January-13-2020-Regular-Board-Meeting-Segment-4
[00:00:00] And we, um, are now onto our high school renewal update and dr. downs and Dr. Gomez, please.
Or maybe it's just Dr. Downs. Okay. Okay. Excellent.
I just want to recognize that. Also, I know we are getting late in the evening, but two of the teachers who lingered, um, Jackie, uh, him and Connor green are part of some of the work that we're going to share. I think they were wondering if they stayed on, they might get to hear some of the report, but. Have chosen to get home and sleep, but I wanted to recognize that they were here.
Um, and you'll hear about them and their work in the ninth grade success [00:01:00] team. So while you're eating your bunk cakes and your dinner, I'll just provide the entertainment here. Um, so just as context again, um, the findings from that year long superintendent study and the work we did with the community, um.
Led us to really looking at some categories of work with our high school renewal, and we're here to give you an update. It's not a comprehensive list of all that we're doing, but just a couple areas that we want to keep you informed, especially as you are out and about in the community. There's a lot of talk about high school with our school bond and continue to give you the findings and the talking points.
Excuse me. So out of the findings. From that report and all of that work. Um, we really categorized some of the renewal that we could do in these three areas of program, school day in internships. You've heard about internships, Laura nappy, who was hired, we've reported to our rotary [00:02:00] group. You've started to see that report that came around.
So the internships this year, that's gonna continue. Um, in terms of the work with school day, we've been going a little slower and really understanding, um. How we can think about what happens during the day before we look at any kind of unpacking. But there's some wonder about flexibility, and I'll reference that later when we get to one of the update points.
But really a lot of our work has been around program. And if you look at the next slide, um, coincide simultaneously. While we were doing this renewal. Um, legislation passed measure 98, which is the high school success act, the one that, uh, sawn lay. Dr. Hughes referenced. We got some of the funds late, which we had to then shift accounts, but that's a grant that comes every year.
And it's a stipulated grant. It's noncompetitive. Everybody gets it based on ADM in high school. How many [00:03:00] students are in your high school, but there are stipulations to that grant. It needs to be spent on improving graduation rates, expanding CTE programs, reducing chronic absenteeism. So the work that's done has to fit those criteria, and we fill out an application every year and get that funding.
The student success act that just passed. The $2 billion legislation gave us money for the grant that we're going out for before April, but also gave money to add funding to measure 98. Cause if you recall, the legislation wanted a certain dollar amount per high school student, but the state didn't have enough to fully fund it.
So we've been partially funded for the last two years. Um, and now with the student success act and that 2 billion, some of that reserve. That money in one of the buckets is going towards fully funding, so we'll get an increase next year, but I bring this up because this [00:04:00] renewal couldn't have come at a better time for us when we did that study and we've done those recommendations, all of a sudden along came this funding to say, great, you're doing CTE.
Guess what? This money has to be spent on CTE programs and working with students to make sure they're on track for graduation and improving your graduation rate. Um, so the areas that we're going to share this evening for updates, I think on the next slide. Just for tonight. Um, we're going to talk about where we are with those college and career pathways, um, and the information there we'll, we'll share with you about where that hits into the category program and also it serves with our internships.
Dr. Gomez will share about our model of ninth grade success teams that we're piloting this year. So it gets some information on that. And then I'll wrap up with sharing about blended and online learning, which supports program, and it has the potential to also support internships, but it also has the [00:05:00] potential to impact that school day idea.
So you can kind of see how these three are beginning to work. With those, those three categories. Um, Dr. Downs will give you an update to get us started on the college and career pathways. Well, this is actually bill. Thank you, dr Ludwig. This is actually building, um, um, our conversation we had about internships.
And so what's exciting for us is to talk a little bit about, you know, what our career pathways and how if I were a board member, like how would I be thinking about that? What would I want to know for. Our high school teams. It's really an exciting time and we've shared that. But this whole high school renewal is energizing.
And one of the things that we talk about is when you think about when, when those high schoolers come across and they shake your hands as board member across that stage, um, we'd love to think about what. What has your path been like and what do we know that they're doing besides earning that diploma?
And one of the things that we've experienced is that when they have a greater sense of agency and they're the driver of their own learning, [00:06:00] that's really exciting for them and us. If they can actually articulate a plan beyond just graduating, earning, earning a diploma, we find that to be very helpful and very important.
So one of the things when we talk about what does that mean for high school course catalog? What offerings are there? What are, what offerings aren't there? I think we have been really strategic and it actually started with dr Ludwig's leadership around bringing our high school teams together to talk about what do we currently offer and what do we not offer.
And out of that has, has, um, uh, developed this rich strategic work around. Career pathways and CTE programs of study career and technical education programs of study. Now, how I think of career pathways are just kind of a sequence of courses designed to provide exposure and opportunity to career areas of interest.
And I think specifically. There could be a course that, you know, as a high school student who said, I wish they wouldn't have that in my high school. That's what we're talking [00:07:00] about. It may or may not directly connect to an actual career and technical education program of study yet, but it could down the road.
