April-1-2019-BoardWorkSession-Segment-5
[00:00:00] Meaning.
we have one additional public comment. Mr. McCabe.
Welcome John McCabe for 3-5 Southwest Mike and Lane Western, Oregon 9 7 0 6 8. I did speak to people. Piper jaffray, and they said yes that would happen is and you guys didn't ask the question. So it's something that would be more informational is the early years to keep the Bonnet 3% All we're going to be collecting is the interest that will be paid on the most current issue.
We don't start paying the principal down until like five till that 2003 bond gets paid off and. [00:01:00] From some of our prior experiences and it lead left enough of a cushion there. But when you only pay interest in the few first years correct me on this is you'll pay a higher interest rate because it's interest only in the first years and therefore the rating board will give it.
Let's get a rating because it's a substantial delay before you start paying on the principle that question was not asked I did ask them about it and they go well until staff ask us. We can't address it until the bond passes. We really can't address it because it's you're not going to know until it passes and it goes to Market but it's one of the things and we are staying at the 3% We can go to infinity and beyond but.
There's no reason to but it's one of those scenarios because like on some of the options they showed up there we could be [00:02:00] if we went out to 30 years at the 204 million it would end up costing us close to 500 million with bond interest and you know half a billion.  I don't know what the people in the district think about that.
That's a lot of money. Thank you.
Thank you.
Dr. Ludwig.  I didn't get a chance to pass this out right before we concluded with our finance section, but very quickly there was a time a few years ago that again when. Funding was low and the state collectively organizations across the state such as Cosa OSB AOE a ptas put a collective advocacy to the state around more funding and they.
[00:03:00] Made posters that kind of outlined what the need was for more funding and then again Ask each district to put forward in their own poster. What what you would do if you had additional funding so that constituents could see. The impacts of that so we have been able to conclude those they did it again this year asked each School District to create a poster.
So what you have in front of you is the completed project that they're now returning back to school districts, so we could have these available to put up or at least for you to reference the first page is just their information of in the red. Square you see that's that the governor's base budget now, we know the Ways and Means Committee came in lower but her initial proposed budget you can see in very fine print down at the eight point nine seven billion her a hundred million towards pers relief and then the partial funding again of measure 98.
So the similar dollar amount that we received the last biennium. This is come this current biennium that were [00:04:00] finishing up a hundred seventy million. That's where she proposed that the 9.2 four billion collectively the advocacy groups. That I mentioned are pushing for a ten point three seven billion.
Of course, they like the 11 .04 which is based on the qem or the quality education model that the state calculated years ago around what does it take to provide a quality education for every child in Oregon so you can kind of see the far reach there, but in the middle if we could settle the advocacy groups are asking for ten point three seven billion and asking the governor to increase her base budget 29.2 for.
Fully funding measure 98 the legislation asked for a certain dollar amount per ADM and it was only in the last biennium approved partially which is a hundred seventy million. So if it was fully funded that would be an additional hundred and thirty three million. And then what's called this school Improvement fund [00:05:00] generating another 1 billion for school districts to be proportioned in four categories.
So instead of just dropping into everybody's General budget there would be earmarked for for. Categories much like measure 98 is earmarked or title funds are earmarked. You can only be spent in those four categories and they're listed below class size well-rounded education student health and safety and more learning time and the thinking behind that is that the community.
Broad constituents the state of Oregon might more likely support that additional funding if they knew exactly where the money was going people support small class sizes. They want health and safety to be supported but not everyone cross. The state has the same beliefs around increasing funding to schools just for it to go into.
So this is a way of avoiding that concern and earmarking additional funding towards specific [00:06:00] criteria. The second page the asked of superintendents was if you received that additional 1 billion dollars in that school Improvement fund tell us a little bit about your school district. Tell us how much of the 1 billion you would be allocated, which is there in the middle column seven point four six would be our share.
And then what would you do in those four categories? They didn't want long lists. They didn't want to be very specific because they know that things can evolve. But generally would you be able to use it in all four categories? Would you just apply to one category to to what likely might your District use your seven and a half million additional funding for so.
I did give this to each of the three budget committee members who were here, the citizen committee members will get it to Kirsten and too.  Steven Cohen, [00:07:00] but also for you to have it in Betty, so we'll keep circulating these out to folks that's something you may decide you want to reference, but certainly we need to keep our ear to the ground as you hear.
Advocacy groups out there for State funding. They may reference these terms for you to have that context. Thank you.
All right board members as you may recall at the start of the school year. We had a board retreat and we focused on this Retreat on board and District goal number three about transparency and working with public and we heard a lot of feedback from the community that. Wasn't always clarity as to what to expect and dealing with the board and we found out when discussing amongst ourselves.
There wasn't always a lot of clarity amongst us about what was expected of us when dealing with the community and who is who is taking care of what responsibilities and what our responsibilities were and it was I volunteered to take that discussion and put it into specific policies for us to deal with [00:08:00] and I've sent that to the board and it's going to be up here behind me or in front of me.
