February-10-2020-Regular-Board-Meeting-Segment-2
[00:00:00] Oh, okay. PowerPoint here.
So between the last board meeting and this board meeting, we had some great news about our graduation rates once again. Um. Showing growth and top graduation rates in the state of Oregon for a school district our size as a school district with multiple high schools, and not only that, but looking at some of our student learner groups that we've been working especially hard to make some gains around graduation completion and seeing growth there as well.
In between our last meeting and this meeting, we also said farewell to a Deere employee who won't be going far, and she'll find ways to continue to work and support the district and consultancy. But Kathy Monroe, who's 21 years as our various roles, but mostly as our HR director, we were able to celebrate her [00:01:00] last month and, and say goodbye to her.
So just wanted to get her picture up there as an honoring. Um, like all of you, there are a lot of events going on and we could attend multiple every single night. And I know all of you also have families and busy lives. And I want to thank you for, um, attending your own children's events, but also attending the events of other people's children and supporting them.
There were a couple events I was able to get to the dual language parent nights that were at the primary schools so that families who are interested in the program can sign on. Um, it was also able to attend the workshop at Westland high school. Thank you. Principal Newman for the invitation. Uh, with basic rights Oregon and all of our staff, they're receiving some really important training.
And next I was able to get to Clackamas community college, state of the college president's [00:02:00] address. As you know, uh, partnering with our community college in our County is critical and, uh, to be able to attend that and hear the work that they're doing and their vision as well as being integral partners, um, with dual credit.
Two options, um, college and career pathways as well as, um, the adult transition. Think college. Um, work that we've been doing has been critical and to support their mission. And also our partnership has been important. A lot of winter festivals. There's one of, uh, when I was able to stop by at Lowery, of course, Chinese new year and year of the rat.
So a lot of festivals and, and enjoyment at our primary schools that have Chinese as their world language. You can see up at the top right there is our wonderful, um. Nutrition services person at sunset, primary school, ms Patty to haze and lovingly preparing dumplings and oranges [00:03:00] and taking great pride in being able to do those kinds of things for our students.
Um, did Courtney leave already? Courtney slaughter, she, we forgot to mention that she was one of the singers at the, um. Art tech rock band that I was able to attend. Another great night principal Dressler. Thank you. It was a full house, a real packful house, great event. And then you can see some of the Chinese new year there at Bolton in the bottom right hand corner, able to attend basketball games for both high schools, girls and boys.
And also as I'm a director of Thompson, mentioned the night on Broadway, that thespian showcase, and it was phenomenal. Next slide. Well, Amad had their kindness matters week. Um, great attendance also by community members. There was kind of a shout off between Tualatin Valley fire and rescue and Westland police and TBF and our one that one, um, [00:04:00] with students on each side.
Um, so great to see that support from our community around character education. A shout out to our nurses for putting on a tremendous event. Our district immunization clinic. What day was that? That was what, a week and a half ago. Okay. So some good turnout there. You can see their picture on the bottom right hand corner.
And then as mentioned, we had great participation from staff at the Walla conference, um, staff from almost every school and leaders. And I looking out in the audience and thank you again, principal Newman for being there. Um, and some others. So.
As we continue our equity work, we are committed as district leaders to think about our monthly leadership forums and how we continue to unpack that four word phrase, disrupting systems of racism. Um, and this last month we had, um, dr  Gomez and principal, uh, Maya lead us through, um, some [00:05:00] activities around how to understand the critical role of allyship, particularly in supporting our staff of color in our district.
Um. As we think about students and families, but also staff and how they experience inclusivity in the district, but also how they, um, move the work forward and ways that we can be allies to one another. So we had a real powerful learning session and I want to thank them for, for helping us lead through that.
And then speaking of our equity work, we had a joint. Work session here where all of you attended as board members and we had community members here. I'm representing Wilsonville and Westland. Both the city councils represent, represented, law enforcement represented both Wilsonville, um, Alliance for inclusive communities and Westland, and then also students and patrons.
So this was kind of part two of those who were invited to the multi-city equity summit that was hosted. I'm in Lake Oswego, and so [00:06:00] those who attended there instead of it just being a one off experience last October, um, you brought that group back. What did you learn? What did you hear and how could we continue the work, um, in our two cities and on the bottom right, speaking of student advocacy and voice, we had high school students here on a panel, um, sharing with us their experience of living in our community, not just in school, but on the weekends.
And. Growing up in our two neighborhoods and where their families feel supported and where they feel they have questions and needs and where we can do the work better as adults who are in those kinds of roles and opportunities to make a difference. The next slide just shows, um, some of the attendees of that board work session folks who had been at that October summit who then came back and, and did the debrief with us.