And so as we think about this, some of these up here, we have. Career pathways, they're in place. They're set up great. Some of these are what we're building. And so that's the exciting part for the next couple of years is that we're actually working together on this. So one example may be, as you think about, like at Wilson high school, you'll see at the end there is an early childhood possible career pathway that actually could lead.
You know, beyond to a career CTE program to steady, well, we take a look at the, the, there's some interest, number one at Wilsonville high school with the leadership. There's also some, uh, proximity to, uh, Beckman Creek to have some shared experiences there. And also, so what career, what courses could we offer now to help get that started?
As we think about what early childhood could look like, um, what we've done at all three high schools is we've taken a look at what are they currently offering. And how do we build and expand on that [00:08:00] as well? Like you see an automotive expansion at an art tech. Well, that's actually known as world of speed for us, but what, uh, what can we do with CCC as they have broadened what they're offering to increase that?
So we're excited, um, to look into those options. So for us, as we think about CTE, it really is important that we are strategic around if we have openings. There could be, um, a facility challenge or a licensure challenge, or we may want to hire a person that has a career interest or career pathway, or they, they, they are already certified to be a CTE instructor, um, that we want to bring into our system.
And so our high school principals and teams are working extremely hard on that. Dr  and Dr. Gomez, and I. Have the a unique and wonderful opportunity to work directly with them as we think through these areas. So we kind of designated these as some areas of some of the career pathways. And if we can jump to the next slide, Joe, this actually leads to a [00:09:00] building of a course catalog and an updating of a course catalog.
And dr Leadwood did want to add something or you say, before we leave that one slide, Joe, you remember a lot of the feedback from our high school students was around financial literacy. I wish I could take some classes on finance so we can offer that at all three high schools. It doesn't have to be a pathway.
It could be in the form of a seminar or a weekend class or a full course, but we are going to have one of our high schools, the third option, high school actually develop more courses around business marketing because we do have students who may have an interest in that as a career pathway. So just to distinguish that.
We could teach some classes at all three, but that doesn't mean they have a full pathway at all. Three. What creates a pathways when you have, as Dr. Downs mentioned, a sequence or a cluster of courses that give some students an idea of a career in that area. We wish we could do that. All three high [00:10:00] schools, we just don't have the capacity.
Um, most high schools don't. Um, but it's a way of, um. At least giving a few, um, a few of those pathways at each high school, but really popular classes, we can still offer it all three, all three. We'll still have robotics, all three. You could have a financial literacy class. It doesn't have to be exclusive to that pathway.
And as we think about career and technical education, I also like you to think about the benefit of why would we want our students to be involved in a CTE program? Because I know there's a great interest, but, um, the connections for us is that these academic and technical courses actually span and connect between secondary and postsecondary.
And so some of it leads into, um, a degree or certificate. And this connection point with postsecondary, again, gives kids a plan. And we know that there's, um, . Great deal of research that shows that students that are participating in CTE programs of study actually have great success with not just graduation.
Yes, that's, that helps [00:11:00] with graduation. But this hands on experience, it really is, it builds something strong for them. Um, so when we think about how do we refresh on the next slide, how do we look at what offerings that we, we. Currently have, we want to keep in mind four key components for us right now in our, our high school principals have been so committed and dedicated as the first bullet.
We've talked about that expanding current CTE programs, um, and as well as the areas of interest, not just for, um, the high school, but also maybe for teachers. You know, teachers are very passionate, um, around this. We want to look at designing courses and teaching assignments to successfully build, um. A winning streak for our ninth graders and Dr.
Gomez is going to speak briefly about that next, but it's really important. What is our ninth grade experience look like? You know, we have a current experience of when you go into ninth grade, you take kind of these courses and you have these selections. Is, is that the best for our ninth graders? That what we would like?
And so we're really looking at examining that. We also have an [00:12:00] increase, um, access point for our advanced placement courses. And specifically with me, it's really about tapping someone on the shoulder and it's about saying, okay. I'm excited for you to take an advanced placement course next year and they're looking at you like, what?
I have not taken one. I'm a junior. Great. And maybe it's some of course that we don't offer yet and we need to offer it and we need to think about that. So for us, increasing access is for all students. And specifically for students who have never had that opportunity or never even thought they had an opportunity to take an advanced placement course.
Um. And that's for all learner groups, which is really important. And then lastly, just just another key component. Um, currently we have, our seventh graders are in a dual language program as we know. And for the last couple of years, again led by dr  and many others. There has been, you know, talk about, you know, we cannot wait.
To build a course until those seventh graders walk in the door. And so for the last couple of years, it's been really important to [00:13:00] build courses that are dual language courses and Spanish language courses as well as core and electives. And those are in progress. Those are exciting. We're actually looking at models, we're meeting others who have been through this, who are ahead of us in dual language programs and learning from them and asking what is going well?