My attempt to put that into District policy I had to decide whether or not to put it into a new operating agreement or to edit existing policies and operating agreements and seeing that there's such a diversity of topics that we dealt with and there was already topics on these things. I thought I made a lot more sense to edit what we have rather than creating something new that was either partially redundant or conflicting with what we already had and.
What I want what I want to do at this time is to go through what I identified as our goals from that discussion confirm with each of you that what I have put together represents what we had agreed upon as a board and then you go through each of these changes and and determine if. If the changes that I made were close to what the group wanted and if it's close.
So I like to do is make edits tonight get to a point where we're happy with it and then give the communities a chance to review it provide [00:09:00] input to it and then finally adopt it and if it's not close to what we wanted to then I'll get your input tonight. Go back to the drawing board put something together that more closely reflects.
What what the board wanted and before I dive into this. I do want to point out that I am not tied to this format or even these changes I think. More about having something in place that creates certainty for the community rather than having nothing at all in its place. So before I dive in did anyone have any questions about what was sent?
Okay. So the first goal that I. Left with from the retreat was to make sure members of the public know the board values their input and involvement in District board action because we were hearing input from some people that they felt like maybe board members weren't welcoming their input at meetings or didn't appreciate it because we weren't commenting back and that sort of thing.
And so what I created this would be an addition to board policy bdh for public [00:10:00] participation in board meetings and what it lists are things that the board chair would share with. Years before public comment begins and you may have noticed that chair Fitch has already been doing most of these things since the board retreat and Miss Douglas has been very helpful about getting chair Fitch, you know little she thinks she can read off up to make sure we cover all these things and so as a board are you happy, I guess one.
Is this what you wanted me to do is just look at something close and if it is closed are you happy with these comments that the chair can make or would you want to add change or remove any of those provisions?  Thank you for picking up and continuing with this work from our Retreat. So first of all, I know.
It's never easy when you're trying to put together a groups thought into your own words and then something you're trying to disseminate. So thank you. [00:11:00] I looked at this and I just I had a couple of different questions or thoughts that came to mind the last two bullet points. So like let's say the second to the last bullet point there that begins the public comment time is not a forum for I felt like that.
Some extent was number four on that policy number and so it was duplicative. And so I just think either you need to do something with number four or you need to you know number 4 is much shorter. I mean, it's like one sentence. I it's an elaboration on number four. I just feel like. From an organizational standpoint some work needs to be done there.
So they don't aren't duplicate if somehow when you see number four, is it number so every effort? Ddh? Yeah number four, correct? Every effort. We made the limit deliberation / activities to board work and not administrative / staff work. Yeah. Okay. We're number your where that second last bullet point.
Also if remember the public has a complaint about specific student or I mean [00:12:00] that's where that that the Nexus is between our current activity around that so I just felt like. He needed to our and then on the second or on the last bullet point about if its peak speaker, which is fried more information than the three minutes.
I kind of felt like that could be folded into the existing number two.  but that's also where it's talking about the three minute time limit and totally total of 40 minutes and. If you can't get it out in three minutes by all means submit more information to us in writing and we're happy to review it kind of I thought.
and then I also had some wonderings around number 5 your kind of your Preamble and the existing I think Preamble again. [00:13:00] I felt like they're both kind of saying the same thing not quite almost like the way you said it in five a little bit better, but just.  All right. Thank you. Those those aren't content.
I I think the content is is okay. They're just it's valuable. I appreciate that. Thank you.
Any other comments on any of these bullet points? Just a question to the and it's kind of in it. I can see why this one is an amending of a existing policy. But then I do have that same you kind of raised the question what's policy versus Board operating agreement and some wonderings about since since your number five I think largely is instructions to your board chair and how your board chair would operate in relation to our public.
You know what while I see why I totally see what [00:14:00] was here. But for me, it was like maybe that is more appropriately some sort of an operating agreement. We have one amongst board members. We have one with our superintendent, you know, maybe we have, you know, an operating agreement also with our community.
It was done. Sorry. I'm trying to get my own which on. A particular point or well, I kind of just number 5 in general. It's more it really is kind of how your board chair.  is.  welcoming Community comment in a meeting as well as kind of outlining them like what they can expect from that interface.
Got an operating and how we're choosing to operate with our community. And I don't know the answer to them.
If we're starting from scratch, I think it does fit really well [00:15:00] with an operating agreement, but it's you know, kind of like this house of cards you pull card out this place that affects it over here. And so yeah, it's a reasonable Minds can disagree about if it's best to put it over here over here.
But that's a very fair point. I do agree that if we starting from scratch it would make more sense to put into an operational agreement. Could we pull up?
