Springfield School Board — May 11, 2026

4:02 Are we ready? Okay. This just goes along with these.

5:31 Yours? Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the May 11th, 2026 meeting of the Board of Directors, Springfield Public Schools. All rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Jeff, how many people do we have attending online? 24? Oh, nice crowd. Well, thank you for everyone who's

6:18 here in person, and thank you also to the people who are attending online. We enjoy having you participate. I'll go ahead and read the statement of land acknowledgement for the evening. We acknowledge that we are in the traditional homeland of the Kalapuya people, specifically the community that was known as Chifen, the area that we now call Springfield. Kalapuya people, who have lived in this region since time immemorial, were illegally dispossessed of their land and forcibly removed to what are now the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations over several years, but most notably in treaties between 1851 and

7:03 1855. The Kalapuya are now members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. And members of Kalapuya still live, work, study, and thrive in this area and continue to make important contributions here in Springfield, across the land we now refer to as Oregon, and around the globe. This information is shared out of a responsibility to prevent the erasure of Native culture, heritage, and people, and to ensure a quality contemporary education for future generations. We'll move now to the agenda item number two, the approval of the agenda. I would entertain a motion.

7:52 I move to approve the agenda. Moved- Second ... by Director DeGraff. Second. And seconded by Director Brew. Can I-- Sorry, can I add something? Yeah, now's- Okay ... the time. Yeah, I would like to add SEA. They're wanting to come, or wanting to create a space for them to be able to speak in the future. I thought I saw something saying that we were going to discuss that at our June 9th meeting. Is that- Are we going to do that June 9th? Yeah. Oh, just a suggestion. Okay. You wanted to add it this evening? We can either add it this evening or June 9th. Tonight would be great. Okay. If-

8:37 Other board members? No, I don't want to discuss it tonight. Okay. I'm okay with discussing it tonight. I'm indifferent, so either... I should probably just do it on the 9th so that we can- Okay ... yeah, have some more time to think about it. Okay. Let me ask a question. Would this be participating with SEA in the dialogue or conversation, or is this just a you want a discussion amongst ourselves? No. SEA was wanting time to be able to come and speak. Umara suggested maybe that SEA gets a spot

9:24 after public comment, but under the umbrella of public comment, so they would have a space to just report to us what's on their plate. And I think that's all that they were really wanting. But we can put it for June 9th, and that's perfectly fine. Why don't... My suggestion would be to have a preliminary discussion so we know what questions we would like to ask, and maybe pose some of those this evening. So a short conversation I think would be great for me. Okay. Other board members? Are we going to also ask OSEA and maybe school PTOs and SAC if they want to have time at the board meeting as well? I would say that's to be determined by the board conversation.

10:13 I think we're getting way out of line of our board purview here, so. Well, I do know that 4J does it as a routine matter on theirs. I don't know if they em- I'd rather not emulate 4J. Excuse me, what? I didn't hear that. I'd rather not emulate 4J. Is there any real reason for that, or- Well, I mean, a lot of reasons, but yeah, I don't really want to entertain that. Well, education is full of best practices. If that's a best practice, I'm not averse to looking at any other district on that. But, again, it's a group discussion, so. Short discussion this evening, and then maybe put it for a more deeper discussion for June 9th. I'm not hearing a consensus of the whole board wanting to discuss that

10:59 tonight. I'm hearing that Director Cole is okay with it. I'm open to it, yes. Okay. I'm open to a short discussion. It'd be a short discussion. And I would also. So, are you suggesting then to put it under 6E? Sure. Yeah, that sounds fine. So we'll make that item 6F. And for any of you that doesn't know what SEA stands for, it's Springfield Education Association.

11:48 Is there a motion then with the amendment? Oh- Are there any other- Yeah, I'd like to pull one of the consent agenda items, item 5A1, the board meeting minutes from April 13th, and pull that from the consent agenda and discuss that. Okay. Any other modifications or changes to the agenda?I would entertain another motion then including those two amendments. I move approval of the agenda with the amendments we've discussed. I second. Okay. Approved by Director Cole, seconded by Director Langworthy. Call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye.

12:34 Aye. Aye. Are there any against? No. Okay. Motion carries four to one. Moving on to presentations then. Welcome, students. Which of you are seniors? Wow. Getting excited? Why don't we start with you then, and seniors leading, okay, and give us an update on what's happening at your schools. You might have to hold that one down.

13:19 Can we get a little more volume, Jeff, on that? Try it. Okay. Good evening, school board members. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share several highlights and updates from SHS. Our spring athletics program continue to represent SHS well. Girls and boys golf teams are preparing for districts and regional postseason competition, while girls tennis has a doubles team and boys tennis has an individual athletic advancing into the state tournament next weekend. Baseball and softball programs have continued to grow with very young squads, and they're excited about

14:06 the future of the program. In addition, girls flag football has recently competed its second season. Our track and field team is also gearing up for districts in two weeks. We are proud of our student athletes for their leadership, dedication, school spirit, and what they have demonstrated throughout the season. Our choir program has advanced to the state level. This is a tremendous accomplishment and reflects the dedication, talent, and commitment of our students and directors. We are incredibly proud of their achievement and look forward to their performances in the future.

14:52 Students were also recognized at the Wildish Theater for their outstanding contributions to the visual and performing arts. Each student was nominated by teachers and administrators for demonstrating creativity, dedication, growth and commitment to their craft. Their work reflects the passion and talent that make our arts program thrive. Our junior council has been working hard to plan this year's prom, which will take place at the Wow Hall May 16th. Spirit Week is also underway with theme days including Pajama Day, Twin Day, Movie Character Day, Surfers versus Bikers, and Anything But a Backpack Day. Our theater program celebrated the success of its most recent

15:39 show, "She Kills Monsters" last week. It was an amazing performance by our young artists. It was full of fun, laughter, and a little Dungeons and Dragons adventure. At last week's dual multicultural assembly, it was a great success. We could really see the planning and coordination that went into making the event happen. The energy in the auditorium was positive and engaging, and the performances celebrating cultures from around the world showed the pride our students and staff have for their heritage. A big thank you to Miss Elena Espinoza for organizing such a wonderful event for SHS. Graduation is right around the corner, June 5th at 7:30

16:24 PM. At our final senior class meeting this Wednesday, students receive important updates and details about graduation day. And a big thanks for everyone who contributed to such a thoughtful teacher appreciation week for our staff. The time and effort that went in made a huge difference, and we are grateful for all that helped our teachers feel valued and appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, Lucy. Appreciate the update. And Hunter, what's going on at Thurston? Good evening, members of the board. My name is Hunter Murphy. I'm the ASB president representing for Thurston High

17:10 School. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. Today I'm joined by ASB president-elect Teagan Roche. Colt Night was a huge success with nearly all our CTE pathways, art pathways, and over a dozen clubs, including GSA and Be The Light Bible study being represented, all well-supported by our ASB leadership. Leadership conducted Colt races and five powers leaders shared opportunities for affinity spaces. Thank you and congratulations to everyone who showed up to make Colt Night a success. What? Oh. Also at Colt Night, our mental wellness student union, led by Hope Huey, passed out mental health resources and many other clubs made appearances.

17:56 Our campus affinity groups and five powers are looking ahead to Jubilee Week, beginning on May 18th and culminating with BSU's annual block party on May 22nd. Elections for next year's ASB leadership began on April 6th and concluded with votes being cast on April 27th and 28th. Congratulations to-Next year's ASB President, Tegan Roche, ASB Vice President, Annie Robison, ASB Financial Director, Layla Sierra, and our ASB Assemblies Director, Lillian Blair, and ASB Communications Director, Callie West. Congratulations to them on winning their respective elections. We want to congratulate and wish our incoming ASB leaders luck.

18:42 They'll take office this September and serve during the 2026 to 2027 school year. All right. You got this. We also want to thank this year's ASB leadership for their hard work. This included Hunter Murphy, ASB President, Jasmine Rojas, ASB Vice President, as well as Channing Contreras, Tegan Roche, and Rosie Montes. This team also included our class officers, Curtis Johnson, Wyatt Hillsberry, Taylor Roberts, Mallory McGuire, Chris Yuri, and Evan Willowbridge. Congratulations on an amazing and productive year for our ASB. Our theater performance, "Dracula," opened Friday, April 24th, and

19:29 went for two weekends. Congratulations to our actors and actresses on an amazing show. Spring sports are wrapping up with dominant performances by golf, track and field, and flag football. Girls flag football is the league champion and will host a round one playoff game this Wednesday evening at the Thurston Stadium. Our boys golf team won the district tournament and will be competing for the state championship on May 18th and 19th at Tokatee Golf Course. The baseball team is currently ranked 10th in the state. The boys and girls tennis teams competed well at the district tournament. We have a handful of tennis athletes who will be going on to the state tournament. Our band and orchestra programs have been doing very well, with our music

20:14 program being selected for the Eric Hammer Memorial Community Outreach Program through the Eugene Symphonic Band. This provided our musicians with the amazing opportunity for clinics with experienced directors, financial support, and ensemble coaching. Our band also qualified for the state contest, one of only 12 bands at the 5A level to be chosen to compete. Colts were represented heavily at the state solo and ensemble competition last weekend, with quite a few THS students placing in the top 10 in the state for their instrument. Congratulations, band and orchestra. The third quarter is wrapping up, and our seniors are getting closer to graduation with less than a month remaining in their final semester of high school. They are preparing for their futures and securing

21:01 various scholarships and grants and applying for colleges and trade schools. Our seniors had their last senior meeting of the year, and they're preparing for graduation. We are pleased to share that we reached our goal with over 62% of our current seniors having completed their FAFSA. This means students are gathering information that will help them explore education and training beyond high school. Good luck to all our seniors. Building a positive attendance habit is the foundation for future success in careers and life. Our current ninth and 10th grade students are ending the year strong, with over 75% of ninth and 10th grade students missing fewer than 10 days of school this year. Next year, Colts must maintain 85% to

21:48 drive each quarter. Students can check their parking pass eligibility in the main office. Want to thank the board for the opportunity to share the success and goals of our community this year. Thank you. Thank you, Hunter. And for both of you, Lucy and Hunter, really appreciate your participation. We have two more board meetings, but usually the seniors aren't here at those, so good luck to both of you. What are your plans for next year? I'm going to beauty school. Uh-huh. Okay. Hunter?