What did you wish you would do if you were in our shoes? And so I think that that's. Ben, very exciting for our high school renewal team. Dr. Gomez. . So the, the ninth grade teams have been doing a lot of work. You saw two of our teachers, as dr Ludwick mentioned, very dedicated teachers. Um, they were carefully selected because, uh, they would be exciting, excited to do this work.
So we have our ninth grade teams are these very structured systems of support for our students, uh, to be successful in their transition into, into high school. Um, Joe, you can go to the next slide please. So we have, um, and we focus on building those positive relationships. [00:14:00] We focus on high leverage strategies and, and teaching our kids how to self advocate so that they can go up to their teacher sophomore year, junior year, senior year, and ask for help or say, you know, express their needs, express their desires in classes.
But, uh, this year we've, we've noticed the difference in the students', uh, connectedness to school and we know that if they feel connected to school, they're going to be successful academically. So we've surveyed our kids at the beginning of the year and we recently surveyed them again just to ask them, how are they feeling, being part of the team, what differences would making for them.
Um, and, and our teachers are collecting that anecdotal data. So we are looking forward to analyzing our qualitative data at the end of the semester when we get their grades. Um. We've also given our teachers that extra period to check in with kids, but also to, to work together to collaborate and talk about our kids.
We have visited, um, a couple of models and we're visiting on other next month of schools who have been, um, [00:15:00] working on their implementation for the past, well, two years. And then the school we're going to visit next month is on their third year of implementation so that we can learn from them, learning from their challenges so that we are ready to address those challenges when they come up with us.
Um, we have, um, so our teams are composed of. Myself, building a building administrator at West Linn and one at Wilsonville. We have our college career readiness doses. Jackie, who was here earlier is one of them. Um, we have a counselor in each team and we have the course subjects, science, language arts, um, math and ed Wilson where we have a social studies class and we have our ELL teacher specialist on that team and our special specialist in that team who also share strategies and how to work with our kids.
Um, we can go to the next slide. So these are the components of the student success framework. This is from the university of Chicago, which is the same framework that other ninth grade teams in the state are using. Um, it [00:16:00] focuses on the quality instruction and student supports. So. Being in a team, uh, in a, in an interdisciplinary team, the teachers are able to move from, from content to actually discussing instruction and student learning.
So that's been very helpful to them. And they've expressed that as well. We've provided professional development around culturally responsive teaching. Um, um, circles. Uh, restorative practices and all of those things we are putting in place in the ninth grade teams. But also with our middle schools, our, our college career readiness, Tulsa and middle school have attended the same, uh, professional development opportunities.
So the Tulsa's come together and collaborate so that we know, so that our. Instruction is online from middle school to high school. Um, we're currently discussing how do we teach, discussing how do we share this with our, the rest of our teachers, the rest of our staff, right? We want our ninth graders as they move up to 10th grade to not just be left.
So how do we work with [00:17:00] our 10th grade teams to continue that support and continue using those same strategies in the classroom with the kids who we know are, are working well? Um, we also want to make sure that we maintain that level of rigor. Um, we want to make sure that our kids are being challenged to, to move forward.
And as Erin was talking about AP classes, this is also an opportunity for teachers, for our ninth grade teachers to encourage students who don't see themselves as AP students. To try it out. So, um, because they know them, they know what their interests are, they're able to have those personal conversations and give them, give them those personal invitations to forecast for AP courses.
Um, next slide please. And then these are some of the things that our kids are saying. Um. They want to be in teams next year. They want us to continue doing teens. Um, they like the teachers, meet with them and talk to them about how, you know, how they're doing and what are the things that they can do better.
Um, they [00:18:00] like having those one on ones. They like that they're seen, they don't feel invisible. Our next slide, and this is what our teachers are saying, and I'm going to let you read these, um, on your own.
So can you go to the next slide? Job, please? So you can see these are positive comments and we, we, and like any new, um. No practice. We are facing challenges, like I mentioned before, um, we're working on our school structures. We're making sure that that structure that we have really [00:19:00] does work for us. So when we've gone to visit other models, we've looked at their structure and we see what's working for them and what might work for us.
We're not necessarily . Transferring and copying. We want things to work for us. We're also working on our data collection. We know that anecdotal data or qualitative data is very important. Um, but we also know that in collecting qualitative or quantitative data, you know, everyone has different writing practices.
So we're talking about what grading practices look like, and we're talking about what grades even mean. Um, and our communication because we do, our goal is to, uh, call all parents, um, in the team and to have those, those connections with them as well. But we need to structure those right when we call during the day, they may not be home, but we still want to have those conversations with them and encourage them to call us back.
And, um, we're working, um. The West Linn team actually did a great job with their newsletter. They put a newsletter together to send out to parents and let them know like, this is what we're working on and this is what you can help your kids with at home, and this [00:20:00] is what maybe you can do over winter break.
So those are things that we're trying out and we want to refine our structure for next year.
And, um, also they, they were here because they wanted to invite you to any of our meetings. Um, each team needs, um, four times a week, so you're welcome to come to any of our meetings when you're available.