Yeah, I wouldn't mind if we pulled a policy BCB which is regarding board officers.  as for context.
while you're pulling that up. If I could Channel our legal counsel, yeah, you should Mercer and I do want to say I think what you're doing is you're moving in a direction of increased Clarity, which is what you want at the [00:16:00] board retreat and making sure that community members felt her. Where and how you put that I think is is the part that you're trying to decide because this is very well written and it provides that Clarity you're looking for and I always hear from our legal counsel this reminder of what you put in policy.
You will also violate if you don't do it and the caution of having too much in policy that you run the risk of not being able to uphold. And so, you know watching for too much specificity maybe in policy and that's where you can go to a ours or you can go to operating agreements because they're not policies.
It's the way that you implement the intention of the policy. So as you're thinking through this, I think I would just think of Peter mercero sitting here saying how much do you really want to put into a policy that then might put your board chair at a [00:17:00] risk? If someone says I didn't feel warmly.
Welcomed or you or you forgot this one section of something the last time I spoke there is quite there's already specificity and bdh. So we've got to be careful how much you add to that. I think just as a board and for future boards, that would be my only input is channeling Peter mercero in his caution around how much we add into policy that said.
We do need this language. Now, you're trying to figure out where to put it in the order to put it in.
If I could say something as your bride secretary while I was doing some research on this to make sure that we had all of our board operating agreements, correct and online. I went into our neighboring school districts. Some of them have a very simple board operate some of them have a very simple board operating agreement.
It's just one and it's [00:18:00] on the main website and it has titles and it's one document. So people don't have to research multiple operating agreements. It's one with headings so board and superintendent board operating agreement and then you could add pup board and public operating agreement. But then it's just one.
It's always there you click on it and everything is there and then later on if you want to add or subtract something you have one document you're working with.
Do you want to expand the conversation to changing how we drop operating agreements from when we currently have like three on our website consolidating that down to one and then putting all these changes into that?  And I feel like that might be the best consolidating those three. I don't think we'll be.
That laborious and I would help volunteer my time to help do that because I'm not going to want to just settle with you with that responsibility for sharing that work. But I kind of feel [00:19:00] like that might be the best Direction because even as I look at your number you're calling it number five, but I mean it is it is but it's not policy but it's more like how are we going to conduct ourselves in life of right?
Okay. Okay, Chelsea. Yeah, I'll just piggyback on that. I mean first of all, I have gratitude that you put the thought and Care into this and it is definitely a an outcome of our board retreat and it was a desire we express month, you know some time ago and thank you for carrying it forward and. It is important role clarification.
It's important for us as board members with experience. It's important for us as we welcome new board members on to understand like what are our expectations we have of one another and how we communicate with one another with the superintendent was the public. So I definitely appreciate the clarity and the detail and and I am more [00:20:00] comfortable with that amount of detail being in an operating agreement rather than a mending policy.
The and yeah II feel like we have a lot more flexibility and like room for creativity and things like that and an operating agreement to really dial down how we expect and it could even be part of an ongoing conversation anytime the board changes, you know, the shift changes every two years or something then a conversation.
You know the board at a board retreat, this is our operating agreement. What do you think? This is make sense? Is there something different that you notice that we would need to do and which I think would be less cumbersome than working with policy. Okay. Thank you, and I would just want. But I would want is cross-references then if we're going to put this in operating agreement that we refer to the board policy that are governing.
that area.  [00:21:00] I heard Ginger just volunteer after Dylan and I work to drop it everything I could do that. You could delegate that to staff.
But I like the concept that that.  unless we need to change the policies that what we are is implementing those consistent with our goals with more specificity and I like that as an operating agreement.  Which church which one did you want to see? There's a policy you want me to bring up. The one that talks PCB which is board officers.
And so this is one of the cross-references. So for instance the board chair shall preside at all meetings and in there, it doesn't talk about how the board chair [00:22:00] interacts with the public during public comment, but it's certainly. Consistent with the way you've laid out your thinking and these proposals is that the board chair has responsibilities to the public during that time and outside of meetings as well.
Okay?  All right. So I guess going forward just kind of operate under the assumption. This is going into not the policies that I proposed but into a single operating agreement any more input on. The first section let me go back to it.  The proposed addition to board policy bdh just from a practical point of view.
I've been entirely unsuccessful at keeping people from not talking about staff and student. So I you know, I think it's important that we continue to say it but.  I [00:23:00] don't know if there are ways that we can improve. I mean not knowing ahead of time what people are going to talk about or what they might say.
It's difficult to address right? I think to that point. I think you're already doing it. But I think maybe even being clear about not just saying names but saying information that could identify them if I feel that you're going down that path. I'm going to ask if we take a break and that's not because I don't want to hear from you.
But because we just want to be extra cautious that were protecting everybody else's rights because I think what happens is they go down that path and you cut them off and they think makes are getting really upset because they feel like they're not getting a chance to speak. When all you're trying to do is make sure they understand the policy so maybe and then stating that and I would say just include that then I will again I've used as.