22:33 Going to Lane Community College. Good. Yeah, excellent school. The choir, by the way, did they perform at state last Friday? I believe so. I don't know how they did, but I know that they've won awards throughout this festival season, so they're outstanding. And then, Hunter, as you said, the wind ensemble will be performing at state this Friday, so good luck to them. Yeah. But thanks to both of you, and good luck as you move on in life. It's been a pleasure having you serve the school district and the board. So, thank you. And now we'll move to Doris. Good evening, chair and members of the board. My name is Doris Diaz. I'm representing Willamette Leadership Academy.

23:19 Willamette Leadership Academy held its spring carnival on May 9th. I wasn't there, but I heard it did. We also begun state testing for middle school students. Echo and Foxtrot, as well as Alpha and Bravo, have competed for the first round in the intramural volleyball competition. Foxtrot won and Alpha won. We also have several major events coming up as we approach the end of the school year. Graduation is approaching, along with promotions and awards ceremonies recognizing cadets' achievements. Our cadets will also participate in upcoming FTX events where they engage in activities such as archery, art, and hands-on learning experience focused on survival and teamwork.

24:04 Junior and senior prom will take place on May 6th. And on May 22nd, our color guard will represent Willamette Leadership Academy at the Emeralds game for the Armed Forces Nights by presenting the colors. Discount tickets are available for staff, students, and families for $7 each. Each must be purchased by May 8th.Iron Cadet and company events are coming up in June, with cadets preparing for one of the most physically demanding competitions of the year. Additionally, Willamette Leadership Academy has recently joined the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program. This allows families to support the school by simply shopping at Fred Meyer, with a portion of purchases going towards WLA at no extra cost. And finally, Sergeant Johnson has graduated.

24:49 We are grateful for his contributions to Willamette Leadership Academy. That is all. Thank you for your time. Thank you, and welcome. You are going to be here representing Thurston next year, as- Yes, sir ... as the incoming. Well, thank you for being here tonight. Nice handoff, Hunter. And thank you to all of you for being here and give us an update on your school. So, we'll now move to agenda item three, presentations B, the K-5 presentation.

25:36 Chair Laye, before we begin, can I make a statement? Yes. I have a concern tonight about the process and governance. I'm looking forward to hearing from our directors. I believe substantive board business agenda direction and presentation development should occur transparently, and through publicly deliberated board process with equal participation by the board. That did not happen here. I believe that two board members shaped the presentation using serial communications prior to this meeting, and now I'm ready to hear from directors. Give us one second. It's still loading. All right.

26:21 Good evening, school board and listening audience. I am Joyce Johnson, the elementary director, and I am joined tonight by two of our amazing building leaders, principals Knight and Price. And we were asked to give an overview of elementary instruction. I believe the term was a 3,000-foot overview. And so we are prepared to do that tonight and share with you what we do every single day. So, we begin our elementary instruction by grounding ourselves in the K-5 content standards. And so these are all of the standards that our amazing teachers cover on a daily basis. So we focus on the

27:06 arts, which include dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts. We focus on English language arts, reading, writing, language, speaking, and listening. And then health is actually a huge jumble together of different things that fall under health. And it might surprise you, because there's some things in here that also occur in other standards areas. So it's wellness and health promotion, safety and first aid, substance use, misuse and abuse, food, nutrition, physical activity, social, emotional, and mental health, health relationships and violence, abuse prevention, growth and development, and sexual and reproductive health. Library and media standards are also covered in all of our schools, and

27:53 so the standards and learning goals that we focus on are information literacy, reading engagement, and social responsibility. Math includes algebraic reasoning, numeric reasoning, geometric reasoning and measurement, and data reasoning. That's just the first page. We are moving on to physical education, and we have four domains there. Domain one is developing a variety of motor skills. Domain two, applying knowledge related to movement and fitness concepts. Domain three, developing social skills through movement, and domain four, developing personal skills, identifying personal beliefs of movement, and choosing to engage in physical activity.

28:40 Science includes quite a bit, and I know you've all spent a lot of time this week on science. Dimension One is science and engineering practices. Dimension two includes the cross-cutting concepts. And then dimension three are the disciplinary core ideas, including earth and space, engineering, technology and application of science, life science, and physical science. So that's the grade level content that is paced out over the six years. Social and emotional learning includes social awareness and identity, self-management and agency, social awareness and belonging, relationship skills and collaborative problem-solving, responsible decision-making, and curiosity.

29:25 And I've given you the social science '24 standards, as they're called. Although they were adopted in '24, they don't go into effect until next year, and they will include civics, geography, economics, history, and 10 essential disciplinary practices. So our teachers have a big job, and they're up for the challenge. And so our classroom teachers are responsible for all standards and standards areas. But we share the load. And so our library EAs take on the library and media standards, some of the arts standards, social science standards, and science standards. And then our specialists, for example, our PE teacher, their scope and sequence includes the arts,

30:11 health, PE, and social and emotional learning. Our music teachers include the arts, social and emotional learning, and social science. Our behavior interventionists focus primarily on social and emotional learning. Our academic interventionists focus primarily on English language, arts, and math. And our special education staff focuses on specially designed instruction.So when we build our schedules, we have a lot of different considerations. And so on a regular school day, we go from 8:35 to 2:50, and that's six hours and 15 minutes. And then we have generally two early releases per month, and those are much shorter. We have three hours and 55 minutes on those days.

30:57 So we have some non-instructional considerations that we build into all of our schedules. Our student lunches are 20 minutes across the district, and then we break up our recesses into two 15-minute blocks. So we have 50 minutes a day for recesses and lunch. We need to make sure that our teachers get their lunches too, so when we build our schedules, that's a part of it. And additionally, we have teacher prep, which is 45 minutes a day during the student contact day, four days a week. So when we look at our instructional needs, our literacy block needs to start with 90 minutes, and that is based on research and best practice, and that's where the literacy block begins. And then we offer 30 minutes of tiered instruction, and that's where our students are getting what they need based on

31:44 where they come to us. Our mathematics block is 60 minutes a day. That's based on research again, and NCTM recommendations. And then our PE, library, music rotations are 45 minutes, and that directly ties back to making sure that we're giving our teachers those 45-minute preps. So our teachers are prepping four days a week while our students are in their rotation. Then that leaves 60 minutes a day for science, social science, health, PE, if we have remaining minutes, our PE teachers do some but not all of those PE minutes, social and emotional learning, and the arts standards that aren't covered by our specialists. In addition to that 60 minutes, there are

32:30 45 more minutes a day where our teachers have great flexibility, and they can focus on caring connections, morning welcoming, and a lot of people use some of that time for i-Ready Independent Pathway. That's also where we see some of our monthly projects show up based on what month it is. And so we see some of those themed activities occurring during those 45 minutes that are often tied to our social science standards. So I've invited two building leaders today to talk to you about their schedules so you can get a snippet. We have 12 unique schedules in the district, and so I invited them for really great reasons. Maple, as

33:15 Principal Knight will share with you, has the ability to create thematic weeks that the staff agrees upon, and they allocate multiple days to a social science, science, writing, health unit that can connect to the literacy block, and it's detailed in their curriculum map. So when they plan together, they're planning for these integrated blocks. They offer visual arts, which is integrated throughout the day. They are one of the schools that received a grant to offer an additional PE block that starts at 8:00. So students are welcome at their school earlier than the time I posted up when we first began. They can come in at 8:00 a.m., and we have a licensed specialist in conjunction with a community partner. It's called Healthy Moves. We have them in a few of our schools, and they offer

34:00 that additional PE block in the morning. Given their size, they're running a slightly different rotation. They're on an AB as opposed to an ABC, which our larger schools utilize. And then they have a lot of flexibility to adjust the classroom schedule as needed. I have also invited Principal Price, and his schedule is also different. As our smallest school in the district, their focus is unique, and based on what their school community needs. They have visual arts and science integrated throughout the week, and that is heavily focused during their library time. So we do have a scope and sequence on library lessons written by a licensed teacher, and then their library EA enhances that and adds a

34:47 whole lot of visual arts and science. You'll see when we share with you that Walterville has a morning block devoted to health, social and emotional learning, and writing. They enjoy all of their core subjects before 1:15, and so they get those in the morning, and then they have afternoon blocks devoted to other subjects. And then they are one of our schools that I am often being asked for permission to go on field trips. They use field trips to enhance their instructional content in a really neat way. So I'm going to turn this over to each of them, and they're going to delve in a little deeper on their individual building schedules. We'll start with Maple and Principal Knight. Good evening. We're going to start by looking at

35:34 our building schedule. And so, it's a lot to look at. This is our main page for our building schedule. Our schedule actually includes 13 pages, 13 tabs, featuring classified schedules, early release schedules, classified early release schedules, specialist schedules, etc. But today we're going to focus on the most commonly used page, which is this one, and it shows each grade level's daily schedule. And then further, we're going to zoom into one grade. So we're going to take a closer look at our second-grade schedule, and then I have reformatted it. It's hard to read there. And so, this is going to be easier to read and follow. We're going to start with our morning routine. As Director Johnson said, we have

36:22 Healthy Moves in the morning, so students are welcome to come 8:00 to 8:25. They have physical activity in the gym. 8:25 to 8:35, they head to class and are welcomed at the door by their teacher. And then we have morning meeting across all grades from 8:35 to 9:00. For morning meeting, we follow the morning meeting book format, and our goal during that time is for classrooms to build connections, but also foster a positive classroom culture.Starting at 9:00, we have our morning block of our core instruction. So our second graders start with math from 9:00 to 9:45. So this is 45 of their 60 minutes of math. They then head to their first recess for 15 minutes outside

37:08 with their classroom teacher. When they come back, 10:00 to 10:30, they have Tier 2 reading intervention. So this is when some of our students head to our academic interventionists to get reading skills based on their needs. And then students that stay with their teacher have literacy activities led by the teacher based on where their reading levels are. 10:30 to 11:00 is our first whole group reading block, and this is where our teacher uses the magnetic curriculum for second grade. Then 11:00 to 11:30, we have our small group reading time, and this is where educational assistants push in. Students are given reading instruction based on their reading level.

37:53 It's a lot in the morning, so it's time, they're hungry by this time, and 11:30 they head to lunch for 20 minutes. That is directly followed by recess, their second recess, for 15 minutes. When they get back to the classroom, we finish their math minutes, and this is where we focus on their i-Ready My Path time, and also an opportunity for the teacher to pull small groups for math. 12:25 is when they head to their specials rotation, and for second grade, their rotation is AB, which is music and PE every other day. This leads into our afternoon, where our second graders participate in an integrated learning block. So they begin with writing instruction from 1:10 to 1:40.