You know, I forgot to mention, um, libraries as well are present. Um, could you just go back Curtis, that once I said the next steps on there? [00:07:00] Um, one of our questions to that group was what could we continue to do that's kind of cosponsored by our two cities, um, around supporting inclusive communities. And then there was a generation of some brainstorming ideas and we've captured those and written them up and are looking at a couple of those activities that we could move forward with in the coming months.
Just a quick bond update. This is not going to be extensive, but I'm just a little bit of timeline. We did through your approval last month. Um, hire a construction management firm and, um, two architectural firms who will share different projects on our bond. We're in the midst right now of the. Very detailed process of selling the bonds and that involves writing position statements.
I'm writing descriptions about the district getting a Moody's rating. There's a lot of these details. I'm working with Piper Sandler, um, our financial consultants, and then they get [00:08:00] things ready with our legal counsel. To then put forward the sale of the bonds. We can't work on any projects until we get those bonds sold.
So, um, there was another important meeting today, even taking a look at some of the aspects going into that. And we should hear it either this week or next week about the outcomes of that. And, um. After those are sold, then of course, um, the firm and our staff can begin to get moving on those projects. We are also creating a master schedule for sequencing those projects.
There's a lot on there, and the timing, um, of those projects is critical because some schools have multiple projects. We want to make sure that where the overlay happens is that it. It makes sense. If we're closing a building for the summer to work on a project, we want to get as many things done as possible that summer, so we don't have to then maybe close it again the next summer and so forth.
So the timing of these projects is critical. And once we get that in a place where we [00:09:00] feel. Good about that timeline. We'll share it with you as the board. Um, there's also a website folks can keep up on. If you go on the main district webpage, this dropdown, people can keep tabs on what's going on with the bond.
Um, and those are, that website is updated regularly. And then lastly, very quickly, just to keep you informed every month about the student investment account, which is the grant that's part of the student success act, if you recall. Um, so we did that extensive needs assessment, we've analyzed that data and now we're into going back and working with these small work groups around based on what you see in the needs assessment and the amount of funding that we're going to get as a district, the state.
And we did get that dollar amount per ADM. W it'll get us. Um, our grant will be about 7.6 million is what we calculated. So based on that in the feedback from the community, um, what are the areas of investment that fit the criteria for which this grant is set? [00:10:00] And so we're working now, again in those small groups, those include all soar association groups, a teacher association and classified staff association for, so we're meeting with them as well.
And then once we put that, um, these iterations of drafts through those work groups, and we get more of a, um, a real working finalized draft, we'll put that in front of a community forum, looks like probably early March to mid-March. So the community has an opportunity to see what came out of the needs assessment and what the district is going to be investing in.
Um, and then feedback opportunity there. And then it'll come before the board for approval in April. So we're on that timeline beautifully right now. And I think there's a lot of folks working on this and, uh, it's keeping the process iterative, um, and generative with people involved. Um, and not getting ahead of the process too much, but just kind of patiently working with all the groups involved is, is some of the challenge, but it's also the reward.
So I will end [00:11:00] there. Thank you.
All right. We will now move on to the consent agenda and is there a motion
that we approve the consent agenda? I second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Do you call it for vote please? Ellen hides pesky Thompson Reagan monitor. Yes. Ginger Fitch. I, with the understanding that I wasn't present at the meeting in late January. Chelsea King, I. All right, the consent agenda passes, and now it is the time for communications from our audience and, uh, Levi you [00:12:00] to come up and talk to us first, please.
I'm going to give a quick introduction because Levi's, principal, principal Maya was really hoping to be here tonight to see him speak, but, um, had a chance to check in with him today, but then had a family engagement that she couldn't get out of. So I promised I would introduce our, um, our student writer from Lowery who is recognized with a really powerful writing that, um, he wanted to share with our school board tonight.
Without a doubt. Recess must be half a day because it is fun. It is good exercise, and most of all, you get play with your friends. To begin with, recess must be half of the day because it is fun. For example, you can pick the activity, you can also change activities. Another reason why he says must be half of the day is because it is [00:13:00] good exercise.
For the mine, great for the body and is a fantastic brain break.
One last reason recess must be half of the day is because you get to learn new games and play with your friends and all the other classes. Then to learn how to problem solve too, and remember this, children do not want to set a desk for seven hours.
As you can see, we all need breaks. Even the teachers. Thank you for listening. I hope I persuaded you.
Levi, thank you so much for coming and sharing your [00:14:00] thoughts with us. And, um, as we proceed through the rest of our, um, public comment, I did forget to mentioned that we do ask. That, um, communications be limited to approximately three minutes. And if you don't have an opportunity to share everything you would like in that time, uh, by all means, you know, please send us something in writing.
