against, you know, taking a firm stance on belonging and inclusion. Um, I, I will just return to, to, [00:53:00] you know, my original sinking, which is that, um.
This is, this is something that wasn't about the walkout. It was a cultural thing that existed prior to the walkout. We've been hearing about it since we started the human sexuality curriculum update. You know, a year ago. We've seen indicators of this. I know I talked to the parents on the phone who had.
Students who were a part of the LGBTQ community. This was a year ago, who, you know, one parent in particular whose kiddo was, you know, in the hospital for another suicide attempt. And so this is something that it's not just an isolated, one time student walkout, the students walked out because of what they were experiencing in their schools.
And if this is happening at West Linn high school, it's happening at other schools. We see it in the data. Yeah, we can hear it. And national rhetoric around this topic. And so I do think that it's not necessarily just a response. It could [00:54:00] be painted as a response to that. I get that. But the truth is that this is, it's about something much long that's been around long before that student walkout existed or happened, and it's gonna.
I'm sad to say stick around longer, so maybe we even just put this on a two to three year cycle. Pretend my Burt board turns over. We write the letter again and we say, no, we still believe that. You know that all, all of our students should be free of harassment. They all should be, their human dignity should be honored.
And we as a board, in conjunction with our superintendent, we'll put our names on a piece of paper time and time again to say that that's important to us.  well, you're looking for a motion.
Um, I will move that the board adopt the message from the school board and superintendent.
[00:55:00] I don't know if we need a vote or not. Um, was it just being a letter? But if we're going to take a vote, I definitely think we need consensus to have a majority. I mean, the letter has no, no effect if it, if we stick our names to it, but there's not at least a majority of people supporting it. So I think we need some way to determine that.
We send it. They, you're putting our names on it. Yeah, correct. So it could be a voter, could be an a nodding. Um, whatever is, uh, there's a motion in the second. Let's just go that route. All right. Discussion. Further discussion. Someone puts, no, let me take your name off the letter. Okay. If, if, because it's a vote, a vote, and I on a motion, if the motion passes, all members are obligated by board policy to support the decisions of the [00:56:00] board.
Okay. Well then I would vote against my own motion because I'm uncomfortable having the board send out a letter with all of her names on it if all of us don't agree to it. Okay. But the motion is to send a letter with all of our names on it, which I wish was to adopt it or approve it. Yeah. Which, which would tell which tells me that that means as like basically as written as in front of you with all of our names on it.
And so it's, my understanding is that if the motion passes, this letter would be distributed as is, unless there's another emotion to amend it and if it passes or if it fails, then the letters not going anywhere. Well then for the purposes of discussion, I would ask my fellow board members, does anybody not want their name on this letter?
I think I've indicated my position on that. Okay. Then amend my motion then to approve this and adopted as a board without director fish's name on the letter
[00:57:00] for one, you put it on the agenda. You did not say that we were taking action to vote on the letter today. And you didn't include the letter in the agenda. I think that at least you can do is give me another month before you take a vote.
Uh, disappointed to see that it was, the letter was on him board book. Um, I did go back and see that an email had been sent, and so I reconciled that in my brain that the information had been sent out to board members with adequate time to review. Well, I think because this letter has a lot more impact, if all five board members sign it, I'll go ahead and withdraw my motion.
I concur with that. I mean, the spirit of it is that all, all of us can come together and, uh, submit something, uh, that affirms like our kind of beliefs in what we expect of our students. [00:58:00] And so, um,
I have no problem respecting the request that we give this a little bit more time. Uh, by chair or vice chair. I think grief board member fit. I just, I'd like to say maybe it says 10 15, but I didn't understand your reasons for not supporting the letter. And when I hear a community acting for us to take quick action, this seems like a really easy first step and even postpone the easiest to first steps by a month.
It's, it's, it's frustrating. We had lots of people come before us to talk about different issues and public meetings. Um, and, Hmm, we often didn't take immediate action. And I also [00:59:00] hear, I think, what chair, kindness, chair, fetch. Um, but, uh, but ginger is saying is, and I understand her, her process perspective and the idea that, you know, you essentially, we had people come before us today, um, to present, uh.
Comment and feedback on something that they'd experienced. And typically the way of addressing concerns is you start at your building level and you have that conversation principal, and then when that's unsuccessful, if it's our high school, then you would go to doctor Donald's. And then after that you go to the superintendent.