38:40 Following that, they have their whole group reading time, the second block of 30 minutes, and this is where we're using mostly Wonders curriculum. And then 2:10 to 2:45 is our themed units time, where depending on the day or depending on the week, you could see science, health, social studies, library, SEL. 2:45 to 2:50, they pack up and they're dismissed. This larger afternoon block was both teacher requested and also teacher designed by our second grade team. It provides the flexibility for longer lessons and integrated learning opportunities. And it allows students, for example, they could be writing about science, they could be reading about science, and then

39:27 have hands-on science projects all within that time, any given day. And you could take out science and put social studies in there. But it gives that opportunity for teachers to have a larger chunk of time for lessons that take longer than the 30 minutes. We have similar connected blocks of time in kindergarten and first grade this year, and we're hoping to expand that model to other grades in the future. Let's switch then. Then I don't have to multitask. All right. I'm Andy Price from Walterville. The unique thing about Walterville is our size, so we're going to be able to look

40:12 at our schedule on one sheet. We don't have 13 pages, so I think that's why Joyce invited me today. So here, I also kind of boiled mine down to one page like Megan did, but we'll quickly go through this. So we have morning routine, early in the morning arrival, welcome, and then integrated science or integrated studies, which again, shows up better on my one-page schedule, so we'll talk about it more. Then we focus on reading, whole group reading and specials. Half the school is doing reading, half is at specials. Again, I'll show you on the schedule. That gets us to lunch. Everyone is at lunch at one time. That's also when teachers take their lunch. Most staff are taking their lunch during that time, except for those who are

40:57 supervising lunch and recess. Right after lunch, we have math, and then in the afternoon, we are focusing on the integrated studies blocks. So I'm going to switch to this. So here is our not 13-page document that I'll show you. Ours is simpler than the other schools, but I think they're doing the same things. Ours is just easier to see, so I think it is a good representation. So here's morning routine. This is when all students are coming to class, putting their bags away, putting their things in their cupboards and whatnot. The younger grades might do calendar at this time and things like that, kind of entry routines. And then at 8:40 to 9:00, all students and

41:42 all classrooms, we have integrated studies. Each grade is utilizing this a little bit different. They might be doing social emotional learning, health, writing, science. Kindergarten is focusing a little bit on literacy skills this year during this time. And again, all students, all teachers are doing the same thing. That's teacher choice, what they're using there. Obviously, they have to cover all the content areas. Each teacher in each grade uses that a little bit different. Half of our school, K through two, then goes into reading. The dark blue is whole group, light blue is targeted reading group with small reading groups with EAs, and then three through five head into specials. That's PE, music, library.

42:27 If you have not followed Walterville yet on Facebook, please do. We post all the time. If you want to know what they're doing in library, PE, music, or classrooms, Facebook's the best place to see it. We are posting constantly. So half of the school is at specials. That's when the teachers have prep or their collaboration period one day a week. And then they go to recess, recess, half the school back to back, and then we have our third, fourth, and fifth grade then starting reading during that hour block. Again, I want to go back up real quickly. So kinder hasWanted a full hour here. So we kind of negotiate. We only have a set amount of EAs who can do the reading groups.

43:13 So we're negotiating between grades, needs, and figuring out who needs an hour, who wants a half an hour, because if you see, each grade has one chunk of reading group time. So that's something that teachers have input on to try to create a schedule that works for them and their students. And then leading up to lunch, we're back to the whole school working on reading again, heading into lunchtime. So at 11:30, we have now had all students go through target reading group, whole group reading, and specials. Then we have lunch and recess. Then we come back, and almost everyone starts math right away. In the afternoon, we have Tier 2 reading. Each grade has that. Some grades share just based on need.

44:01 And then our first grade team this year really wanted to come back from lunch and not do math. They wanted to have a half an hour of integrated studies. So again, there was some flexibility there in first grade to meet those teachers' needs. They wanted to have an hour... Sorry, the wind is distracting here. It's blowing my name tag away. Integrated studies here, and then they go to Tier 2, and they really wanted this hour of math block here. That worked better for them. So again, those are things that we can be flexible with and meet the students' needs. Everyone's doing math here. So by about right here, everyone's done with core. The afternoon Tier 2 is when we have students needing extra reading support going there.

44:46 The other students are staying with the teacher, focusing on reading as well. And then, as you can see, the whole afternoon, we have chunks for integrated studies and those extra PE minutes, health, and whatnot. And then that's the end of our day. We're small, so we're a little bit more flexible. But again, all buildings are doing these things. But we prioritize student needs, teacher requests. We anchor our schedule around reading and math and specials, but there is flexibility in the day. As you can see, we have kind of pieced in, they want to do health here, integrated studies here. Those could be flipped, but that's where the teacher has requested those.

45:32 We have a longer chunk here for integrated studies. We could have had Tier 2 starting a little bit before, but those teachers wanted to extend that out, which was fine, so they had a longer chunk of time for integrated studies there. But these are kind of the things that go into building a schedule. Again, student needs, core content area necessities, and then teacher request. Is there any questions about that process? All right. So we hope that that provided the overview that we were asked to provide and allowed you to see that while all of our schools cover the same content, they work on delivering it in ways that work for their students and their staff.

46:19 So if there are any questions for us about this, we'd be happy to answer them now. Thank you. Any questions, board members? Nope. No. Thank you for giving us this overview. I think there are a lot of questions from the board and from the public and community on this. But as we said, this is just sort of an overview, 30,000-foot level kind of a thing. I, in the past couple of weeks, have gone through the ODE, I think they call it content standards and learning outcomes. And just for down the road, my questions are, even in kindergarten, language

47:04 arts, 34 content standards, 108 outcomes. So I think what I've been hearing from the public is a desire to know more. What can we teach? Six hours and 15 minutes is not a lot of time when you put a lot of other things in there. And I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention concerns around an hour to cover five subjects. That's 12 minutes. It's actually an hour and 45 minutes. Okay. And then on top of that, we use the literacy block, which is the 90, to launch those subjects. So as Principal Knight shared with you, they're writing about science, they're reading about science, and then

47:49 they're doing hands-on science. They're writing about health, they're reading about health, and they're engaged in activities about health. So that is the reason why we've used that literacy block to launch our other subject areas, social studies and science particularly, and we've been talking to you about that this year. Well, and I understand that. But again, I think the community has questions around when you look at the color chart, it's really obvious to see it's dominated with math and language arts, and it's not specific to science or social-emotional learning. And those are the questions that I'm hearing from the community is indeed, are we teaching these? And we've had students write to the board saying that they didn't feel they got what

48:37 they wanted, and I think we have a responsibility as a board to follow up on those questions. So I really do thank you for the presentation. It's a great first step. Director Light, we don't believe that there is a single teacher in our district that isn't teaching all of the subjects. And if there are individual concerns that a student is not receiving instruction in all of the subject areas, we would encourage families to reach out to their building administrator. Because as the two sitting next to me will tell you, these subjects are being taught every single day. And at some point, if you'd like a presentation on, for example, English language arts and the numerous standards, our TOSAs and district teams have dug into those standards. We have priority standards. We have curriculum maps.

49:22 We have a scope and sequence, and we are teaching nearly all of them. So I think it would be exciting to give us an opportunity to show you how we are teaching all of the standards that we're required to teach, and we feel really good saying we're doing that. Well, I don't want you to mistake my comments as saying that you're not teaching them. I know you're teaching them. But the comments that I hear, again, from the community, from parents, and those kind of constituents, is they just want assurances. Mm-hmm. And so that's, again, going to be a future meeting. The intent was not to go there tonight, so I thank all three of you for being here and presenting. Yes. Any other comments or questions? No. No? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.

50:26 The next item on the agenda is public comments, and we have a total of nine people signed up. I don't know if they'll all go with three minutes. However, the potential to run over our stated goal is there, and I'm fine going a little over if we need to, but I wanted to poll the board on that. I'm okay. Thumbs up. I'm okay with that. Mm-hmm. Good. Okay, so before we move into that part of the agenda, I'll just go ahead and read the statement.

51:14 This is a portion of our agenda for public comment. The board provides three ways for community members to share public comment: written public comment, in-person oral public comment, and virtual public comment. Written public comment is received via email. Public comment received via email for this evening has been reviewed by the board and has also been posted on the district's website. The deadline for submitting a request for oral public comment was today at 2:00 PM, and those who requested an opportunity to speak this evening were notified by the board secretary about their request. Time permitting, the board may also hear public comment from individuals who signed up in person at the administration office before this meeting. We encourage groups with a common purpose to designate a spokesperson.

52:02 If your comments will be covered by a group spokesperson, please indicate so when your name is called. I want to remind those members of the public who have indicated a desire to make comments that our policy provides for a limitation of three minutes per person. The board will not hear comments regarding any school personnel, whether named or implied. Any complaints regarding a particular employee must be processed through the procedures set forth in board policy KL, which requires that complaints be submitted in writing to the superintendent. This procedure must be followed before there is any board involvement with such issues. A compliment involving a staff member should be sent to the superintendent, who will forward it to the employee, their supervisor,

52:47 and the board. And again, just a reminder that the comments are limited to three minutes, and Vice Chair Langworthy is our illustrious timekeeper. First up is Heather Quasanza. All right. Good? Good. Okay. Good evening. My name's Heather Quasanza. I'm a parent in this district and a former member of this board. I ultimately resigned because the environment surrounding service on this board had

53:34 become unhealthy and, frankly, unsafe for my family and me. I had hoped my resignation would encourage reflection, accountability, and a recommitment to professional governance practices. Unfortunately, many of the same troubling patterns continue, as evidenced by behaviors we've seen on the dais this evening. At the center of many of those concerns is Jonathan Light. While on the board, I witnessed and personally experienced repeated bullying, patronizing behavior, and lack of professionalism. Efforts to address those concerns constructively did not result in meaningful change. I am not the first board member whose resignation was influenced, in part, by these dynamics, but I sincerely hope I will be the last. Six complaints, six formal complaints, have been filed against Mr. Light in the last three years, in addition to three recently filed with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, regarding his lack of professionalism and compliance

54:22 with board policy, and a refusal to adhere to ethical governance expectations and public meetings laws. By comparison, the previous five board chairs had zero complaints filed against them. Tonight, there will be another discussion about board policy BG on board staff communication, which was revised and adopted just last spring. Policies around board staff communication and school visits exist for important reasons. They protect instructional time, maintain clear lines between governance and administration, support student privacy, and prevent interference in day-to-day district operations. Individual board members do not supervise school or staff. The board governs collectively through policy and through the superintendent. Attempts to weaken these boundaries undermine trust

55:07 and create confusion about roles and authority. Changing this policy while the district is between permanent superintendents is especially concerning and feels deeply underhanded. What is the actual problem being solved by changing this policy? Coordinating visits through district leadership is not burdensome. It's a standard governance practice, and it demonstrates respect for staff, students, and administrators. After my resignation, a parent sent me a message thanking me for helping to connect them with the right staff so their child could transfer schools and finally thrive. This is what your time on the board is supposed to be about, and this is what you're supposed to be focused on. It's the students, not your politics, not your personal power.Our students deserve adults who can govern with professionalism, accountability and integrity.