So Joel, if you can just keep it on this slide. The challenges slide. Um, I know often when you ask for an update or we give a report as staff, um, we get really excited and we share all the hard work that everyone's doing and we probably tend to lean into all the positive things that are going on to share that with you and to highlight.
Teachers' efforts and successes, principals, efforts and successes. We also hear from you as board members that you want us to share with you what the challenges are. Not everything might be rosy, but what is it that are [00:21:00] some of the struggles? And so this is that explicit feedback to you around, um, this is hard work.
Especially when there can be this wonder of, you know, we've got a really high graduation rate. Why are we changing a whole model across ninth grade? We think it might be working pretty well. Um, but when you dig deep in the data, and we looked at our district report card, ninth grade on track was below state average.
Meaning we're not meeting some of the needs of our ninth graders now. We still get them there at graduation, but something's happening in that ninth grade year that could be far more successful. Um, so we have to kind of work with those mindsets, and that's one of our. Challenges with, with staff, with administrators around, it's not that something's broken, but something can be better for students in their experience.
And then again, that data collection piece around, um, how do we become more data literate and how do we use it in a way that, um, helps us understand more [00:22:00] about the system, but also where students are finding success. So we just wanted to share also with our report that, um. It's, it's hard work doing this.
Um, because there has been already a lot of things going so well that, you know, we don't want people to see that we're just change for change sake, but that actually this has changed. That is about improvement and that can be challenging. Um, so then the blended learning part. Thanks, Joe. The next slide.
This is that third component that, um, we're dipping our toes into. We're taking it slow because we want to do it well. It can be very tempting when people start to hear about, um, Oh, an opportunity to teach an online class or a blended class. Um, the temptation to scale really fast. Um, but we have a lot of learning to do in study around what makes a high quality blended learning class.
And what makes a high quality online class, whether you have your own personal experience with one not being so good in your [00:23:00] own programs or courses of study as professionals or that you've experienced from others. There are a lot of examples out there where it's not high quality learning. Um, we know we can do it really well and their standards around that.
So we're taking this two prong approach and we're, we're going slow to do a lot of learning so that when we scale, we keep the quality high. There's a, we're working with administrators, there's a team now that's doing a focus on blended learning. And we've said, let's just at least start, even if we have to start small, two blended learning classes this fall.
So each high school is selecting those and they're, um, looking at where there's some places of readiness, teachers who are excited and where they could do that. And by blended, we mean partially online and then partially with the teacher. In the classroom. So that's the learning that we need to do with teachers.
What does it mean then when students come to class? It doesn't mean you just teach as you normally would have, but how do you capitalize on what they've been learning [00:24:00] online? Kind of in a flipped classroom idea. So there's a lot of professional development with that small group of teachers who are going to take that on next year.
Um, currently we have, um, a couple of blended learning classes in the district. There's a culinary class where students cook at home and then they meet with their teacher. Um, and that's gone fairly well, although we haven't done that kind of professional development to see. You know, what's the quality of this class and what's happening in class to supplement or enhance the at home cooking arts and technology.
High school does a little bit of blended learning just by virtue of the students who come to them at various places in their courses and need to either get caught up. Or complete some courses to finish in time. So we've just had to go to blended and online learning. So they'd become a school of, of teaching for us around how to do that.
[00:25:00] Um, so what we're looking at is how to think, um, beyond just setting up a blended learning class for a student who needs a personalized path to finish, but really look at it as. Um, normal classes you'd see in a course catalog. So the long view of this is. Several years down the road, students open their course catalog.
They see classes that they're going to sign up for that are brick and mortar with their teachers like we have now. Oh, there's classes here and there that are blended learning. What does that do to the schedule of their day and allow a different mode of learning with maybe some opportunity for internships when they're not in the classroom.
You can kind of see where you can go with that. And then there's classes sprinkled throughout that are also online classes. What does that now do to free up some time that they could take orchestra and take an online class. So now that six period day starts to all of a sudden [00:26:00] melt away and it feels more like college where I can take some classes throughout.
If I still need to hold a job part time as a high school student, I can do that. But all of a sudden that school day category. Starts to come into the picture around how can we creatively gives our students more flexibility about learning options. That's the long view. We're going to patiently work through how to get there.
Um, because scaling and pacing is really important to keep the quality high. So we've made a goal for this fall for blended learning, and likewise, we've made a goal for online learning. There are national standards for online learning around really high quality online courses. What are the standards around that?
The programs that you use? We don't just want to use any online program. We want really high quality programs that differentiate for students. And can allow them if they've mastered or shown proficiency [00:27:00] to move on. Um, and then what are the standards for teachers if a teacher is going to teach an online course that's very different than teaching in the classroom.
And how do you create, you know, the shell of your online course in a way that's interesting, engaging and not just a rudimentary. I read stuff and then I submit something in writing. Then I read stuff and submit something. But there's a lot you can do that's engaging. Um, and there's some training around that as well as how would you pair that with internships or opportunities to check in with the teacher for maybe a field trip or a guest speaker or to go view the learning in real setting.