We're not, it doesn't end the discussion. It just means you might have to reach us, uh, through other means as well as you can reach out to us directly. Um, we also ask that, um. Uh, criticisms of named students and staff not occur in public session. We have other means for addressing, um, those direct type complaints.
That being said, um, Aaron, so Weise Weiss, and if you'd just state your name and the address. Okay. Um, my name is Aaron Weiss. Um, I live Les Lynn on Lincoln way. Um, I have two [00:15:00] daughters that go to elementary school in the district. I'm also the PTSO president. Um, I'm here on the office and the parents, um, been regularly giving me feedback from, um, their concerns for their children.
Um, I've heard a lot of parents have told me their child at school, um, or physically harmed, threatened, bullied, and recently sexually abused. Uh, there, there seems to be a lack of discipline and a little consequence for bad behavior. The parents are voicing their frustrations towards, to me in hopes that I can speak up for them.
Um, we talk about great test scores that our schools get. However, I do know that there are a lot of parents who have their kids in tutoring after school. Um, myself included. Um, the lack of our [00:16:00] district disciplining and self control and the lower grades is hindering student progress in learning. Um, instead of fixing classroom behaviors, district wants to add a sex ed curriculum that encourages sex and discourage and self discipline and self control.
I don't see how this helps our youth. And the three arts curriculum for ages 11 through 12 page 15 it explains that abstaining from sex does not work because sex between two people feels good and brings people closer. The message is do what you feel what feels good and you will have better relationships.
Is that what we want to teach our youth? Here's a list of scenario from the curriculum for ages 14 and up. It says. You and your partner have been together for a while now and you think it's time to have sex and you want to talk to them. This sounds like it's encouraging peer pressure in order to negotiate sex.
[00:17:00] All of the above lessons are promoting sex for our youth under the age of 15 a study from Harvard says those who have intercourse before age 15 have a higher rate of mental illness. According to Harvard medical school, adolescents often haven't achieved the emotional, even neurological maturity. We're making controlled and self-aware sexual choices, engaging in early sex increases levels of stress and depression among youth.
Our youth and school staff are not ready for this sex ed curriculum. It has a high potential of having harmful effects on them. The district needs to stop trying to change the existing sex ed curriculum and focus more on teaching self discipline and self controls for our children and have a better education.
Interesting.
Thank you, Aaron. Um, Tricia Britton,
[00:18:00] and again, if you could state your name and address. Good evening. My name is Trisha Britton. I live on six, five, four two Palomino way in Westland. Um, thank you so much for your time. I'm a Westland mom of two, one of which is a kindergartener here in our district, and I am also a foster parent and critical care nurse.
My perspective comes in that of a dedicated parent first, but also through the lens of a nurse. My job as an ICU nurse is not to only provide exceptional medical care, but to advocate for patients and families. Who don't have a voice and do not understand the complicated aspects of their medical care and interventions.
With that in mind, please know I'm standing here truly to be a voice for the children and an advocate for parents in our district. First, I would like to review the December 3rd. 2018 board meeting where a board member focused her comments based on the November 29th health and wellness update. She identified that our district made commitments regarding the comprehensive sexual education curriculum.
[00:19:00] I would like to point out three of the district's committed commitment stated that day one, and I quote, the Oregon department of education has determined that the comprehensive curriculum only covers 80% of the topics. So we need to seek out supplemental and it's important to our district that we do so from groups that are not advocacy groups too.
And I quote the district also determined that they were not going to use one of the supplemental curriculum identified as flash because our effort to make sure that it is age appropriate and we are providing a safe classroom for discussions around those topics and we want to continue to provide information rather than discuss it from a value based or belief based system.
In three, and I quote, another commitment was that there were no, there would be no role playing or demonstrations regarding those lessons. Again, because it's not age appropriate and not providing the safe classroom experience we're looking for in our district and quote, as a member of the sexually education task force, I have dedicated countless hours to review this.
New proposed [00:20:00] curriculum, the Oregon laws, and also the 2016 health and wellness standards and indicators and that, and this is what I have found with regards to that curriculum. Number one, the three hours supplemental curriculum being proposed for grades six through 12 is from advocates for youth, which is an advocacy group to the three R's curriculum.
And theK  five optional lessons from the great body shop are very similar to that of flash curriculum, which the district decided was not safe. And not age appropriate as well as the extra topics in the curriculum are very much value based and are about particular belief systems. And three, the three hours curriculum and the optional lessons from the great body shop have both role playing and demonstrations regarding the lessons.
So my question to you. How can we even be considering using the three RS and the optional lessons from the great body shop curricula when they clearly break the commitments district made December 3rd, 2018 second as a nurse, I understand the commitment of first do no harm, and as a foster parent, I [00:21:00] have seen firsthand trauma induced to children through exposures to situations that were not age appropriate and they were not safe.