Vice chair suggested I've used this kind of outline that he's already provided me [00:24:00] in the past and it's just helpful to always have the set language at every meeting.  I think that's something also as a bore you could ask the board secretary that when it comes time to public comment to make sure that that statement is read before anyone starts.
So just like you have the clipboard. And you get to the name because you've got a lot on your mind as board members. You've had topics you've been listening to your thinking about leading a topic and then that moment comes up for public comment. There's a lot to remember so that is something that we could ask of the board secretary to two tasks that and make sure that disclaimer or those directions are red each time.
All right, the second area that I focused on was the board expressed concern that there is a general lack of consensus among the board members as to what we do [00:25:00] to get items onto the agenda. And so this just sets out a policy of doing that. In a clearer way that a student takes two board members to put something on the agenda.
If if a board member wants something on the agenda, they will email the board chair and the board chair will either act as a second vote to get it on the agenda. If the board shooters that wish to do that the board chair will forward it on to the other board members and offer somebody opportunity to Second the vote to get it on the agenda.
It clarifies that when we have this conversation, we will not be communicating about the substance of the topic or in any way moving it towards a board decision in the discussion will be limited solely to whether or not to place it on the agenda and it puts no timeline on board members. Just kind of a general lack of a better term a gentleman's agreement to act timely and be responsive to our fellow board members.
As just [00:26:00] helping us with the kind of a protocol for dealing with this. I thought I thought you did a really good job of capturing our understanding of what we discussed at the meeting the only the only and on this is me being picky a little bit was it you starts off an item will be placed on the upcoming agenda and.
It will be some upcoming agenda. I just think feel like a little bit more allow our chair a little bit more discretion in determining when when that item would best fit on an upcoming agenda versus it will be on the next meeting's agenda because sometimes that's not always practical and we also sometimes we need additional information from our administrators to help us if we're moving towards a decision on something and I would just want.
The chair to have some discretion to get those things set up and organized in an appropriately timely fashion versus a mandate [00:27:00] that it will if we're all in agreement goes on the next agenda and if we just remove the word upcoming, would that be satisfactory for you? Yeah, I think yeah just yeah.
Let's replace the with a an.  that works and up coming up and our music. Yeah, I think that Ding laughter ding lawyers. So just so I understand that this. The section setting the board agenda with these five bullet points.  will be placed under a number three and the current board operating agreement that declares that the consent of two board members is needed based on an agenda.
Right? I [00:28:00] mean, I'll rebuild when I consolidate all the word agendas into robots and humans in one operating. I assume that's the best place to fit it. But I'll re-evaluate that like outline style. Basically. This is further detail about what that looks like. Correct. Anna isn't that? Yeah. Could we just do another scenario?
So sometimes what happens if this is assuming that the board chair has not heard from two separate board members to play something on the agenda, right? I mean we're assuming there's other ways that things could have been put on the agenda. But this is just a clarify what happens?  Under this scenario, you get a request from both from Members.
It would go on in the event. You don't it offers its the chair to act as a second right right provide information. I don't think that that I mean it's of if you know I email you and say I want something on the agenda. And you've already heard [00:29:00] from director Molitor that she wants it on there. Then it becomes you have your second vote.
You don't need to move any further, right? I think that's probably fairly.  Clear or obvious, but I think your first sentence speaks to that and item will be placed on an agenda if it is requested by two or more board members.  Okay, then you're clarifying what happens if. Thank you. We don't ya.
Okay, I guess what I heard there is that there are other ways that the agenda is also being created right the chair and the superintendent might work on creating an agenda together. And so it doesn't always necessarily that way you were saying like that. This is just one way to get something on the agenda.
Or did I misunderstand what it takes to board members, correct? I mean can the superintendent and the chair together put something on the agenda? It seems like yeah, they're working on something and it's not something that they're not including on their then this is how we would get dicey because the [00:30:00] chair sets are sets the agenda.
Republican. We're creating also did the chairman the chair sets the agenda with also request by the superintendent of the business that needs to be brought before the board. So I'm happy that I had a sentence about I don't know if we need that because I think that's understood in.  I think it's in policy not in policy than in in our board superintendent operating agreement.
Yeah. I can look we can look for that.
Going I'm it might not become for conversation tonight, but it is an interesting conversation. Perhaps very next board retreat like it's further clarification of the role of the chair of the board, which I think is linked to know and to share Fitch's a point when we have this new language will reference that policy.
That probably is about. Agenda [00:31:00] setting got here.  All right ready for the third section?  But this third sector is kind of a catch-all. This is where we spent most of our time at the retreat was what do we do when the pub member the public? Contacts us and the answer that question dependent on a number of factors including if they live in District out of District if they're providing information if they're asking for information or through making a specific requests if the request is a board action or a district action, so this language is an attempt to clarify so that not only we know what the public knows that you know, if you're in District and you ask for a board action, this is what's going to happen so we can begin with the first one is if we get communication from a the.