So a visit, um, you know, in a business and industry that that course would connect with. Our hope is also to recapture those kids that have left for online learning. Um, whether it's another school or a [00:28:00] Oregon virtual Academy. And we heard a parent tonight say, aye. I decided that I'd want to enroll my student into something else, that somehow there wasn't a fit or it didn't work.
So how can we then take over that portfolio and that experience? Say, well, we'll offer the online courses and Academy, but we want you to stay with us. So what is it that you plan to take? And we'd like to be the conduit for that. And we believe we have a high quality program. And Oh, by the way, your high school diploma can say any one of our three high schools on it.
Um, if you stay with us and allow us to, uh, to partner with you in that online, uh, those online courses. So how we get there. Um, you know, the team is working on that. Um, what's our place of readiness to start in the fall? Uh, we're not quite sure because it all depends on how we can, um, get ready for courses, programs, and teachers.
And if we start, we might just start small and then scale. [00:29:00] But we were excited because we can see. Both those components really starting to then interact with brick and mortar classes and teachers starting to learn from each other around how to be more flexible around what learning can look like in the classroom and outside of the classroom.
We can break away from this traditional sense that seat time equals learning. See time in a room equals learning, um, and get more to relevance and application paired with, um, content. Knowledge equals learning. Last slide. So there's opportunities to then see how does blended and online learning support ninth grade success teams and this idea of proficiency learning.
So a student gets behind, they shouldn't have to retake a whole class the next semester. We should be able to say, here are the parts you still need to take. You actually went to class and did really well. Three quarters of the class, something [00:30:00] happened near the end. Instead of failing that whole class or getting behind, let's just get you into a blended learning or online to only do the parts you're missing.
You can show us, you know, those standards. You get the credit. Maybe it'll only take three weeks. But you don't need to repeat a class again the whole next semester. So there's ways to, um, support that idea with the ninth grade success teams. Also with blended and online learning to integrate more internships because of the flexibility.
Now you're not in the classroom all the time. You can actually go onsite in a staff member, could be there to meet you, to go see the learning. And again, that impact now. In that middle category of school day. We didn't have to maybe change the whole schedule, but we just created a little more flexibility.
Um, of course there's challenges with this as well. Um, how do we understand the role of blended and online learning systemically? How do we support teachers who want to do this work, who take the leap, [00:31:00] um, and support the current teachers who say. So what does it mean for my history class? If now you're offering history, blended learning or online, will kids want to take my class?
Or what does it mean to take a class brick and mortar and how we show that there's values in all? Um, so just understanding, creating some systemic understanding, flexible mindset, and then elevating everybody's capacity around this. Um, so that these, um, stay high quality. Um, often. You know, used to be years ago, there was a little stigma with online learning that it didn't quite have the same value or asset as when you were with the instructor.
That's changed. Most of our teachers now who pursue their master's degrees or get more certificate, they're taking online courses. Um, and most. Um, universities now are offering even to get your teaching degree that some courses are online or blended learning. So folks are learning how to do this high quality, um, and how to integrate that, um, higher [00:32:00] education.
And we can certainly do that, um, in our high schools as well as part of this renewal. We just need to watch that pace of scaling because this is something that. Could run away from us with excitement. And if we're doing it this high school, we should probably do it at that one. And if we're doing it here, we should add there.
And if some teachers aren't quite ready, um, you know, it wouldn't be fair to students in the end if we're not quite ready to do that. So we have to just watch our pacing. What we'd love for you to do, Joe, last slide. Is if you want to learn more about any of those or more conversations, come on a learning walk.
Dr. Gomez is willing to host that. Um, we can take. All of you, three of you, two of you. Um, as long as you don't engage in board business, you can be a group of three or more. Um, but let you know, come and visit a high school and walk in and watch ninth grade success team or one of the planning sessions.
See the teachers or, um, explore with us around blended learning or [00:33:00] online or some of the career pathways. So if you want to do a learning walk at a high school, um. Maybe further into, you know, into the spring when we've got a little more set up, just let us know. It's a way of continuing this conversation beyond the board meeting.
So thank you. Questions, comments? Can I make a comment? And then I have a question as well? Um, first of all, I had the opportunity when I was dead, my work plan visit at Wilsonville high school. Um. All of my, the classes that I observed were all involved in that ninth grade high school success team. And as a former teacher, I would have loved to have been a part of a team like that because one of the things that I just feel more than anything is that when students feel cared about and known, they show up and they care about the information that you are giving them.
And, um, no kid was interested in biology and less, they knew that I was interested in them as a student. And so, um, I love [00:34:00] this whole idea. Um, and I would love to go again and see it again and just see the difference between what I saw, um, and how those communities of kids and teachers are, um, even progressing in their relationships and that connectedness.
By the end of the year. So, um, that's my first comment and then my question, I wanted to go back to the career and college pathways or the college and career pathways, the ones that you had up there. Um, that's where we're going to kind of start with the different high schools. Correct. With the different kind of career plans.