55:55 I hope the board chooses that path moving forward. And I'm donating a collection of books that I got and read when I was on the school board, and I'm hoping that you all will read them and maybe take some of this stuff as best practice, because y'all aren't doing your jobs. Thanks. Next person up is Naomi Raven. My name is Naomi Raven. I am a parent of SPS students and a former

56:43 Springfield school board member. I served five years on the board, including two years as vice chair and two years as chair. I served through the COVID-19 pandemic and the hiring of a superintendent. I understand this role and its ethical obligations. I am here tonight because I am deeply concerned by the conduct of this board. Current board members have misrepresented information and conducted themselves in ways that contributed to the resignation of two top district leaders. This toxic environment continues and is a substantial deterrent for qualified candidates considering application to these critical roles. This places our district in a vulnerable position that is not just concerning, but damaging. It is unacceptable that this board elected a chair in February who had been

57:29 removed from that same position and formally censured just weeks prior. Electing a leader with recent substantiated misconduct, who was undergoing multiple ethics reviews, and who currently has an open complaint filed with the Oregon Ethics Commission, reflects a failure of accountability. The April 27th meeting demonstrated these governance concerns clearly. At this meeting, the board chair presented a policy change that directly affects the role of the superintendent during a time that we do not have a permanent superintendent in place to participate in that conversation. Also at this meeting, the board chair publicly dismissed the Oregon School Boards Association. Lastly, counsel from our interim superintendent, along with community member concerns, were disregarded in favor of advancing board member preferred

58:15 outcomes. When a board member raised concerns about a censured member serving in a leadership role, it was clear that the majority of the board was uninterested in having that conversation and holding this board member accountable. This is not only concerning, it is damaging. Unethical board governance poses its greatest risk to a district when there is not a permanent superintendent in place, and for Springfield Public Schools, that time is now. Board behavior has eroded trust within the Springfield Public Schools community. Misrepresentation of key information, refusal to engage in honest public dialogue, and disregard for board policy have created division and confusion. Board misconduct has cost our district thousands of dollars,

59:01 is undermining our district's progress, is burdening our staff, and is pulling focus away from our students. I believe that at this point, you are our district's greatest liability. During my last two years on the board, I experienced firsthand how the conduct of Director Light monopolized the time and efforts of administrators and board members, and how it negatively impacted our students. As a former board member, I call on you to meet the standard of professionalism and integrity that this community deserves. Follow policy, hold yourselves accountable, and elect a new board chair that will do the same. Thank you.

59:48 James Stegall. Good evening. My name is James Stegall. I'm a Springfield homeowner and parent in the district. I've noticed a pattern across several school board meetings that concerns me. I've heard board members mention they are asking questions about district issues on Facebook and using that feedback to shape policy decisions. Now, I'll admit my bias. I think most social media creates echo chambers that feed extremism. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok have documented what they call coordinated inauthentic behavior. Which we know are fake accounts, foreign accounts posing as local citizens, bots and algorithms designed to fuel outrage and division for

1:00:36 engagement. This is their business model. These are not objective platforms for gathering data for the Springfield School District. I'm also concerned about equal access to questions posted on social media. I didn't know these questions existed until I heard about them at the board meeting. By not using official district channels, the board is ignoring most parents, specifically those who value digital privacy or don't have time to sit on social media. And even if someone is on Facebook, posts are only shown to a specific subset of people based on engagement history with the poster. Facebook maximizes for engagement, which is fundamentally different than reaching a representative sample of Springfield parents. It's also unclear how these informal polls comply with Oregon Public Records law regarding data retention and transparency.

1:01:21 Private companies have no requirement to respond to public records requests. Now, I understand that people use social media, but I'm asking the school board to update its policy to address these informal surveys. If a poll is going to inform policy, it should be shared simultaneously through email, text, or Seesaw, the channels the district actually asks parents to monitor. Accountable leadership seeks verifiable information about the reality of their organization. In the district, I think this reality can be found through tools, like anonymous teacher surveys with no fear of retaliation, parent and student surveys, as well as test dataAnd I understand all this takes resources, but I think it's fair to ask the board to base policy positions on methods that are accountable and can be audited rather than individual anecdotes or posts to Facebook followers.

1:02:07 If these methods are already taking place, like the recent email requesting comment on the superintendent search, that is great, and I would like more of that through official channels. Thank you. Ryan Herlins? Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Ryan Herlins. I'm a science teacher at Thurston High School, and I'm the incoming SEA Vice President. First, I appreciate the board's willingness to consider the creation of a permanent slot for us to speak at upcoming board meetings.

1:02:54 Second, I wanted to share the positive experiences many of us had at our school last week during teacher appreciations. Skip. Sorry. So I wanted to share the positive experiences many of us had at our schools last week during Teacher Appreciation Week. My building administration created a fun, unifying series of events every day at lunch. But I do want to be clear that staff morale is quite low. It's still quite low after the midyear teacher cuts. And third, I'd like to share some concerns that we have about the current budgeting process. I probably don't have to remind most of you that the abbreviated budget process one year ago led to those midyear cuts, and thus, I want to encourage you to be more inquisitive

1:03:39 and skeptical of this budget as it has been proposed. While we appreciated the initial announcement that cuts would be felt more evenly across the district, we were disappointed that most administrative cuts, sorry, were proposed not downtown, but at the building level, where they're yet again felt more intensely by students and by teachers. Our members have also voiced significant concerns about several points brought up again at last Thursday's budget committee meeting. While demographic trends leading to fewer students has led to reduced staffing across the state, it has been portrayed that there's nothing unique going on in Springfield, yet the available numbers seem to suggest a much steeper enrollment decline here compared to neighboring districts, and the causes for this and solutions to it are

1:04:27 not being openly addressed or discussed. There's also frustration that midyear cuts continue to be portrayed as a direct result of bargaining instead of management malfeasance. Let's be clear. Almost no one in this room could have imagined disruptive midyear cuts as a result of a pretty typical, albeit long, bargaining process that resulted in a very predictable COLA increase. For all of these reasons and more, we do urge the board to be extra deliberative about the budgeting process this year. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Brandon Ferguson?

1:05:14 Hello, and thank you. My name is Brandon Ferguson. Until February, I taught social studies at Springfield High School. Midway through the year, I was transferred to Hamlin Middle School due to the district's staffing cuts. We all know the disruption and heartbreak that those cuts caused for student and staff. I won't revisit all that tonight, except to say that it damaged trust in our school system among our students, most importantly, in ways that will take long, long time to repair. Last Thursday, I had a chance to review the district's budget presentation in detail, and what I found was, if I understand it correctly, deeply concerning. Unless I'm misunderstanding the numbers, the district is projected to end this year with more than $14 million in reserves

1:06:01 as ending fund balance, over $5 million more than originally projected. At the same time, the district eliminated 27 positions midyear to save approximately $2.34 million. If that's accurate, then even using a portion of those additional reserves could have prevented all of the disruption our students and staff experienced. As someone who's worked face-to-face with students every day for the last 11 years, I would have done every single thing in my power to avoid midyear cuts, as anyone in the buildings could have told you how disruptive they would be. It does not appear that every effort was made by the decision-makers in this building. That's why I'm concerned about the proposed budget

1:06:46 and resulting cuts that you'll be discussing tonight, that they're not receiving the scrutiny that they deserve. It continues a troubling pattern. Protecting non-student-facing positions while placing the greatest burden on school buildings, it feels as though, once again, the pain is not being equally shared by everyone in the district. Operational departments, for example, in the budget meeting, it was said that they were asked to make voluntary cuts, not demanded to make cuts, as the schools were mandated to find cuts. A vast majority of certified, classified, and administrative cuts are coming from buildings rather than from positions which will affect students far less. We would still, after the cuts proposed, have

1:07:31 4.5 more administrative FTE under this budget than we did pre-pandemic. I urge you not to adopt these cuts tonight. Please take the time to look at all options and ensure that every possible effort has been made to keep adults in front of students. The responsibility to ensure our resources are being stewarded in the most efficient way to support our students far outweighs the effort it will take to reassess these prioritiesThis is perhaps the most important job that you have. Please treat it with the diligence that it requires. Thank you. Thank you. Lisa Barager?

1:08:26 Good evening, board. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Lisa Barager, and I live in Springfield School District. I, too, am a former SPS board member and grandmother to a new SPS student who's a kindergartner in the Spanish language immersion program at Giley School. My granddaughter, Etta, is a fourth-generation student of Springfield schools. It's important to me that our district have a cohesive board of directors as well as a strong superintendent. In the recent past, I've witnessed evidence of discord and confusion among board members. This has included one director walking out of a meeting before it was

1:09:12 adjourned, public animosity between board members, including snide comments directed at each other, as well as members constantly stumbling for words and looking to Chairperson Light for what looks like approval. These and many other unprofessional and inappropriate behaviors continue to make me lose trust and confidence in this current board. One director has publicly stated that this board cannot be trusted. While I tend to disagree with some of their egotistical behaviors, I have to agree with that wholeheartedly. I would like to formally express my concerns regarding the leadership and conduct of this

1:10:00 board, especially Board Chairman Light. I think one thing we can all agree on is that in order to be an effective leader, one must be committed to serving the best interest of their constituents. This does not seem to be the case with Chair Light. One example of this is a recent special session that was called on April 27th that should've been focused on the most important task at hand, finding a superintendent. Chair Light made this special session all about his desire to change a policy making it allowable for him and other board members to enter schools without going through the proper channels. Frankly, this concerns me. If Chair Light had his way,

1:10:45 he, who has in the past been censured by fellow board members, who has proven he can't be trusted, could just walk into my granddaughter's school without reason, without permission. Chair Light, you seem to have a skewed sense of the authority that comes with being a board member. I, for one, would not feel safe knowing that the members of this board could bypass the very simple task of gaining permission to have access to our children. I don't say these things as a personal attack on Chairman Light or any specific board members. Director Brew, I realize you're new here, so you're excused from a lot of this, but I'm speaking my mind.