As a district, we do have local control over what we decide is best for our community and students. I am requesting from our district to provide the evidence, um, that these extra topics and curriculum are 100% safe and age appropriate for our children. Thank you so much for your time.
You, Tricia, uh, Cheryl Lenda Zuri I'm sorry if I mispronounced that you'd wanna state your name and address. Thanks. Cheryl Lindoff Surrey Koho lane. Westland. Um, I have three daughters here in the district from kindergarten through high school. Um, one of our daughters has special needs. She has downs syndrome and has had a very good experience with inclusion here in this district.
[00:22:00] Um, the, um, this is the, I'm sorry. The district has been very supportive of her learning and, um, adjustments that have needed to be made to her education to ensure that she's included and that the academic material is adjusted in a way that she can access it. So that, thank you for that. Um, so I understand inclusion is very important.
Um, I've seen the benefits of it and my family. Um, but I wanted to bring up, the reason why I'm speaking today is to share, um, my concern re concern and disapproval of both of two out of the three comprehensive sex education, uh, curriculums that the district is considering. The first one is the great body shop curriculum, and the second is the three R's [00:23:00] curriculum.
The West one, listen to those school district. The policy title, equal educational opportunity policy States that every student of the district will be given equal educational opportunities regardless of religion being one of those further, no student will be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity conducted by the district.
Also, the school policy titled teaching about religion. States. The first amendment to the United States constitution provides freedom of religion. Religious education is the responsibility of the home and church and within the district. Schools shall remain the free choice of the individual. Therefore, within the district school walls, religious education must remain the free choice of the individual and shall be allowed the space in class at school to not be influenced by taught.
Or pressured into believing another [00:24:00] value system other than their own. If we adopt either the three R's curriculum or the great body shop curriculum for our sexuality education, then we are putting our principals, teachers, and counselors in a position of violating these policies. I have two examples of, um.
Two core religious values that the three R's curriculum and the great body shop violate. The first one is to honor your father and your mother. This is one biblical value. One lesson from the three R's curriculum on page 67 for ages 14 and up States look at methods that are not visible, such as the IUD, shock ring and condoms, so that, so there would not be anything for parents to find.
This example of a lesson that the teachers are told to say, um, promote sexual activity and youth. And it is [00:25:00] hiding risky behaviors from parents versus being honest with parents and seeking communication, wisdom, and support with the most important people in their lives who have their best interests in mind.
Page 91 of the three R's curriculum. States in California, anyone of any age may also consent to their own pregnancy care, including pregnancy testing, prenatal care, and abortion. In addition, students may also leave school during school hours to attend a sexual health care appointment. For any of these reasons about, and this is putting sexual activity above education for one and a teacher's children to handle a very sensitive issue alone without parent support or guidance.
This is in the curriculum  um, the second core value is that you shall not covet to covet as to one, what belongs to someone else. To encourage a [00:26:00] child, to seek out resources, to help them embrace a sexual identity other than what they are born with is to encourage coveting. If you encourage coveting is to put children who have a religious faith into conflict with themselves.
Their families and their school setting. I'm sure if you're able, just to wrap it up and then I provided, thank you so much. Sorry. No, no problem. To include lessons in our curriculum that encourages wanting something that they don't have is to undermine their religious faith, their parents, and the very essence of their personal identity and ultimately violates a child's right to freedom of religion.
In closing when a teacher teaches a lesson, encouraging exploration of sexual identity and or sexual orientation, teaching about contraception, contraception, and abortion as a students, right? And teaching a student has a right to sexual pleasure outside of marriage is preventing a child from experiencing their constitutional right to religious freedom.
All right. [00:27:00] Thank you. If you have more, please put some writing. Thank you very much.
Nathaniel McLaughlin.
no problem. That works. Hi, Karen Chase,
and if you'd state your name and address. I am Karen Chase. I use gender neutral pronouns. They, them and theirs. Hello again, everybody. It's great to see you all. Um, I work at basic rights Oregon, which is in Portland. Um, what's our address? Six 20 Southwest Avenue in Portland. Um, notably not from within your district still.
Um, first I wanted to say thank you for the level of engagement that. The Westland Wilsonville school district has had [00:28:00] with us over the last couple of months since the last time I was here. I'm talking about the challenges that some LGBTQ students have been facing, particularly at Westland high school.
Um, there's been robust engagement. It's been really wonderful thing to see. Thank you, dr Lavoie for coming to that training. I'm glad that you found it useful and, um, informative. And of course, the principal. And then when Greg has, he insists that I call him, um,  for. Working really closely with us. A really wonderful part of that training was that we got to directly involve, um, a few of the students who had been, who I think you actually heard from, um, at that board, same board meeting.