I propose that the community that there's if there's no Clear Connection to the district. It's not a constituent the communication may be ignored by the board ignored may not be the best word that the intent is more that we're not requiring ourselves to take any action if it's there's no connection between [00:32:00] the speaker and the.
I need did not mean ignore because that goes against the entire gist of trying to clarify Communications. And I think possibly the better language is just given lesser weight to or it's a weighing or maybe.  we can use him for we can use the information but we're not requiring the district with the board to take any action with it.
So I'm gonna effect.  Absolutely.
How this played out is, you know, we received a lot of communication and recent months from individuals.  who were from outside the district and had no killer connection to the district and. The implication of this language is that it's the burden of [00:33:00] the communicator to the board to identify that.  I defaulted to path of requesting that so that where it wasn't obvious giving them an opportunity to provide that.
Which I think has a substantive difference and it's a lot of work and I didn't always receive very kind responses to those.  I think pretty and Oculus innocuous request to determine connections to the district. But I think that the Board needs to know the difference between. The expectation that the communicator provides that initially.
or not and I think it would be nice for the board chair to empower that person by [00:34:00] able to say dear. Mr. Smith / our bird board policy, which I'm linking here. It's important for me to know whether you live in or out of our district. So.
I think I think is a fair thing bad. It does make a difference in the weight. I give to what somebody says we're whether they're within our boundaries or not. They have a vested interest the vesting of there is interest I think is different to me so I will weigh it differently.  Think this came up.
I may be a falls under the same category communication. We've had a couple instances where folks have said that they circulated a petition and there have been signatures and does this then allow the board to say we need to know if this communication or this request even in the form of a petition is bike patrons who live in [00:35:00] the district.
So I think you're getting there. I'm wondering if if it's written in a way, could it even cover? I'm not just emails and comment, but the online petitions have become something that are very easy to be generated and often don't require address maybe to fill them out or I'm not sure there's some that don't require all those boxes to be filled in so well, I think that goes down to in my opinion petitions or requests for actions.
And and so certainly either we can change it. If a communication or request for action has received I think that would address petitions and certainly there was a clear difference between like the communication from Trillium Creek community about parking were. We knew all 15 or 20 people who were [00:36:00] participating in that communication versus petitions where we don't have any of that information and I think it's important to point out that.
One of the reasons why this one was drafted is because it's really easy for the district and Boards time to be consumed by people who aren't even in our district who have checked a box or signed a piece of paper. And so this does Place some burden on them to identify themselves. And if they can't identify themselves as having action of the district, we're not going to spend a bunch of Staff time responding to people that we don't even know who's that was my intent when I drafted this.
But if I'm understanding correctly, then the purpose of having this in our board operating agreement would be basically to charge with charge the chair with or and invite the chair to refer back to this if we do receive communication and we do not know if they're from within the district to say per our board operating agreement.
We would like to know whether or not you live within the bounds of our district.  and then. [00:37:00] Fans ignore but something like will determine an appropriate response based on that information, something like that and not I mean just based on our most recent communication about the health and wellness standards.
I was receiving multiple emails. I was needing to respond to every day you were responding to them and then you were for forwarding to us so that we knew. And we were getting like what five or six emails a day for a period there and we each one you were needing to ask. So we are at the we are at the point of size of our district that this is a well we have chosen to make this a priority to communicate that what I what I hear director hides saying is that.
Putting some onus on the communicator or the public does make sense because of the size of [00:38:00] our district and the amount of communication that is being received on these issues.  And I think it helps insulate the board in the district from attacks of being non-responsive or we say well no, we have a policy in place.
We have thought about this a great deal. We put it in writing and so, you know if you live in Salem. And you're writing insulator about what we should teach in our health classes. We're not gonna get back to you and it's not because you're not responsive, but because that's her policy that we put in place after a lot of consideration.
So.
Okay number for the public sharing of information. If a Community member communicates with the board for the sole purposes of showing information the board member who receives it will in writing within two business days notify the Community member that the information has been received and if appropriate forwarded on to the proper staff person and this is just too.
Close the loop with people because I we heard from some of us said we've heard from people who said, you know, I reached out to so and [00:39:00] so I don't know if it was ever received was it useful was a helpful and this is just to score just goes to our third board goal, which is that, you know, we say we appreciate feedback we do appreciate it.
So let's send a one-sentence email let him know we received it and we're thankful and if they could help some of the district office will forward it to the appropriate person.
So just. So fast to be I know we are referring to this in relation to policy be a but we're still treating this like it would be our and separate operating agreement like with our public of that's my understand. Okay? Perfect. Just want to make sure that we were still doing this in that way. And then I just in in this whole even as we go through the two business days, you know, I think generally doctor ourselves we try to do that.