1:11:33 Sorry. We've reached our time. Okay. Speaking my mind in hopes that you all will consider even making that a priority to discuss changing that policy. And in closing, some of this unprofessional behavior I have witnessed tonight as two former board members spoke. I witnessed you, Director Langworthy, rolling your eyes, shaking your head, looking up at the ceiling. Needs to change. Be professional, people. Thank you. Sandy Miller?

1:12:27 Is Sandy Miller here? Moving on, Zach Bessette? Thank you. Am I good? Sorry, I don't know why I can't get it to that three. We'll just keep our eyes on it. Yeah. I'm going to face it.

1:13:15 Well, then I can't get it to reset at that three, the countdown mark. That's my problem right now. I'm short-winded, I mean. What was that? I'm pretty short-winded. Okay. Sorry, guys. Do it on my phone. Yeah, we can- You got it? ... just do it on a phone. All right. I too remember how annoying that was, keeping track of public comment times, looking for somebody, forgetting who was in charge of keeping time, all that kind of stuff. I know what it's like to sit up there. I know what it's like to be under fire and have people talking about you. I've been there. But I guess I'll stick to what I wrote. Good evening.

1:14:01 My name is Zach Bessette, and I'm speaking tonight as a community member and former board memberFirst, I want to point out how unprecedented it is. I don't think in my entire four years of board service I saw another board member in this boardroom. Maybe Mr. Light when he was an employee. But other than that, to have a bunch of former board members show up at your board meeting talking about the work you're doing should be concerning. I want to address the proposed changes to policy BG to begin with. This policy was adopted just last spring to protect students, staff, and the integrity of district operations by keeping clear boundaries between governance and administration. Off my notes, I just want to say I think it's weird that you want unfettered access

1:14:46 to our kids. I think it's peculiar that you would try to do that, and here's why. Because you're not always going to be on the board. There's always not going to be a board of teachers or former teachers or educators sitting up here. You guys are community members when you're in that role. I don't want any community member in this community walking into my kids' classroom. I don't have kids in classrooms anymore, but as a board member, as a community member, I'm not comfortable with that. I also have deep concerns about how the board handled the departure of the former superintendent. You guys all have procedures and policies, and there's a way to go about getting rid of people that is the right way to do

1:15:31 things, and with integrity and kindness and with class, I think to do some of those things, and I don't think those have been done. I think the community deserves leaders who model civil engagement the right way. We need adults who can work together, follow established policy, and show our students what respectful collaboration looks like. Please honor the governance framework that protects our schools, follow your own policies, act with professionalism, and put students first again. Thank you. Sheila Garrelts.

1:16:26 You go. It's fine. I'm a teacher, so I have a timer. My name is Sheila Garrelts, and I have the privilege of teaching at Walterville Elementary, the last rural school in the district, and a little piece of heaven. So I enjoy being out there. And I wrote a letter, and I'm going to read the letter, so I will just start there. Okay. I'm writing to formally express my deep concern regarding the district's decision to reduce Walterville Elementary's principal role to half-time. As a teacher with 14 years in this school, I've witnessed the direct correlation between active administration and student success.

1:17:11 I know in the past our school has had the position of principal as half-time, but it has always come with an additional .5 job with the district that would allow the option of doing that job while being stationed at Walterville most of the time. In other words, the principal's been there every day, all day, and just worked a job with the district and been still at Walterville. The reduction of administrative presence will negatively impact our school in the following ways. Student discipline and support. The principal is currently the primary point of contact for intensive behavior interventions. Without an administrator on site, these situations fall to the teachers and any other instructional staff, taking

1:17:59 valuable time away from the instruction. Instructional leadership. With reduced presence, informal walkthroughs and immediate feedback, which are crucial for teachers' growth, will disappear, impacting the quality of instruction. Walterville has been working towards reaching 80% in reading, and we are very close to reaching that goal. Last year, 58% of our students made their annual growth on their i-Ready diagnostic. Having full-time leaders, a leader helps keep us focused on our building targets and keeps students and teachers on track and moving forward. Safety and community. A visible administrator is essential for safe arrivals, departures, and building community trust. Having a principal visible to our parents in the morning and afternoon

1:18:45 during drop-off and pickup has been something that is part of our Walterville community for the last four years. In addition, our students expect to see their principal at their PBIS celebrations, as well as during lunchtime and at recess. A principal should also be approachable and reachable by parents and come to all of the events. He or she is generally a big part of our community outreach. Community is a big part of Walterville's success. With only working 20 hours a week, I am not sure how someone would be able to be at all of those things and maintain the sense of community that is such a wonderful part of Walterville. Please consider that there can be no half-time principal unless there are half-time

1:19:32 students. The students are at school all day. The teachers and students need support and guidance of the principal throughout the day. It does not matter how many students there are. We have the same issues that a school with more students have. We have all-day behavior needs. We have all-day students who are on IEPs. We have parents who need their needs being met any time of day. Yeah. Sorry. Ran out of time. Can I finish? The time is up- Okay ... and the policy stays three. Sorry about that, though. Thank you for being here.Thank

1:20:19 you to all people who gave comment tonight. We'll move on now to agenda item five, the approval of the consent agenda. I'll move approval of items two, three, and four of the consent agenda. I'll second. Approve motion on the floor by Director Cole, second by Director Light. Any questions or comments? Call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Motion carries five to nothing. Moving on then to action or consent agenda item number one as a separate item. Director Cole? Yeah, I guess I had some questions in the-

1:21:06 If I could have a motion first- Oh ... and then we'll entertain the questions. Okay. I move to approve agenda item one, consent agenda item one. And I'll second. So moved by Director Bru, seconded by Director Light. Questions and comments, Director Cole. Yeah. In the meeting minutes, there was the discussion around the integrated pest management. And I'm not sure what's going... There's a recorder's note that says that the notes were accurately recorded. So I'm not sure, I thought we were revising the notes, so I'm not sure what this note in the minutes means. Is it- So where did you find that, that it says recorder's note?

1:21:52 If you look at the meeting minutes on page four of nine, under the item 5A3, it says recorder's note. That's in my packet and the one online. Okay. This is for the April 13th minutes. Oh. Four of nine. Okay, sorry. I didn't find that. Bottom- I see it now ... paragraph. Oh, down where it says- It's the bottom of the page on the- Yeah. No, go ahead, Ken, sorry, what was your question? Yeah, the recorder's note. So it says the notes were accurately recorded. I thought we were revising them, so I'm confused the purpose of the recorder's note there. It also has

1:22:39 a comment that says no revisions are necessary. The district approved crossbow pesticide, which I don't believe the district has authority to approve that. I thought that's the board's responsibility, so there's a lot in that paragraph that I'm concerned about or doesn't seem to accurately reflect. I would have to go back and listen to the recording to know how to adjust the minutes for that. Okay. And the second issue I have there is the last on the next page, top of five of nine. It says the addition to the March 9th meeting minutes, updated supporting documentation on district-approved chemicals will be provided to the board. That's not what's reflected online in the meeting minutes.

1:23:26 It has different language. And so I'm just trying to keep track of what's, making sure we're recording this accurately. So I guess it doesn't feel like these minutes are accurate or there's questions in them, so I guess I can't support- So- ... approving them ... so would you suggest then bringing them back at a future meeting after they've been corrected and- If they've been clarified, yeah, I would, yes. Okay. Do I need to move to table the approval? Let's have the discussion and then, yes, we'll need a motion to- Yes. Yeah. Just table it. Okay.

1:24:11 So Ken, or Bob, go ahead and make your motion. I move to table this approval of these minutes. And I'll second that. Any further questions or comments? Call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Are there any against? Motion carries then to table the minutes for the April 13th minute. Probably see that on our June 8th meeting. Thank you. Action 5B. Action item 5B is approve school security systems resolution number 25-26.053. Mr.

1:24:59 Yancey. Thank you. So tonight, members of the board, I'm going to be presenting a resolution recommending the purchase of security system replacement. We'd had issued former communication or previous communication to the board explaining the situation. We have a very aging security system across a majority of our districts or a majority of our schools, all but four. We are routinely seeing those non-operational, and for a number of reasons. We also have a lot of hardwired copper phone lines that are failing. And due to all of that, and we do have the money budgeted or we have it allocated in this current year's budget, we did go out and solicit competitive

1:25:45 quotes. We are recommending tonight that we approve the agreement for Summit 17 Solutions to provide security system replacement through a State of Oregon contract, OETC21B Camera and Video, for a total cost of $462,191.50. And that's district-wide. Thank you. Do I have a motion? I move. Do I need to name the resolution number? You can if you want. You can or- I approve I move approval of the security detection system motion. Second.

1:26:30 Moved by Director Brew, seconded by Director DeGraff. Questions, comments? Yeah. Just one clarifying question. On the second page, the second paragraph at the top, it says the bids received were 482,000 to 192, but yet it's 462. So I'm curious which one is the accurate number? I'm sorry, that might've been a typo. Thank you. So revise it to 482,191.50. That was a typo on my part. Friendly amendment, if you would consider that, Bob-- Mr. Director Brew?

1:27:15 Yes. Thank you. So, I guess I'm also trying to understand from a contracting standpoint, the three quotes. Our policy on contracting is if it's over 250,000, it's supposed to be sealed bids unless it's a special procurement. So I'm trying to understand where this fits in terms of- Yeah. So purchasing off a State of Oregon contract is an exception to that procurement law. So these have already been bid, and these are guaranteed best pricing, and so we're purchasing off the State of Oregon contract that has been in place. So it's one of the special procurements. Aren't we supposed to, the board approve the use of the special procurement before we

1:28:02 go out to bids? We've not done that historically with State of Oregon contracts. We purchased our technology off of State of Oregon contracts, and the board has never done that in that situation. We've purchased a number of things off State of Oregon contracts. I thought that's what the policy said was- Yeah, we purchased our field turf off the State of Oregon contract. The board didn't look at a special motion. So we did not make the assumption based on prior board action on multiple occasions that that would be necessary. So I would look for further direction on that. But on the turf field, it was brought to us, the contract, and I think wasn't that put out to bid and not... It was ultimately purchased off a State of Oregon contract. Okay. And that was reflected in the board meeting. Yeah. Because I'm just trying to...