And is there also, I'm just curious, um, will there be like a, and I know this may be an outdated term, but college prep, is that something that's still offered at all of our high schools? Can you do both a college prep and a CTE? Does that make sense? I'm just kinda asking. Yeah. So, um. [00:35:00] Simpler of these pathways already exist at the high school in the form of a either fully fleshed out or partial CTE program.
So to be a CTE program, you have to have a teacher who has that special certificate, and it means that, um. It doesn't mean that you get credit for classes in high school. It just means that you've taken these classes that articulate towards, um, a career technical education. The only way you get credit in college is if the class is AP or dual credit.
So CTE is more of a stamp of. Um, uh, of an articulation of a cluster of courses that lead to a career. But the teachers have to have this certification to be a CTE teachers. So that's also a challenge for us is it's, um, and Dr. Gomez, you know, that how many hours of 2000 hours of more continuous learning and preparation, and then they'd take us certificated.
[00:36:00] Yeah. So for some teachers. They're not at that place in their career where they want to get certified, but they might still want to teach a business marketing class or early childhood. So the beauty of a pathway is it doesn't have to be CTE. It can just be a cluster of classes that says to kids, maybe you're thinking about being a teacher.
You might want to try these couple of classes that give you an exploration of it or a first run at it. So we already have a few existing, for example, art tech with world of speed already has. Some automotive classes and has some arts, an AP class in arts and has some arts classes. West Linn high school already has agriculture, environmental science, CTE program, and, um.
Journalism through the arts and communication. So we started with what's already there at each, but we're expanding it by adding, for example, health sciences, business marketing for the third option, high school engineering and computer science. A deepening that one at [00:37:00] West Linn high school, and then adding, um, deepening the engineering computer science at Wilsonville high school as well as early childhood.
One that excites me. That's a possibility under arts and communication for Wilson, but high school is we're going to build that new performing arts center. And we're going to build it with community theater in mind with the community. So if you think about now, careers in theater, set design, um, costuming, you can do some internships in the summer with community theater and the group there who's, um, using our, our new performing arts center.
So you can kind of see how you can get business and industry and a career pathway through, um, theater and arts and possibly at that high school. And on the front end of that bond, do some design around it. Performing arts center. That really lends itself well to that one. One other example that this spring is new is that arts and technology high school we are offering, you know, this is an example of a career [00:38:00] pathway.
Um, emergency med. A medical technician course. And so the students are going to go to CCC, Wilsonville campus with one of our instructors, Laura beco, who will be a part of this learning and see how that could possibly expand. So that's a career pathway, but that could lead to a program of study, and that's connected through CCC.
So that's just a small glimpse of stuff that we said. We don't have all the details, but we're going to do it. And as you can imagine, kids are like, yes, yes, yes. Let's do it. One of our nurses is also partnering with Laura beco. So we're using one of our school nurses and our PE health teacher to co-teach, um, with the EMT program at CCC for one of those.
So won't have to choose their, their opportunities, but they don't have to choose. One of these they can keep with a traditional education if they want to, but still maybe [00:39:00] dabble in  you have the opportunity to dabble in different, you won't be forced to choose. Well, I'm thinking back to the SIM and cam days, for those of you who remember the SIM and cam days when I was teaching, and part of the philosophy was students had to choose one of the, and so I just, that's where the question's coming from.
And I would say there are these core content classes and required classes that we, that we could take a look at. So for example, we often talk about, by the time you get to be a senior in high school, you're in your how many years of taking a language arts class. So you're in your fourth year in high school of taking a literacy class, literary class, reading novels, again, interpreting the novels, and there's a way of saying you could do that and still fulfill your year.
Your four credits of language arts or what if that fourth year in high school you could take, um, a language arts co-taught journalism [00:40:00] class or language arts co-taught? Um. Uh, health sciences, class, medical science, where you're, where you're reading medical text and you're in a different genre. It could fulfill as your language arts, but it also has a different content to it.
So you're not reading, um, you know, historical fiction or fiction in a set of novels. You're actually doing. Some reading within a profession around that content, but also learning the genre, that content. Maybe it's a child psychology class and the language arts class, and you're doing reading and interpretation around texts around child psychology that fulfills your early childhood and now you're intrigued with that, but it also could fulfill as your fourth.
Credit. So we're looking at ways that we can look at some of those traditional core classes and see how we can get more creative around the content in those that have a pathway quality to them or a CTE quality to them so that [00:41:00] students see their career. Um, often they'll tell us, you know, I'm, I'm reading all these books, but I'm still not sure how they connect to what I want to do in life.
So how can we bring some of that into those core classes? And sorry, one more question. Will it be set up in a flexible way to, let's say, you know, you've gone to Wilsonville high school, you love. Being at Wilsonville high school, but you're interested in the health sciences where you could take some classes at Wilsonville high school, then maybe go over in the afternoon to take, I mean, is that going to be kind of built in somehow?