They were all directly involved in the training. And, uh, the staff and faculty at Westland high school were incredibly receptive to, um, having them there and really excited to make sure that they were involved. Um, also just want to talk a little bit about comprehensive sex ed since that seems to be the topic of the evening.
Um. We're pretty deeply insure in vested in ensuring lived in legal equality for LGBTQ or guardians. [00:29:00] Um, and for the youngest folks in our community, that often means making sure that they can see a future for themselves. Uh, which is often, unfortunately not the case when sex ed curriculum does not include LGBTQ student identity is when it does not talk about gender.
It does not talk about sexual orientation. These students, these kids receive this message that if something about them as different. There is no space for them. They're not getting education around this and all of their peers are not getting education around what it might mean to be a transgender student.
What am I mean to have a sexual orientation other than being heterosexual? Um. We're highly supportive of the guidelines set out by the Oregon department of education around comprehensive sex ed for students. Um, and I've reviewed a couple of the curriculum that I know are under, uh, under advisement. I, unlike folks before me don't have specific quotes to pull for you, but, um, it is robust and it is a curriculum that I would give anything to, I've received when I was a child in school.
Um, because it's curriculum that teaches kids that it's okay to be different and it's okay to have an experience that falls outside of the [00:30:00] mainstream. Um, I am really excited to see what the world looks like in 20 years when kids who have received this kind of education are growing up and are understanding how to treat their peers, their LGBTQ peers, uh, respectfully and with consideration and understanding what their lives might look like.
So, um, thank you so much for your time and again, for your engagement with Raisa grades and, um, around all of the, um. Concerns that your students had been facing here in this district. I really appreciate it and I'm excited to see further engagement. We've had outreach also from primary and middle school folks, so we're excited to be involved.
Thank you.
Thank you, Karen and Madison Walters
could state your name and address. Hi, my name is Madison Walters and resident of Westland, a 2025 Alpine drive. Um. I am a Westlynn high school alumni class of 2015. I'm also a member of the LGBTQ community. Uh, I wanted to attend tonight to [00:31:00] thank the Western Wilsonville school board and school district for their commitment to making our schools safe, accessible, and accepting for all students.
I feel so fortunate to live in a district with such stellar schools that strive to create a welcoming environment for its students. And I hope that we as a community can continue to partner with organizations like basic rights, Oregon to foster a more equitable community. Um, in response to other testimony tonight, I also wanted to share my support for constantly comprehensive sex education.
Um, I pulled a couple of quick, uh, statistics here, but the national survey of family growth to determine the impact of sexuality, education on sexual risk taking for young people ages 15 to 19 reveal that teens who received comprehensive sexuality education were 50% less likely to report a pregnancy than those who received apps.
Then it's only education, uh, as well as according to the sexuality information and education council of the United States, comprehensive sex ed includes age appropriate, medically accurate [00:32:00] information on a broad set of topics related to sexuality, including human development, relationships, decision-making, abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention.
It has been proven that students who choose to engage in consensual sex will do so anyway, despite abstinence based education. And in addition to students who have been educated comprehensively, who choose to engage in consensual sex, do so with proper understanding of consent and safe sex practices.
And then speaking from personal experience as someone who endured abstinence based programs at less than high school eight years ago, uh, with deface textbooks published in the 90s with little to no up to date information about sex, health and LGBTQ plus issues, I personally would have greatly appreciated a safe space in my school where I could have asked questions about gender, sexuality, and what it meant to feel like I didn't fit within the binary that was presented to me at that time.
So in closing, I fully support comprehensive sex ed as a much needed update to an [00:33:00] outdated and exclusionary program. Thank you for your time.
Thank you Madison. And is there anybody else that I may have missed? Yes, please. Come on up. Susie and state your name and address. Susie Walters and I'm a student at Western high school. Uh, I am also the GSA president. So the gender and sexuality Alliance president, um, I don't, I didn't prepare any speeches and I didn't really realize that comprehensive sex ed would be on the table for discussion tonight.
So I don't really have any facts or quotes to pull from, but I can tell you from personal experience as someone who is currently enrolled in the Westland Wilsonville school district in high school, um, I have been in, well this one, all this too, and child development. And I'm. Hmm. So I've gone through the health education, uh, that it currently is right now.
Um, and I can tell you, as [00:34:00] you know, a woman who has friends that are other women that I can name at least four, I won't name them, but I can think of at least 20 of my friends who have been sexually harassed, some on school property, some off school property. Um.
I had a conversation with someone who was raped, who was my age and was a peer of mine, and they said that they wish that they were able to have communication with that person because it was a coercion kind of deal where they said, it was fine. It's fine. Let's just do it. So in response to it, so I said earlier where, uh, having presenting.