1:28:49 I believe the policy says there's supposed to be board approval of the special purchase before we do that. I would leave that up to the board to interpret policy. Okay. Is what you're talking about, Ken, where the vice chair usually reviews procurements? No, it's actually in the, I believe it's in policy DJC in the administrative rules, so the superintendent's one that says for a special procurement, it has to be approved by the board to do a special procurement before we do that. And so I'm just trying to make sure we're following policy. So- Following policy. I don't have that in front of me, so- Yeah ... yeah. Just for future edification, can we just

1:29:36 ask for a clarification to be brought to us at a future meeting? For this resolution? No, just what the policy says about State of Oregon purchasing list. Some kind of training around that? Is that- No, just tell me what policy it is so I can look at it, basically. Okay. If we're doing something that's, it may be past practice, but if it's not consistent with our policy, maybe we need to update the policy. Right. So. Do you know the policy? DJC is the board policy, and then there's DJCAR, that's the administrative regulation.

1:30:22 DJCAR actually specifies the getting prior board approval. So I wasn't clear, the copper wires, is that infrastructure outside of the school buildings, or is the copper wire what's in the school buildings in terms of what's failing? Both. Both? Yep. Okay. And I guess the other question is, so the system we're going to put in, we've put in at four other sites. How long have we had those systems in place?

1:31:08 Over a year. Well over a year. We have four different systems. Riverbend, Mount Vernon. Okay. I want to just advise the board that we currently have, and I'm not going to name the buildings, we currently have buildings unable to be armed. So we have buildings unsecured at this time. Yeah. So the expediency of this is upon us. So I guess how long have we been experiencing these issues with the- Well, up until I wrote that Friday update, we'd been able to have repairs done from the provider, but the provider let us know they're no longer willing or able to provide those repairs.

1:31:55 Okay. And so I brought this to the next available board business meeting. So it sounds like also then that we've been paying for a private company to do the maintenance, and then we'll be doing the maintenance of the system in-house from now on. Is that- We will be able to perform some of the maintenance, not all the maintenance. Mm-hmm. To our capabilities. The prior system is proprietary, so we're unable to even touch that system. Okay. And we're moving to a non-proprietary system. Yep. And we have current electricians on staff, so they're able to

1:32:42 do some of that work themselves. Okay. I don't have any further questions. I would just like to say that I brought up in the past, I think it would be good to have a capital improvements plan, that we knew these kinds of things and what we have planned. I know that it's brought up recently that we were going to have to replace the turf at Hamlin. It's getting to that end. And so having a plan that looks out 10 years of what we anticipate for roofs or whatever, I would really like to see that, so these things we know what we're not doing. If we're doing something like this, what are we putting off? Yeah, I think additionally what was talked about, because I remember that conversation, was the board reconvening a facilities advisory committee.

1:33:28 So staff is waiting for board direction on what you want to do there. That's all I've got. And I want to clarify also the Hamlin turf replacement, when I mentioned that I said four or five years down the road, it's not an immediate this year or next year. I believe I stated that on Thursday. Mm-hmm. I think you said you were trying to establish a firm fund to plan for that, yes? Correct. Any other comments or questions? Do we need to modify the resolution with the changed amount? I asked for a friendly modification, and he agreed on it. Okay. Okay, so call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye.

1:34:15 We'll do a roll call vote on this one. Director Cole? Aye. Director Brew? Aye. Director DeGraff? Aye. Director Langworthy? Aye. Director Light. Yes. Motion carries five to nothing. Moving on then to the approval with action item 5C, approve administrator certified and classified reductions, resolution 25-26.054. Mr. Yancey? Yeah. So similar to what you're seeing, and I don't know if you guys are seeing, but we're seeing it come across on the OSBA news, but there is a number of districts asking their boards to approve these resolutions. And the reason we're asking is that we must comply with ORS

1:35:01 342934, and we also need to comply with all applicable collective bargaining agreements that we have in place when we're implementing reductions in force. And we talked about reduction in force at Thursday's meeting prior to the budget being approved. And so based on all of that, it is recommended that the board of directors authorize the superintendent or designee to implement reductions in force across administrative, classified, and licensed employee groups in preparation for the 2026-27 school year, in accordance with board policy, state law, and applicable collective bargaining agreements. I'd entertain a motion. I move to approve the reduction in force.

1:35:46 Move by Director DeGraff. Second. Second by Director Brew. And I'm not sure, I think I need to declare a conflict of interest as a spouse that works- It's listed ... that could be subject to the- Mm-hmm ... to this, so. Okay. Any other comment or questions? I'll go ahead and call for the vote. Director Brew? Aye. Director DeGraff? Aye. Director Langworthy? No. Director Cole?

1:36:32 You've declared your conflict. Yeah. I'll vote yes. Director Light? Yes. Motion carries four to one. Action item 5D, adopt elementary science and secondary social science adoption, resolution 25-26.055. Good evening. In accordance with board policy IIA, instructional resources, instructional materials, the titles listed below are presented to the board for approval as the integrated blended learning materials for secondary social science courses.

1:37:18 These titles provide social science components correlated to the Oregon State Social Science Standards, and reflect recommendation of the Springfield Public Schools Social Science Adoption Committee. This was bundled also with elementary science instructional materials adoption. Again, in accordance with board policy IIA, instructional resources, instructional materials. The titles listed below are presented to the board for approval as the integrated blended learning materials for elementary science. These titles provide science components correlated to the Next Generation Science Standards, and reflect the recommendation of the Springfield Public Schools Science Adoption Committee. I move approval. Move by Director Brew. I'll second.

1:38:03 Seconded by Director Cole. Comments and questions from the board? So I've been through this before, we've done this, and I brought this up in our meeting, but I guess I'm not clear. We have the adoption. Is there the separate contract for the procurement of the materials? And should that be a separate action or resolution? I'm not clear on how that works. So in the past, this is the authority given through this resolution to move forward with the purchase. With no dollar value. And so then it's been interpreted that this is approval to spend

1:38:51 whatever amount of money that- That is correct, and we haven't negotiated the contracts yet. Seems like it would make more sense to approve it when we know the dollar amount, given the fiduciary responsibility of the board. I have costs available for you this evening because I believe you asked me to bring that this evening. Mm-hmm. And they were well within the approved budget line item for this item bringing forward to the board. So for elementary science, we're looking at $4.37 per pupil at an annual cost of roughly $16,000. For our social science at the high school, again, this is estimated cost because we would negotiate starting with the state price list that's been

1:39:37 approved by the State of Oregon, and we would go from there. Roughly a total for the seven years, $306,000 at roughly $170 per pupil. And for the middle school social science adoption, we would be looking at over the seven years of the adoption, a total of $195,000, which is roughly $105 per pupil. So it's well below the approved budgeted line item for these items. Thank you, Whitney. Of course. But I guess it's still a separate process for the board to approve the contract for that. No. No, this is the process.

1:40:22 You would be granting the authority for us to move forward with the contract and us to move forward with the negotiations, as Director McKinley just outlined. Yeah. I would be more comfortable with the dollar value, so we know how much we're spending. This doesn't speak to how much, what comes out of the budget for this. Less than the approved budgeted line item of $800,000. So we had already gone to the budget committee as a line item approval. That budget item was approved, and then we knew not to go over that approved line item, and where we would start with our negotiations would be what the state contract price

1:41:07 is, and it would only go down from there. We would not do more than the state list, and we would not go over our approved budget line item, because that's what we've been approved to do. We wouldn't move forward with the contract negotiation for price until the board approved the program. There's quite a bit that is involved in negotiating those materials. So I would be okay with approving the curriculum, but then the contract would be a separate approval, just like we're doing for the security system, or as Brett mentioned for the turf fields. Even when we went to the state price agreement, there was a board approval process for the contracts.

1:41:53 So just to clarify, what the board took action on during the items that you referenced was the purchase. There wasn't an approval of a contract. Those contracts are executed by the superintendent or myself. So what you authorized was the purchase of turf field through who we purchased from, security system tonight. You didn't authorize the contract. You approved the purchase off a state contract. That's what Director McKinley, as I understand it, is asking tonight. I don't believe it's in DJC, but I think it's in one of the board policies specifically says that the board has to approve all contracts. Okay. Again, I'll leave it up to the board to interpret board policy, but this is consistent with how we have done

1:42:38 this every time we've gone through this process. So I'll just, again, refer it back to the board. I'm okay with moving forward, but if there is a misalignment between policy and what we're doing, we should explore that similar to what you brought up before. Does that mean to table it until June 9th? Is that... I would think they need to move forward. Oh. By the way, I was very impressed with the presentation. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to say for maybe people that weren't aware, just walking into the room, seeing there was

1:43:26 three directors or... Yeah, and the science TOSA, and seeing the huge screen up there with the years of work that have gone into this, to see the hands-on materials that I've already seen in classrooms before being used. And to actually open the textbooks and to look at the table of contents just to see what's in there, and to think even with the government books and I got to come back and look at the personal finance book and take pictures of the table of contents and just go, "Oh, where are they talking about the Constitution?" And flipping through that, and that is just my parent brain curious about it, and then sitting and getting to ask questions about, "Well, what are practical things students are going to be learning for personal finance?" And just asking you a lot of questions at the same time,

1:44:14 seeing other parents that were coming in and asking deep questions and getting their questions answered. And then all the work that went into it beforehand with the different-- It was a very inclusive process. I'm very impressed with the amount of people that you had involved in it. I can't name all the different grades and teachers that you had involved in the process, but it was exciting for me to be a part of it more so, and I think you went above and beyond bringing the materials to the community and to the board, and I got every question answered. So thank you. Thank you. Would you be okay with approving this going forward,

1:45:02 and then coming back, revisiting our policy, in addition, getting a report on the final cost? Or do you think we... Yes, I'll be okay with that. Yeah. Can you state that again, Bob? Yes. So, my request is that we move ahead and approve this, but then get a report back when we have a final cost on these items. And also, let's confer with the superintendent on our policy so we're clear on what it means, when it applies and when it doesn't, and so on. Yeah, thank you.

1:45:56 Any other comments or questions? We'll move forward with the vote. Well, I have a question. So, was this earlier we were supposed to ask this? Are all schedules the same, I mean similar at the different elementary schools? They're not an elementary school. Yeah, I think that'd be a question for the elementary director. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Sorry. I probably should've asked that earlier. Okay. So moving forward with the vote. Director DeGraff? Yes. Director Langworthy?