Yeah, so other districts who do some of these, you know, pathways at different high schools, that's one of the challenges they've confronted is transportation during the day. Then, unless the student has their own car and you've aligned everybody's schedules perfectly, how does someone. Leave one campus, drive over there and take a class and come back.
Hence the beauty of blended and online learning, because you can actually break up that schedule and do some cross lit. If I see a [00:42:00] course in a catalog, I'm at West Linn and I see a course in the Wilsonville catalog that's a blended learning course, and I can figure out easier with my schedule or an online course, we can now have the potential to do some of that cross enrollment between the three high schools and maybe where the students meet is, you know, one day a week.
At a location to see the application of the learning, or one day a week at one of the high schools to do some check-in. So all of a sudden this idea that you can actually take courses at different high schools becomes more doable and you get around that transportation piece
Thank you for your work on this. This is just really exciting. I see how it, um, really meets our goal number one, in terms of growing student achieving achievement and also looking at each student as an individual learner. I see all the applications for tag students as well as, um, students who might be on a five Oh four [00:43:00] for medical reasons or other reasons.
And, um, I just see this as. Really breaking open, breaking open pass for the kids and overcoming obstacles and really, um, ways that you were making available for each and every student. I think it's exciting. I spoke with dr Ludwig about some of this when I met with her recently and then talked about it with my kids and I just, you know what?
I think. Students want to learn and to say, Hey, you know, the questions are always that, Hey, am I going to be able to take that class? You know, would I be able to do that? And I just think this is a way to, um, continue to spark interest in learning person. So I'm excited about the work. Significant moves that the state made a couple of years ago is they did away with the idea of, um, seat time hours.
So if there was this older notion that to [00:44:00] get a credit, you had to do a certain number of hours in the class and that equaled the credit that's actually gone away. Now it's all about showing learning with the standards so we can actually accelerate more learning for students by having these different paste options.
If you're in an online course and you can actually show proficiency sooner. You could finish the class sooner. Um, so there's ways that now we're really unpacking that notion of a school day differently and creating more flexibility for students. Students already come in knowing quite a bit towards the standards.
They don't have to slow down and pace through a whole semester of seat time. To get a grade at the end, they can take an online course or blended course to accelerate that show their proficiency, which is what learning's about schools, about learning, not about grading. So how do students show us their learning?
And then how do we give a credit for that? So. That [00:45:00] takes time. It also takes working with staff and leaders to understand that you're not upsetting anything. You're actually expanding the options. And a lot of things can still say the same for students who want that structure, want it paced, want that full classroom experience, that social environment and other kids who want to experience it differently.
So any other comments.
All right. I think I'll close this, this topic. Um, I know it's something that will continue to receive information on and that we can reach out to dr Ludwig and team directly if we have more followups. So. Alright, thank you very much. Um, next we have our financial report.
[00:46:00] Okay.
In front of you is the financial report as of December 31st of 2019. Um, this financial report present under the income statement format. As you see on the left hand side a, the description it's list now catalog  lie by lie items. Now call a math tutor description is that [00:47:00] adoptive chat that bore adop, uh, last June  and then they get to their protection is the information that based on the current revenue that come in, in, in the Dick trick, and based on the current expenditure that we spend in right now, and using that information to do the projection for year end.
Um, this financial report is, um, very much similar to the financial report that I provide to you back in August, September, October, and November. Only a few items that I would like to print out to your attention. The first items is beginning fund balance. 9.6 million. This number is audited by our auditor as of December 18 they said the confirmed number, this number [00:48:00] is 1.6 million higher was a more than what we project more than what we adapt the project.
Last June. The reason it won poison higher is, like I mentioned earlier, we have all the $2 million in the student success act that came in late last year. Yeah. High school and society. Thank you. Uh. So before that we taught a lot of salary in general and fun. And then when that money came in, we do the journal entry to move that Spanish Joe from general fund to that grind.
Therefore, we held more, uh, in our ending fund balance from last year, and that ended up on Bal and brought up to this year to become our bacon in pan balance for this year. So with the 1.6 [00:49:00] million more in the beginning fund balance for this year, it brought Russ what my, uh, projection. Uh, I'm thinking we have about 7 million in alpha in our ending fund balance for this end in fiscal year.
And that sees about, I think, 5%
and, um, and this HR to friendly reminder that, um, uh, I'll count into the .  a government of finance officer association, they recommend that we should have at least two months of our regular general fund operating revenue or two month regulate regular [00:50:00] general fund operating expenditure at our reserve.  is about 16% so if we take.
112.9 million divided by 12 months.  is about 9 million per month, multiply by two months. So we look in at 18 million John healthy end in fundraiser for the deterrent. Another area that I would like to print up is the local local option tax. Um. When we did the bucket back in, uh, adopt the bucket back into  last year, we base, um, local option tax on 13.
Bussin. In Greece from prior year to this year, and the actual money came into Russ, it 10% more. [00:51:00] So with that, we have about 206,000 less in our local and option tax. But, um, the reason when you look at local and sauce. The SMS, a 52.1 million and I also project that we have 52.1 million even though we held 200,000 less than local option tax is because we earn more interest in order investment this year than I will projected.