That communication is available, and that at real consent includes conversation is not coercion. It does the opposite because if you do not present the idea that having a conversation before sex is normal and should be [00:35:00] applied, it actually, it ends in sexual harassment and ends in sexual abuse. Um. I meet with LGBTQ students every week.
Most of my friends are LGBTQ. I am LGBTQ. Uh, I see younger LGBTQ peers, and I'm sure, you know, they don't feel represented at our school. They don't feel safe at our school. They don't feel, uh, educated at our school about ourselves, about our history, about what we can do in the future to continue to exist as ourselves.
I support comprehensive sex ed as a student at Western high school, and I believe that that should matter. You know, if I'm going through this, I believe that if the students wish to have comprehensive sex ed so that we no longer have sexually harassed people so that my friends no longer feel afraid to go to school with the people who harassed them because they were never taught how to have [00:36:00] safe sex, which includes consent.
Safe sex does not just include contraception, includes consent and not talking about consent at all, which is where we have been for awhile. It takes that away from a lot of people, especially women. That's okay. That's all I wanted to say. It was kind of messy, but thank you so much.
Thank you Susie. All right. I think that covers everyone unless I see a hand. All right. Yes, but you take one more. Yes, please.
Good evening. My name is Liz and Verba Hill and I address  and I do live in Portland. So not in your school district. But I felt it's important for me to just speak briefly about [00:37:00] being a parent of a child who went through high school in Oregon that didn't have a comprehensive sexual education plan. Um, my daughter's trans female and she was not aware that she was trans female until after she left the state and moved away because she did not have some ratio as a high school student or even a great schools.
So I have spent the last two years trying to help my daughter navigate that from a very long distance and the level of depression and suicidality that she's experienced because she did not have a voice or have a way of expressing who she was, um, has been just terrifying to me as a parent. So I stand in support of the comprehensive sex education plan.
To help students who are trying to understand their identity. I think it's very important and I wish it would have been in place for my child. Thank you.
[00:38:00] All right. Thank you. We will, uh, conclude the comments and communications from the audience portion of our meeting and we will move forward into, um, our board business and we will begin with the comprehensive suicide prevention plan update, Dr. Spencer Ames. Thank you so much. And I'd like to invite up to the podium some of my amazing colleagues I already introduced to you earlier tonight.
I'm school counselor, Molly Hymond. Um, also social workers, Sarah Hyatt and Brittany Buell Holtz and you guys can be right over there. And our school psychologist, Mike Miller. So, um, these wonderful people agreed to come and help us present some of the work that we've been. [00:39:00] Uh, doing, um, for many years here in Westland, Wilsonville, and throughout our community.
And just to frame with a little context, you know, why are we talking to you tonight about suicide prevention? Um. First of all, it is a real issue, um, amongst, uh, in our country and our community. Um, for youth aged 14 to 24, suicide is the second leading cause of death. And so that's a sobering, um, for folks.
I was sharing about this the other night at the Westland rotary, and there were many people that were surprised by that. So it is something that we take seriously. We understand. Um, it's not the school's responsibility as a whole. It is our whole community's responsibility. And we, as the schools are part of the community, um, and we have opportunity to try to build the skills and the resources to support.
Young people. So, um, [00:40:00] we have been on this journey for almost quite some time in many ways, and we want to share with you some updates, um, about that journey we've been on. Um, so in, uh. I can only go back to 2012, which was when I joined the district. I know there had been great work in place prior to that as well, but I'm in 2012 we had some events that really brought this forward for us where we had some students die by suicide and, uh, we wanted to come together and say, what can we do?
What actions can we take to help support all children, um, to be healthier students and healthier community?
Um, so in the winter of 2013 and Mike was with me in that original group and many of our other colleagues that are still in the district, uh, where we came together, we thought about suicide prevention in some very broad [00:41:00] ways. Uh, we thought about what are we doing to promote for all students, uh, health.
I'm on the front end of things. We also created, um, some much needed coherence around when we should do risk assessments and how we should support students after they'd had a significant, um, suicidal ideation or event. And how we get better resources out in front of families and connect with outside mental health services.
So we engaged in that work in 2013 with some small updates along the way, and then came back together last year, uh, to really look at it deeply. And you'll see some of those updates are going to be presented by my colleagues here today. And we also know that we're going to have some more updates soon because there was a law passed in this last legislative session.
Senate bill 52 that now requires districts to have a comprehensive suicide prevention plan. We're very proud that we were already doing that work. [00:42:00] Um, and uh, so we actually all sat and looked at the law together and really thought about what are those requirements and that will go into effect July 1st, 2020.