I would I just. To seems arbitrary I you know, I like the wig is [00:40:00] arbitrary. I had to pick a number. I like, you know, I just like discretion, you know the chairs on vacation or whatever. I don't want her stuck to this two-day hit him her stuck to a two-day business response. But something that's pretty prompt upon their return, you know, I this will be all and to clarify.
Imma first of all, let me say. I really like this because when I first got onto the board when I would receive e-mails, I remember asking the question in my life. This is going to the whole board. Am I supposed to reply to this as someone else replying to it? How will I know if they replied to it?
We all reply to it. You know, how do I know what to say like, it was a question for me when I first became a board member and it is still sometimes a question for me when we are in periods were receiving a lot of communication. I will wonder. I think the chair is got it or maybe the superintendent often.
We will get those forwarded. So I think it is a useful point of clarification. What I'm reading here though. Is that each board member will be replying not the chair each board member will reply. [00:41:00] The board member who receives that a lot of times I'll be all five of us. So we will each reply. And so if we want to agree to do that, that's cool.
I'll agree to do that. Totally. What do you I don't think I would but if it's if it's just a chair then then we need to make sure that that's very clear you could specify that and say if the entire board is written the board chair will respond within two days or the designee which. In another section below I could include the same language above that.
If it's if it's addressed to the entire board, the chair will will respond. Okay, it's just to you.  You could but I'm all for discretionary language and the time frame for a response within a reasonable amount of time or promptly even probably but just and I think with the intent like we're having this discussion, what does promptly mean?
You know what?  Simply ideally means within two business days. But we appreciate that not everyone who is working in this [00:42:00] volunteer job can get it turned around in two days time, but we're going to make our best effort to do it as soon thereafter as possible or just put attempt to within two business days.
Okay range and I would be happy. Yeah, I just a little yeah, I've had your job and a little discretion is really nice.
How about if we get a pay increase if we reply within 24 hours double your pay? Okay? Okay cupcakes that you get two cupcakes down. Okay. Okay number five. If a board member receives requests for the board to take an action that falls within the purview of the district office responsibilities the board member received an inquiry will within two business days or his or her best.
Attempt to do so direct the requester to the appropriate staff member with from the district office. And this does have that language for Quest has made the entire board the Cherry will respond.  So [00:43:00] again, I will add discretionary language to number 5. So again, I like this but I want the board to understand that.
The difference between what I've been doing and what this says. Which doesn't mean what I've been doing is right, but I would forward.  More often than not the request to the appropriate or I would forward it to dr. Ludwig who then would forward to the right stuff which then. May mean that I'm using her time and that it might make more sense for the requester to have to make that next step effort just a difference between what my practice has been and this and and making sure that we understand the choice.
[00:44:00] I don't know where we are in there, but I think the preference would be that it's either the board chair or is forwarding it to the superintendent. Otherwise a staff member may feel like they're being directed to act by a board by board member. And remember the only person you direct is the superintendent.
So all of those emails would come to me then I would forward them to. Either our CFO our director of operations or assistant superintendent. Is it make more sense for if the board were the chair were to email you a constituent email? Would it make more sense to see see that person's they can see it was sent to you or send it just to you then send them a second email that says I've sent it to the superintendent.
Who are you see, seeing the request a staff member or the requester constituent that contacted the board members often that is what the chair has done is they thanked, the [00:45:00] person and said I am sending this on to the superintendent and I think it's nice to include my email in that and so in that response the requester is seeing that.
That their email was received and that it's being forwarded to me and they can expect some kind of a communication from me or appropriate staff member.  That the process I was speaking to is the board members forwarding. Yeah, but the difference but there's a difference between what this says.
What this says is we're directing the requester to contact if we're changing this doctor Ludwig right work. And and and and that's.
that's like another step for the requester. I think what I'm gonna mind roughing it seems to me that we've had that we came to a different conclusion that that the [00:46:00] idea is that the chair would forward the email to the superintendent and let the constituent know the email has been forwarded. Whether that we don't even have to say like they would CeCe or they would reply and let them know that might be chairs discussion, but the idea is forwarded to the superintendent let the constituent know that the happen.
And there have been times when I've gotten an email forwarded from other members of the board besides the board chair where somebody had knew that person in their Community had sent an email and then that person said just as a matter of practice, you know, this is where your email needs to go on forwarding it to the superintendent and maybe that person men copied you.
Board member just as a matter of letting you know, they'd receive something for the community and what the board member did with it. But I think that's fine for the board member to then communicate to the to the Community member I boarded onto the. [00:47:00] The next Point under it says if the request is made to the entire board, the chair will be responsible for notifying the requester whom to contact within the dress district office, which is an interesting concept because I mean it is potentially a really big ask of the superintendent to field like if we're getting a lot of these in there being forwarded and superintendent needs to reply to all of them versus that you know, somebody comes in and we have this.