1:46:42 I should've asked questions earlier. I'm going to vote no, for reasons. Director Lait is a yes. Director Brew? Yes. Director Cole? Yes. Resolution passes four to to one. Thank you. Yeah. Moving on to agenda item six, uh, the discussion items. First up is 6A, Lane ESD Budget Committee. Superintendent Omar. So, Springfield School District usually provides a budget committee member for the Lane ESD Budget Committee, and there's a vacancy, so our board needs to fill that.

1:47:27 Right now, they still have another budget committee meeting, I believe, scheduled. Maybe they're already done. I have the list of the committee dates, starting with this year. The member serves a three-year term. There's no term limits. The board may appoint budget committee members to as many consecutive terms as they deem appropriate. So the position for this representation on Lane ESD board will start July 1, 2026, and they will have more dates for next year's budget committee meetings coming once they've been approved by the board. So we just need to choose a board member to sit on the Lane ESD Budget Committee. Does it have to be a board member? In the past when I was on the budget committee,

1:48:12 the board, I served on the ESD Budget Committee as a Springfield Budget Committee member. Yes, it has to be a board member. Okay. They have to have a certain number of school districts in Lane County that have board member representation on the budget committee. Can you share with us what they do? It's very similar to what our budget committee process is. Almost exactly. They almost all follow the same process, but it would be for Lane ESD. Is that an indication of interest? I... Sure. Yeah. Do we have to make the formal nomination? Yes, please.

1:48:57 I would nominate Director Langworthy as our representative of the Lane ESD Budget Committee. Okay. Who... the rest? Second. And do we take a formal vote then? Okay, so all in favor indicate by saying "Aye." Aye. Any against? No. Motion carries five to nothing. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Discussion item 6B, superintendent contract. Superintendent Omar. Members of the Springfield School Board, when I was selected as acting superintendent of Springfield Public Schools, Assistant Superintendent David Collins had recently departed the district.

1:49:44 During contract negotiations, I requested an additional stipend in recognition of the fact that I would be assuming the responsibilities of both the assistant superintendent and superintendent. At that time, I was informed that we could revisit the requested additional stipend once my work with the district got underway. My original request to visit the additional stipend was discussed with Chair Lait on Tuesday, April 14th. I then sent the same request to the full school board on Tuesday, April 21st. On Wednesday, April 29th, after hearing no response from the board, I requested to have this item added to the May 11 board agenda. I have been filling the role of both superintendent and assistant superintendent since March 2nd, 2026. I am working extremely

1:50:29 hard to manage both responsibilities, but it is a substantial undertaking. I asked to be appropriately compensated for the additional effort required to keep operations running smoothly and help restore stability to the district. I do understand this may not seem like a great time to be asking for additional pay, but this request was originally discussed during my initial contract negotiations. I respectfully request that the board revisit this aspect of my contract negotiations. So this is a discussion item only tonight, correct? Well, we can vote on it. It can be whatever the board wants it to be. Do I need to make a motion to have discussion?

1:51:15 No, it's already as a discussion item. So comments or questions from the board. I had requested the board attorney to be here. She was- So I put that out there. Yeah. She was our primary negotiator, though she and I worked closely together. Oh. And I provided direction to her- Uh-huh ... representing the board as deemed by the board. So, when we initially were talking negotiations, Krista Parent from COSA was the negotiator for Superintendent Amara.

1:52:00 And there was sort of a line item, cell phone and expenses and living and all of these things. And given the temporary nature of the acting role, my thought was just to give a lump sum that would be inclusive of all work to be done. And we did discuss at the time that we wouldn't be filling the assistant superintendent position, and it was inclusive of those duties. And that's what the lawyer wrote as well in my... Is that right? In an email.

1:52:48 Anyone else? I- That's what I recall we got from Rebecca, yeah, as well, that she backed up what Jonathan said. Yes. So, since the board delegated that to Jonathan Light, there were emails, but I don't have the full scope of what was actually said on the phone, but it was your understanding that that was supposed to happen. I did have questions about the full scope and, do you think this district needs an assistant superintendent? How are those duties reallocated? I don't know the scope of the assistant superintendent, let alone superintendent, so it's hard for me to even ask those questions. But if that's what you're saying was

1:53:36 promised to you, then we have a duty to fulfill that. So yeah. A duty to fulfill- To fulfill your promise to the acting superintendent. So we delegated that to you and- Well, we're having that conversation now ... yeah, and he's saying that that's what was told to her. So if there's miscommunication, then that's between you being delegated that and the acting superintendent. So in good faith, we should probably fulfill that. We're fulfilling the obligation to have the conversation and the discussion which we're having now. I don't recall saying that we would definitely going to adjust later or any... I hope I didn't give that impression.

1:54:25 We're having the conversation and entertaining that idea, but beyond the original contract, I did not have direction from the board to negotiate anything further. You didn't bring anything to the board. We delegated that to you. So how would we have heard anything like that? Right. But the contract as it stands, which was signed and finalized by our legal counsel, was inclusive of everything. So, when you were negotiating this, was Rebecca, the lawyer, with you the whole way? Was it step by step? Contract law isn't my area of expertise, so I wanted to make sure that the board, and the district were protected.

1:55:11 But as far as listing out the typical ingredients that you would have in a longer term agreement with the superintendent, which would include mileage, living expenses, cellphone, all of those different ingredients, the thought being that an inclusive sum would be simpler, easier. It's for a four-month period. And the range was in commensurate with our current superintendent at the time. So, Judy, was there a reason that the contract didn't stipulate that language, to renegotiate or to have a discussion about

1:55:56 that? This seems to me that would be typically included in the contract. Yes, but because it was not agreed upon, it was not put into the contract. Okay. The additional stipend was not agreed upon, so it was not put in the contract. It was just a verbal, "Let's wait. We'll revisit this after you're in the position and with the district." Okay. Other questions or comments? I don't have any. Is there a motion?

1:56:45 Hearing none, we'll move to the next item. I do want to say that, at least from my position, I acknowledge how hard you're working. You really are. Thank you. I just thought we had that discussion up front of what that would mean. I think you've been great. You're meeting with the community, and you're meeting with the different constituents, and that's something thatThis board has long wanted to have happen. So I thank you for that. I hope you don't take this as a rejection of all the hard work that you're doing, which has been phenomenal. Thank you. The budget times, with all of the cuts and all of the classification groups, this is a daunting time

1:57:32 for everyone. Moving to the interim superintendent update, discussion item C. Dr. Rob Hess is here to give the update. He's the lead for the search firm, Grunmeier Leadership Services. Thank you, Rob, for being here. Yeah, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. How's everybody doing? Excitedly awaiting your report. All right. I know you had to drive to get here, and hopefully we can get you hooked up with technology and- Yep.

1:58:17 So essentially, I have just a few summary slides from the stakeholder survey to share, and then also, we have to determine a few things regarding participation on the screening team, and then also the semifinal interview, along with getting the times down for those meetings so that everyone can attend. So that's what we're want to cover. All right. So if I hit play on that. Second screen. Doing a mirror. To your right. I wish my desk got- Do a mirror

1:59:06 Littered. Oh my God. I tore it. No. This one? Yeah. Or I could probably take it... Easier. Okay, perfect. All right. So this is the stakeholder survey that was completed, just summarizes some of those results. There's a lot more detailed report, but this is a good board report for what was done. So the applications were due last night, and so there was a total of

1:59:51 16 that were completed. And so those were sent out to you this morning, and if anyone has had trouble being able to open those and look at those, please let me know. You can send me an email or call or text, and I can help you with that. So our next meeting is on the 20th to review the applications and to recommend a group to go forward to the semifinal interview. So that's going to happen on May 20th. So you'll have a little over 10 days to look at those applications and dive into those and get some thoughts together. And as a firm, we'll be

2:00:39 reviewing them as well, and we'll put them into three tiers for you. But what we want is we want you to take a look prior to us putting them into tiers so that we want to see if the same people that are the strongest emerge. That's the goal of that. What we're hoping is that, I was talking to Jodi about this, might the most transparent, democratic way of determining who will help on the 20th is if each board member selected two people to help, two community members, staff members, parents, and then one alternate. If each of you selected two and Jodi selected two, then that would give us a good pool to choose from. So if the board is

2:01:26 good with that plan, we can affirm that tonight. So we'd like you to do that for the screening group, and then a different set of two people each for the interviews on the semifinals. So you as the board will be consistent group through the process, but then you'll get feedback from other people that you've invited to attend. So and then on June 9th is the finalist day when the finalist, either two or three, sometimes we can accommodate as many as four, will come to the district, and that will be a day for the community at large to be involved to a greater degree. So we'll work on the details what that day will look like at a later date,

2:02:12 but that day will probably start around 10 or 11, depending on how many people we have, and run through the evening. So- Can you give us a overview of what that might look like during the seven, eight hours? Yeah. What it would look like is a interview with the board, a final interview. It would also look like a district tour. So I'd be working with Marty and Jodi to determine what you'd like the candidates to see. It could also be a lunch with the candidates in small groups of no more than two.

2:02:57 So there's just a variety of activities that we'd propose and line out exactly what those would be. You mentioned that that group would be 15 to 20 individuals. Is that correct? Yeah. So on that finalist day, they interview with the board, and then there can be different stakeholder interviews as well. So you could have a staff one, you could have district leadership, you could have a community group, members. Probably have no more than... Because each candidate will go through these interviews. So they might go through three or four different interviews on that day, but then people will be collecting feedback from... They'll be electronically providing their feedback on the

2:03:43 questions. And so when you meet later on that evening to review all the data, you'll have live data about what people felt about the candidates to look at as you contemplate your final decision. So, yep. Bob. Could you tell me, you spoke about you would be putting candidates into tiers. Yeah. What kind of criteria do you- Yeah. What we look at, we have three tiers. The tier one are candidates that we feel have met all of the requirements of the application, and they have a strong application that aligns to the things that you've said you're looking for. So that's tier one. And which, things like prior superintendent experience, commitment. We're matching things up to the

2:04:31 survey that we'll go over. And that would be just our professional opinion, that we have multiple people on the team that do this together. And then the yellow tier is people that we feel have a solid application, but might be missing one or two of the elements. And then a red tier, which would be candidates that probably wouldn't qualify for a job of this nature, based on our opinion. But we don't want to give you any of that information till you've all had a chance to look at them. So, our decision points here are, do you support the idea of each of you nominating two people, plus an alternate?