Um, however, we couldn't make all the adjustments yet cause. The rules have not yet all been written and approved. So we're in that space after the laws been passed. But, uh, the department of education is working on the rules, so we know we'll be coming together again. Um, but we wanted to get back to you about where we are in that process and really catch.
Um, those members that weren't part of our presentations before, to really understand how we think about it and the processes that we have in place throughout the community. So I'm gonna invite Mike up to, um, start with the overview and take it from there. Right. Great. Hi. Thanks for having us. Appreciate it.
One of the things we realized was with mental health, it's easy to kind of look at the end when people are struggling with mental health issues, but it's very important to promote positive mental health. And a lot of wellness [00:43:00] initiatives have already been in place in the district. And it's important to acknowledge that.
So some of those areas are all students being a part of an inclusive and equitable classroom, giving a sense of belonging, engagement, opportunities for exercise, physical education, physical spaces in the classrooms. All of those things that we talk about, those play a huge role in helping establish safe, healthy communities for our students and promoting mental health.
Uh, as Jennifer said, one of the things we really wanted to talk about was what can we do before the problems occur? And so at the high school level, we became aware of a program called sources of strength. And I'm here today to talk to you about that a little bit. I'm the school psychologist at Westman high school.
And this year we've been able to start that program doing a pilot study. Sources of strength is an evidence based prevention program that uses a strength based wellness approach. To improving the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. It seeks to give students [00:44:00] tools to develop their strength, resilience, and pro-social help seeking behaviors.
And it works by using students. So they're really the method of what this whole program is to positively change their community by actively spreading messages in the community of hope, health and strength. So those are a lot of big words. So what does that look like at Westland high school this year? So far, probably the most important thing we did was at the beginning where we, first of all gauged if there was support from school staff for a program guest.
Because the program requires you had a group of adult advisors from the school staff, parent educators, and also the surrounding community. And we found we did have support for doing a program like this. The next part of the program is having a group of pure leaders and eventually the idea is you have five to up to 10% of your student body trained as [00:45:00] pure leaders because by the training they get, they're then able to interact with all the students continuously throughout their school day, inside school and outside of school to promote these positive messages.
And it's very important that you have a very diverse group of peer leaders from all different groups. So we had nominations from, we let the school staff know what the criteria were. And we're not just looking for students who are already in leadership opportunities. We're looking for students from every part of the school because they're all connected with each other in different ways.
And they can spread these messages throughout the school. So in other person who's helping coordinate this at the school is Michelle Olsen, the head counselor at Westland high school. So Michelle and I, uh, met with and interviewed over a hundred students and explained the program to them. And then we're able to find students who we thought really represented a diverse group and would help spread this message throughout the entire school community.
Uh, so that was a really important part of that. The next thing that happened was we were able to have a [00:46:00] certified trainer from sources of strength come to Westland high school and do trainings for us during the school day. So on November 19th we had over 15 school staff and community members trained by a certified trainer.
And then on November 20th, we had over 70 students trained along with the school staff and community members all in a journey together to learn about the sources of strength program. So that's how the program began. As a result of that, uh, it was decided that the first campaign we would do would be called, we belong to promote a feeling that it was some high school.
Everyone belongs. The way the program is working now is that adult advisors and peer leaders meet together every week. We've been doing it during lunchtime and then also extending out into some actual class time, so we have enough time to do some work that helps set the agenda. There are smaller student groups that work on different things and then they will meet together outside of our [00:47:00] every other week meetings to promote some of this work.
When we have the meetings, the focus is on fun, so there's always a fun activity and we actually have some people and that's their job to promote an activity we do together, maybe a couple. Then we do some sharing, either as a large group or a small group to promote community, and then we do some work in our different groups to promote these various campaigns.
The work that we do is to engage the students and positive messaging campaigns throughout the school. And these campaigns are based on the sources of strength, a wheel, and you can learn more information if you go to the sources of strength of website and you look at the sources of strength for real.
Some of the themes in the wheel, there's eight. Some of them that I'd like to highlight are mental health, healthy activities, family support, positive friends, and adult mentors. So as a group we decide what campaign we're going to do next. And then with some of our leadership, it's really up to the students [00:48:00] to then decide how we're going to do these campaigns and spread these messages.
So we have some students who are very comfortable with public speaking. So these students decided kind of at the last minute, they want to go before every advisory and give a talk about sources of strength. And so they did. So every advisory group had one or two students come in and talk about the program.
Uh, and another group decided they want, and this was all from the students. So they had the campaign, but they decided not to do it. Another group decided they wanted to get the roster of every single student in the school and write a personal note to every student. So they would write a student's name and write, uh, an inspirational saying.