I will projected we have about 412,000 on an a on the internet. But for the first six months, we already held to 123,000 on the internet that we have. So I have no problem, um, uh, to say that the internet will come in and order at least 200,000 SODEC. Why our local and saucy stay in the same.
[00:52:00] So with that, I will stop here. And in the 10 question you have. I do have just a couple of questions. It thinks I can help track and I'll, I'll start with what we were just talking about. The local option. So, aye. Aye. Aye. I'm still unclear as to  kind of how we ended up. I mean, I know it happens, it's happened in the past where, um, our budgeted revenue doesn't actually meet.
The monies that we've ha that we receive in local option. Um, and I know, I recall in the past when that's happened, you know, sometimes it was due to DEC economic downturn and people not paying their property tax. You know, but I, I'm still not, I not understanding this time as to why we think like how we were off.
Oh. So that we know to do better. This next budgeting season when [00:53:00] we did the budget for fiscal uniting 20, we look at when I did a budget, I won't wear present to a board member and, um, the actual revenue and actual expenditure that we have for the last three to five years. So when, um. Director, height and director fixture and a superintendent and I gather together.
I was sharing, um, what DOE group that for fiscal year 16, 17, we held 12% in Greece in our local, uh, tax. And then 17, 18, we have about 14% in Greece. Uh, the recommendation is, uh, 10% for, to be more conservative, but I then at that time, they'll feel more strongly, um, to go with 13% increase with it. You've seen the average between 12% and 14%.
So we, when we say [00:54:00] 13% increase for fiscal year 18, 19 to fiscal year 1920, that, uh, give Bruster number. 9.8 million  current local tax only. We did not talk about a prior year and then when the Curran money that come in, it came in at 9.6 was is only 2% less than what we projected. He's saying that that's my fault and I'm only doing that.
So when we were determining what percentage we want, I don't know, Maya, when we were determining what was the image we wanted, Mmm. I asked for the higher person. Okay. All right. So I'm wondering is about that and not having come up before, you know, like you've got two board members directing action and not a, [00:55:00] you know, three or more or our budget committee that, that's interesting.
But at least we know going forward, which at the end of the day, that was all I was there. You knew that that came out as the budget recommendation budget. But actually the recommendations. From the district was different, and we have two board members saying, ah, no, let's not go with the recommended 10% let's go with 13% I think they were looking for direction from the leadership, and that's what we provided.
I, that's what I'm saying. I'm owning. Okay. Yes. When we do , it's very common for CFO or finance. So director of finance of surfaces, you look at the average. So when you look at the three year average of five year average, lastly the number, so when, um, director Fitch and errata high recommend, you assume the average, it's really right on.
Um, I would just be careful and at a time, because. I was new to the district and [00:56:00] I ride up, come to you at the end of the year and say, Hey, I'm all money. Then come at the end and say, we have less money. So that way I'll be more careful with that. But jelly normal where you'd average . Well, and please know too, I appreciate, I appreciate we're budgeting, we're, we're doing our best educated guesses as to what it'll be and we won't.
It's not an exact science and we won't be correct all the time. And so, um, and that isn't a big deal. I was just kinda curious, like how did they get here so we can learn how to been reflected in the budget document that the committee would have gotten. So, um, I don't know if we shared how we got that percentage to the whole committee.
Correct. But if it had come up, we would have said. You know, um, it, how do you predict what's going to come in as local option? You can stay very conservative and do the 10% or you could just take the average, which is what we did for the budget documents. So. And do like within less than 5%, if [00:57:00] very good buy checked.
Um, so no worry on that because you know what, uh, economic go up and out and flexible. So for us to project expenditure and revenue that come in a year from now. I think  really good. It's really, yeah, I know. I agree. I would absolutely agree with that. So, um, okay, so then my second question is, and it has to do off of the financial report, you know, that was in our just updated and it's, um, the paragraph under best practices.
And, and I, I follow, I'm following everything. I understand that, um, GFO, uh, recommends you have two months of a general, um, operating revenue. Kind of being what your reserve is. And then the next sentence then says, well, two months equals 16.7% and I don't understand where the 16.7% comes from because then if the next sentence discusses.
Uh, the West Linn Wilsonville, like [00:58:00] they're two months isn't 16.7. It is roughly 12%. And so I was just trying to make sense of that 16.7 0.7 per cent came from  so that they say either two month or revenue  expenditure. Oh, 16.7% of your total revenue or your total on expenditure. That makes sense. We've landed the last few years in one month, about five or 6% and I know this has come up often around how should, how much should we be reserving an ending fund balance?
So this is just noting that if we went with this two month recommendation. It's of 16.7. Um, we're not, we don't have an ending fund balance of 14 million. Ours is closer to 7 million often give or take, which is about one month. So, okay. Thank you. That was, I was just trying to follow up
[00:59:00] any auto question.
All right. Thank you. We can move on to the, um.