And so I completely appreciate the idea of preserving that process and not allowing exceptions, because then everyone would want. For any concern, an exception. However, I am pro, you know, my, my, the way I resolve that in my mind is that this isn't, we're not taking, I don't feel like this is action.
This is [01:00:00] a reaffirmation of our board policies and our expec expectations of how we, um, expect our community to treat each other. Well, and, and I expect that, you know, fair and treatment regardless of where a community member maybe in, in their process of working through the chain of command. Um, yeah, I think it's a statement of principles and I think it helps empower that process to work in a positive way.
So I don't think it stops it or prevents it. I think it actually facilitates it. Well. Again, I think if I had seen on the agenda that we were, that this was an action item. I would have had time to discuss it with dr Ludwig, um, to get more information, um, about her thinking around it and the staff's thinking around it.
And that's simply, I did, was [01:01:00] not prepared that we would be making, uh, that decision today. What that based on the agenda item, I'll just comment and, and own that. Um, um. When we put the agenda together, we didn't believe it was going to go to a vote, that it would just be a consensus. And so that was our mistake.
My mistake in not putting that a vote would be taken that um,  had sent the two letters to everybody, that there'd be opportunity in that space of time to reach out to the chair or the vice chair to myself with discussion about the letters or any adjustment that there'd be discussion. And, um, typically, I don't know if there's a letter with the letter like this that you take a vote, but there's just consensus.
So I will own that, that that has caused some difficulty for the board then in making a decision tonight. And I apologize for that. Um, if that's the case, um, what we could [01:02:00] do is, um, in the time when. Board members need some more time. There could be some suggestions if you'd like to change.
Maybe the opening paragraph that provides some context for why the board is sending this or you know, a few sentences with a lead in that might make it more helpful. Be open to maybe working with, um, any board member on. What adjustments to the letter would help the board feel more ready to send something like this in the context of it going out to the whole district.
So in that time, we have some opportunity to make the letter better. Um, what it is right now, the ask to me was, could you take the letter from three years ago and send it to all of us so we could look at it again with our names on it. And I just made those slight adjustments only because it didn't feel like it was helpful in the context.
But there's room now for you as a board or members to send in suggestions for making the letter [01:03:00] better and more relevant for what you would see or are the times today. So I think always taking a pause isn't always a bad thing, especially if we come out with a better statement and a better product that.
That serves our community. And again, I apologize that not having the action on there, um, created a difficulty, um, for the board tonight. Yeah. Thank you for finding a way that, you know, this is become the end or become, um, you know, something that. It seems like a wedge or something where there doesn't need to be.
My ask is just if, if it's a matter of wording that that be addressed and then we don't wait another month. To come back and talk again. This, there was an ask before the board a couple of weeks ago that we send the letter out. And so perhaps rather than waiting a month and then talking about another letter, there'd be some work that's done on what might a statement be that goes out to our communities so that we do not fall [01:04:00] into a perceived or actual complacency with this, this matter.
So to be clear, we were asked. If we thought this letter should be discussed in open meeting before it is sent to our community and to let the chair know and it would be placed on the agenda in the absence of a request to discuss the letter would be sent this week. And I responded that I thought that I couldn't even inquire about the matter without engaging in.
Um. Discussion that would lead to a board action. And, and that is, again, I think this is, our names are on it. It's a board action in order to deliberate to a decision for a board action. I think [01:05:00] it has to be in public. I don't think we can do it between now and the next meeting. Because I think it's a board action.
Am I, and maybe other people disagree with that?
Please call a special meeting with just this topic. If you feel you've got drafts of the letter that you, that you prefer as a board, you could call a special meeting. Notice it, um, and, and still do something this month with the letter and a special meeting.
I ask is just that we would, that we, that we say something, and this letter was, you know, is beautifully drafted. And so that's why I thought resurrecting it in this situation would make sense with the 60% turnover of the board. Um, so process aside, however that process unfolds, I just ask that, that we, [01:06:00] you know, that we do something that we say something, um, that we don't, um, just stay silent.
All right?
I'm going to call this a topic discussion to close, um, with the idea that we'll continue to work on, on this idea and, um, and, and a process that all members can feel comfortable with. So at that, at this time, I will. Call this board meeting to an end and close it out. Thank you.