Chain of command so to speak and you know point the constituents say like oh that's actually sounds like something you'd go to the principal with the better disappoint them all to the superintendent. So most of the time these requests fall under our complaint process. Where is there something going on for Community member a parent and they've gone straight to the school board member and so often the board chair one of you reminds that Patron received your email, please remember being the first step.
In getting this resolved or your question answered is to go to your [00:48:00] principal your teacher your principal. But if this is District action around something else than those are fewer most of I think fall under the complaint category, which then it's easy to remind folks that process that almost feels like it needs a different section that if we're communicated about a general complaint.
The board member should respond to them by highlighting the complaint process. Is that second what you're thinking that's been the practice that has been what we've been doing whether you feel you want to document that in your operating agreements. It doesn't hurt. It is already in policy. And so the board chair is just following policy.
But what your maybe clarifying is if somebody writes something like that to the whole board whose again responding. Or if they're writing to an individual board member not a chair Vice unit the [00:49:00] chair, who do I respond and remind them about the complaint process or do I forward it on to the superintendent who reminds about the complaint process?
It's potentially a nice employee manual for the chair. Whoever gets the chair can potentially changing to your to and preacher knows. This is how we do it. And then I as a just a regular board member rest assured that my chair knows their Duty and is following it and do I have a role to play or not in this particular email?
Okay. It is almost like a role clarification for the charity. And so doctor I assume that if someone says, you know, my daughter's IEP is not being addressed at Western High School. This is not an email that we need to forward onto you. But rather respond to them by saying here's the complaint process, please start the classroom teacher site administrator, okay?
You can certainly do that. And I think that has been the practice. I've received those emails from our current chair and I have received copies like that from other [00:50:00] board members who? Reminded the public this sounds like something you should start with per our policy start with at your school. And but then they've always copied me and then sometimes I followed up depending on the nature of the email and you like to be copied on those types of emails.
I would say if you're wondering go ahead and copy me because you know, it's a way for me to know that there's a Community member who has a concern and. I appreciate also reaching out and saying thank you. We want to do our best here and somebody will get back to you and you know, let me know if they haven't
okay?
So this is one more reason why if we link that different policies. What [00:51:00] this is just one more place where linking the different policies into an operating agreement provides assistant. All right, moving on to the last one request for board action. So if we receive a request in the community that actually falls within our purview addressing board policy putting something on the board agenda.
One was to encourage the requestor in a respectful way to obtain a strong understanding of the issue which he or she is requesting the board take action and determine if how the district is already dealing with that issue and notify the requester that the board may not take action on any subject or discuss anything outside the view of the public setting and that in order for us to take something up.
We need to have at least two board members requesting to put it on the agenda. Within 10 business days of the request to the full board, the board chair will provide a response to the requester and writing of what action if any of the board will be taking in response to the request. If the request is made to place a matter on the board agenda the process of placing them out on the agenda will be provided to the requester so that he or [00:52:00] she may take productive steps to create an agenda item and if board active board action isn't denied and whole or in part the requesting party May reach out to board membership in understanding of why the board acted as it did.
You have no thoughts on that shortly. We've demonstrated we have no opinion.  And
again, I'm happy.
Mmm.
[00:53:00] And then the second one is just the wandering around the 10 business days. And again, I appreciate we need a deadline and stuff but part of me was like well, we as a board only gather like once a month, but we're supposed to get back to somebody in 10 days as to what action we're going to take and in for me / what came to mind was the instance with non-toxic, Wilsonville.
And they came to us and they talk to us but we are also Gathering and receiving information and it just was one of those things where you'll ultimately it was our board needed and wanted to have a discussion on this and come to a joint conclusion on how we wanted to deal with pesticide use on our schools.
But you know 10 within 10 days of their first action. I don't really think any of us were. We'll really there and wanting to take you know have that discussion just yet and reality is is maybe you still responding 10 days. Yeah, [00:54:00] or it's going to take no action. It doesn't mean that we can you know, ultimately do I just as felt like, you know, we need some flexibility because things evolve over time as more information becomes known and I like to be able then to what would I attended with the 10 business days was to not give them a final action, but get least give them an update as to what's happening.
Like I mean, the pesticide thing went on for months as it needed to and so I just think within 10 days of a specific request from part of an update like will be taking this up. We're meet we're meeting with you know, so and so so just so that there's this is a very simple equation don't feel like they're being ignored.
Okay seconds, but I can certainly clean up that language make that clear I can get another triangle provide a response to the Community member in writing. That their request has been received and is being considered.  And
[00:55:00] if if the board will be taking any action in response to the request, so maybe just that it was real because I think what you're saying is was it received and where is it in process? Right? Yeah.
I'll text that I think the reality of this is that. The board chair is getting these are the individual with no support staff to be clear and in the problem, so I know that Miss Douglas when I make notes on here, and I need to follow up. I have her help because. We have a shared document. Right but the problem with the emails is that those aren't shared right with our board secretary initially.