And then in that student's English class, all these notes were distributed and students were talking to each other about these notes. And these notes were around the theme of weedy lawn. Uh, other students are doing work on social media and spreading messages. That one, so that was our first campaign. We spent probably between six to eight weeks during the first campaign.
[00:49:00] The next campaign we're doing is adult mentors. And the goal for that campaign is that every single student in the school will identify with and connect with an adult at Westland high school and have a connection with someone they view as a positive mentor. And we're not sure how that's going to happen yet, but that's going to be the campaign and with adult support, it's going to be for the students to figure out how that's going to happen.
I really hope that in the future, you know, we're just kind of starting this program, but I would really hope that maybe in the spring or the fall, we're invited back and would look to have the students come up and actually talk to you about their experiences with this program. All right. Thank you.
Mike . What am I doing here? Mike has done such a beautiful job from a, taking it from this moment of, as we were looking at what are some evidence based programs that are endorsed by, you know, research, uh, folks in mental health that can really be in that upstream part of mental health. And this [00:50:00] was one that really stood out to us.
One of the other things that's on the wheel of strength is. Spirituality, and really recognizing that for many students that's a very important part of who they are. Um, and so just really have appreciated that opportunity from like, what if we could do this? Um, also, uh, I, we have to give a big shout out to principal Newman who has really supported it all along the way.
Cause it has, you can see it takes a lot to. Take this vague idea to a really, um, tight program that is really impacting everyone in the school. And, um, just finally, it's also been a great opportunity for us to, uh. Work on our community partnerships cause we didn't have money budgeted for it. And, uh, so we thought, how are we gonna do this?
And, um, got in touch with some good friends of ours that have been to the school board, sometimes, uh, Pam Pierce and, um, some folks from the Westland rotary and the Westland rotary has now adopted sources of strength as their, one of their fundraisers for their campaign on supporting [00:51:00] youth near and far.
And this is their near part. So. Had to throw that in, so we'd love to move to the next part of the comprehensive plan. And who is that? I believe it's ms Molly on education.
Thank you for having me here tonight. I'm going to talk specifically about the second step. Curriculum in the primary grades, um, because for protective, um, elements to make sure that children know what they need, it has to start very, very early. And it happens every week in the children's classroom. And it's the same lessons in all of our schools, um, with kindergartners and first graders, it's delivered with.
Puppets. Um, in second, third, and fourth and fifth grade, it's very animated songs and engaging videos. And it is focused on social, emotional [00:52:00] learning, which specifically means knowing, naming your emotions. Knowing that all emotions are okay to have and then how to regulate those emotions. Whether that means your own way of learning, how to breathe to calm yourself down, how to talk to people.
Another huge element of this curriculum is the concept of assertiveness, and that starts in kindergarten and it loops back. So the same things are taught from kindergarten through fifth grade and that at a different level each. Time and assertiveness is one that's introduced every single time. How do you be assertive?
How do you say, no, that's not okay, or I need this and this is, and that is the beginning of, if you are able to say how you feel, you can stand up for yourself, which is huge, and you have some strategies that that's going to. Help you in times [00:53:00] of crisis that you know that there's other alternatives besides.
Feeling hopeless, which is the beginning of suicide. Um, so how these are, um, how these are implemented in this, in the classrooms is the teacher is responsible for the social, emotional learning of their children, um, that it's not something that's just done by another person who comes in, an expert that comes in, but that all of their learning is.
It that they're learning mentors that their teachers, like they know about math and reading. They also know about, so Phil emotional learning and that they are the primary teachers of that. And as a, as counselors, we facilitate that and make sure that the teachers feel comfortable with that, keep them on track because they've got so many things to do.
So we do a newsletter every week to make sure that they know what they're supposed to be teaching and when they're supposed to be teaching it and coming in and helping them if they. If they feel that they need support with that. And then the parent piece is huge. Something [00:54:00] goes home every week with the lesson so that they can teach it.
And the other part of the second step curriculum is that it's a suite of three different curriculums. So there's a social emotional learning that is done by the teachers, that teaches the children the skills they need, the problem solving, all the skills that they need to keep them in healthy, connected.
Um. Feelings, solid inside themselves and healthy collect connected relationships. The other part is a bully prevention unit. That is usually taught by the counselor or the principal or together or with the ICS, because we know that bullying. Has such a huge component related to suicide. So that is another big, huge part where people know where children really can identify what a bullying situation is and what it is not.
And the third part of the second step curriculum suite is the child protection unit, which is how to [00:55:00] identify sexual abuse, how to report it, and how to refuse it and how to report it. So those three elements. And that's also done by the counselor. Those three elements are the beginning of educating our youngest learners to be able to have the social, emotional strength they need when as the challenges get harder as they go older, that they then, when they get specific education around suicide, that they already have a very strong foundation.
Thank you. Molly.