And [00:56:00] so sometimes it's just hard to keep track. It's hard to keep track of. Oh.  And and so I just would like the board to be thinking about. Our tool for the board chair.  To be able to do this.  right because it's.
it's not at times that in a negligible amount of communication. I mean, the the reality of the situation is that we board members all of us here have jobs families personal lives a very big volunteer gig here and when.  Big things here [00:57:00] we get big commentary on it and that's a lot to track so. I just wanted to say that just empathize with that role of the chair and to make sure that we make it manageable and I don't know if that means reducing the amount of detail here to allow flexibility to the chair.
If we think about just further clarification of the role of the chair how much burden of responsibility do we want to put on that person? I think that there's nothing we can't do we don't want we don't want to we probably couldn't stop all the public comment and that's a good thing. And so we can't stop the inflow of it's not the and we can't ask the board not to the chair not to have to respond.
So maybe the solution is to you know, Dole it out have a rotation up. Each of us gets every fifth inquiry, you know. So there is a lot to ask of it and that also [00:58:00] creates its own management issues is who's getting what much are still having they're like, alright you do that. Well, you know and it's in the time she can say you do that.
She could also type a response that says hey we received it. We're processing it, you know, so I do think possibly I mean I think Ginger raises a really good point.  and we're working to continue to revise these I think this needs to maybe be revised, but maybe we. Slight slight Step Up in light of the workload of the chair and see if then we can get it to place.
It seems much more comfortable and manageable. I think we're there because the idea is to though, you know things unfortunately do get lost and in the in the shuffle and I were human that's going to happen the idea of this is how can we. Reduce that from happening with frequency or having ever becoming known as that's how we conduct our business because that's not the [00:59:00] case and this is just some guidelines to help instruct you in those instances, but we can we can take a step back and look at it in light of the issue.
Right? Well, I don't think we I'm not really asking to take a step back, but I think that.
What we're doing is we're creating systems that make it easier. So I have some like along with the kind of language that I've been using that public comments. I have some boilerplate that I'm been trying to use and responses and the more that we have those the last time it takes and the easier it is to to respond in timely manner.
But all those I just think you to be this is a helpful guide I think in being able to respond because we're going to link to other policies or to language but.
it's just a consideration [01:00:00] that.
as we're growing as a district that this is a will be ongoing challenge. When you've dealt this last year and a half, I mean, what can we or the district do to help take some of this off your plate?
My sense is that there are times where I think a tracking? Device, and I'm assuming by the board secretary or some administrative, you know, this would be helpful and maybe that's just a matter of the board chair being able to flag. This is a constituent or this is an ask that I think needs to be tracked within our time frames.
Just throwing out an idea. You know, we have a [01:01:00] board secretary, but she manages like she's a superintendents executive assistant as well. And so she's managing like the whole the whole District basically, so to ask her to also then you know help manage the chair manage like all the public to is a big ask.
I mean, it could be potentially one strategy is if there is somebody who is a very part time board secretary who helps the chair. I might not be need right now today, but in the near future who helps the chair manage communication with the public to ensure that there's you know, follow through and then it's tracked and that the language is used and we want to use and because the chair is making a lot of big decisions and receiving a lot of input and there he or she is wrangling all of us board members, which is not easy also, so that could be a nice resource for the chair.
Going forward would you be open to Kelly and I just [01:02:00] inquiring of other school districts that are nudging it our size or larger as to how then they manage and I think there's also seasons of this there's they'll be months when you know, depending on the topics you aren't receiving and so we want to hire someone who's kind of sitting there waiting to manage and then they'll be a topic or a peak and there's a lot of activity.
So how do we create a system where when we're in those Peaks? We've got the tools and some strategies for then organizing that communication. So if you'd be open to us asking some other districts are size and larger how they deal with those. I don't yeah, and I don't want to rule out the opportunity for technology to have an answer to and what the downside of that is that you have new board members like me.
Could you don't know your technology to the extent that I could utilize it fully? So maybe board chairs need to [01:03:00] get like a crash course on how to better use the technology to fulfill the obligations to communicate and the technology is only going to help insofar as we have Clarity around who's responding back and you know what to do with those emails.
So we kind of need the process for tonight around. This clarity as well as than a tool to help us manage that so to summarize. I appreciate that discussion because I think it's just a facing the reality of kind of where we are today and where we could be again in the future. And so for the purposes of this section, did we come up with an a.
Agreement, I mean one thing I heard was take it one level up. But what I what I understand that to be as like just one love like was slightly more macro. So just slightly less detail. The other thing I heard is the benefit of having template language and so like notify the Community member that members of the public are encouraged to obtain a strong understanding of the issue.
I mean, maybe there is like, you know, it's something in quotation marks. [01:04:00] So just a lift, you know place in there. So I'm not sure if this section needs further. Ark we reached an agreement?