2:05:18 And if we can get approval on that for those first two meetings, then we can move forward with notifying those people, because we want to get those meetings on their calendar. Just to clarify. Yeah. So we're nominating two plus an alternate for the- May 20th ... the 20th. And then we'll nominate two and an alternate for the meeting on the 27th. Correct. So it'll be a total of six people each that we'll- Yep. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good to me. Should we indicate on there what kind of stakeholder they might, so you don't get- Yeah, we would want to know like, "This is a parent," or, "This is a teacher," or... The students will have an opportunity to be one of the

2:06:04 stakeholder groups on June 9th, so we wouldn't have any students involved until that final day. But we definitely want to have student voice as a part of the process. Clarification. You want three names total for both. It- You don't want six names from the board- Well- ... right? Well, let's see. If you- Two committees. There's two committees, and you're right, Jody, we want not six, but three total names. Two that you'd like to participate- Right ... and one alternative. Right. That will get us to the right number for both of them. Right. Thank you. Yeah. I kind of restated that incorrectly, but Jody corrected me. Okay, so I thought I understood before that we wanted to have different

2:06:51 people on each day of the committee. Yeah. So- There will be different people on each day, because we want the participants to be not more than the members of the board. So there'll be five or six people that will help you on each of these days. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. When I went through the process, what I looked at is people representing different constituencies. Yep. So our associations, and then parents, and then community leaders. Yes. But you're saying I just need to pick three wherever they fall? Yeah, just pick three. And then once you submit those to Jody, I'll meet with her and we'll finalize

2:07:37 these. And our goal would be to get these invitations out by Wednesday, so that people have at least a week to... And if we have two from each of you, plus an alternate, and we'll make sure that the association leaders are all included. Do you just need an email or a phone number, or? An email would be great, because then it's all recorded. And you could send that to Jody or myself, either way. So you're waiting for some feedback. I'm good with that. Yep. I noticed on several of the lists there is

2:08:23 common names. Yeah. So I thought this was going to be more of a conversation among board members when we actually delineated the committees. I thought that's what we spoke of- Yeah ... of maybe doing after the meeting today. Yeah. We could... Go ahead, Jody. Do you have something to add? Well, I don't know if all the board got the email that we weren't able to do an executive session tonight to discuss the specific names, because we didn't have a 24-hour notice. And so we can, if you want to discuss those committee names and a little bit deeper into the process of applicants, we would need to schedule an executive session for this week, and it could be on Zoom, and it could be

2:09:09 during the day. But if you want to discuss specific candidates and/or specific names, my recommendation would be to then have an executive session via Zoom. Yeah, we could do it that way, too. If you feel like you want to all be in a room and discuss it through, we could schedule a Zoom executive session. Well, couldn't it also be in public? Yeah, it could be. Yeah. I mean, it's not like- What are we discussing? The names of the people that you want to invite to participate. I don't think we need to discuss the names right here. And we're only doing the first two committees? First two committees right now, yeah. I'm not prepared to talk about names of committee members right now.

2:09:59 And when do you want this by? We'd like to be able to send the invitation by Wednesday. I'd just say, I guess I feel a little bit of a disadvantage because you've seen all of the names we put forth, and you said there's overlap. So, when I go back to the... I submitted a list of, I don't know, half a dozen or so, that it'd be good to know who there's overlap or not, and who I'm picking. We can definitely share that sheet with the group so everyone can see it. Board. That would be good. Yeah. I'll share that tonight so you can all see that and-

2:10:45 That'd be great ... yeah. So I'll be submitting the names to you or Omara, and you guys will put that on the spreadsheet that will be given to the board. Yeah, we'll share that so you can see those names. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That's very doable. So we would get the list, Rob, and then by tomorrow, in essence, you want us to put the names forward so that you can send out the invites on Wednesday? Yeah. Of course, I'd coordinate with Jodi on that to make sure. Yeah, I would suggest that you send the names in by end of day tomorrow, and that would allow us time to get the names on the list.

2:11:33 Yeah. Ken, did you want the list that you gave Jonathan sent back to you so you remember who they are, or do you already remember? No, I know. Okay, got it. No, I thought Jonathan had a list of everybody, all of the names that have been submitted, and we were going to get that list of all of the names that have already been submitted or considered. That's what I thought we were going to get. That was my impression of how we were going to do this. I'm not saying it's necessarily a problem, but there will be people that you and Jodi don't know at all on these lists. Okay. You'll know the leadership and maybe some of the staff, but when it comes to parents and community, even students, there wouldn't be any recognition. Yeah. If we'd like to set up a quick Zoom on Wednesday,

2:12:21 lunchtime or sometime this week, we could do that, just to check in with everyone. Well, I think if you guys each gave two names and an alternate, and you said, "Okay, put down person A for the screening committee and person B for the semifinalist interview, and here's an alternate for either one." If one of these aren't able to, tell us what committee you want them put on. If they happen to be a duplicate, we can either switch it- Let us know ... we can do the alternate, or we can let you know, "Hey, this name's already been given to us. Do you want us to use the alternate, or do you want to give us a new name?" Then that makes it really super easy for us to just say, "All right, this one's going here. They're a community member. This one's going... They want this one on this committee, and they're a staff member, and this one's a union, and this one's..." Right. That one's fine. I'd still like access to the document for the whole

2:13:09 board just to see, but yeah, that helps. You mean after you've given it to us- Yeah ... and we fill it in, then you know who's- Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Sounds good. Now, there were some proposed times for May 20th. I just want to double-check to make sure that that's the time that we're meeting, and that everyone can make it. So May 20th at 1:00. 1:00 is what I have. It's in our agenda, 1:00 on the 20th. Yep. And 10:00 on the 27th- Okay ... to start. Well, and I just heard from some people that time of day did matter as far as... And evening times, late afternoons worked better for some of them. I can't do any of those evenings, so the times that we set are what I can do.

2:13:58 We didn't set. Yeah, we did. We did set it. We set days. No, we set 10:00 AM, and then the other one was 1:00 PM. When was that? The last meeting he was Zooming in from. Okay. I don't recall setting the times. How would Marty have put it on the schedule without it? Was that part of the meeting, Rob? I don't recall that, the times. I thought we had set the times as well. Yeah. Okay. So be it. Yeah. So we want the times to work for the board. That's the priority. So if everyone can do the 10 and the- 1:00 on the 20th- Yeah ... and 10:00 on the 27th.

2:14:43 1:00 on the 20th and 10:00 on the 27th, then we're locked in. And then the people we invite, that's when they'll have to participate, or we'll move to the alternate. And I'll keep the whole board informed all along the way, where we're at. Okay. All right. So that's good. All right. So real quick, just survey overview. This is how many people participated in the survey, 561 people participated, and these are the top respondent affiliationsSo parents were the number one participants, followed by teachers, support staff, community member.

2:15:28 And some people would check more than one box if they were allowed to do that, if they're a parent and also a teacher, et cetera. So that's the overview. And obviously we have a detailed report. If anyone wants more details about the survey, just please reach out. These are the district strengths that were elevated on the survey. Caring and dedicated staff. Employees are described as compassionate individuals who generally care about students' academic growth. Improvement noted in graduation rates, elementary reading, math scores, community partnerships, strong connections for student enrichment, such as with Willamalane and the Chamber of Commerce, and

2:16:14 extracurricular opportunities. Success in CTE programs, music, athletics, and dual immersion. District challenges include staff support and morale, issues with burnout, retention, staff feeling undervalued or micromanaged. Student support and behavior, need for better discipline, consequences for disruptive behavior, academic challenge for high achievers, budget and resources, concerns over staffing cuts, old buildings, and the necessity of technology in elementary schools, and then trust and communication, and a perceived severe lack of trust and disconnect between district leadership and

2:17:00 staff/parents. So, top desired qualifications in the new leader would be ethics and transparency was the highest, 61%. Culture and climate, fostering a positive culture for teachers and staff. Resource management, effectively managing district resources. Accountability, and then approachability. So those are the top areas and qualifications. And then the last slide is advice. One of the questions was: What advice would you provide? Be visible, spend time in schools, and be present with students and families. Listen, have an open mind, and listen to the needs of the individual buildings. Collaborate

2:17:45 and focus on students, and then system stability. So, you'll see a more detailed, I think I sent you a more detailed stakeholder report in the email this morning that goes into more details, but this is kind of overview for board meeting. So, any questions about that? These slides, Jodi has these, so if it's something that you want to put onto the website or whatever, however you want to use it, feel free. All right.

2:18:31 Does anyone else have anything else? That's pretty much what I came to share. No. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Have a safe trip back. All right, will do. Next item is agenda item 6D, policy BCB review. Director DeGraff brought this forward for a discussion. Well, we discussed it on the 27th. The next thing I thought maybe we were discussing it again to vote on maybe possible changes in June. So other than talking to OSBA and Spencer Lewis about it, I don't have

2:19:18 anything different than what it was said. And the policy that's in our packet, is there any changes to that, or is that just the current policy? That's the current policy. The one I had shared before was just a couple of draft ideas. Great. My concern is just the same concerns I said on the

2:20:06 27th, that when you have leadership that's had corrective action taken against them, and number one, they continue with the same pattern, and number two, didn't follow through with the correct action, there should be some accountability there. And so my idea was to change the policy to insert what happens after a board chair or vice chair are censured or removed. So that could happen there, and it could also happen with the resolution of censure, but censure doesn't really do much. So yeah, I think it would be good to have that as part of the policy, maybe even a time limit of a year.

2:20:52 A board chair couldn't be a chair again for a year. Comments or questions from the board? I think we discussed this the last meeting, right? We received an interpretation from our legal counsel also. Are any board members interested in changing the policy?

2:21:39 I'm not. No, I'm not. I'm not. So no accountability. Okay. I don't think it's fair to say no accountability. There is- Did you guys do your training, the corrective action? Because no. So no, no accountability. They did a training. No, they did OGEC, which was also the third time that we've had that training. That one was unpaid, the other two were paid. The other training was board roles and responsibilities, governance basics- It's been a- ... that somebody that's been a board member for 21 years should know. It's been a really challenging year.

2:22:24 Sure has. It has. It's been a really hard year. Do the right thing and it's a lot easier. Wow. Well, I believe there's five board members, so possibly five interpretations of what it means. You know, the law's actually black and white. You guys keep saying it hasn't been means tested. But all these times that I have to correct you for serial communication violation is not my job. And I'm getting tired of being dragged into it. It causes a lot of risk for me, and it's not good. If we, as a board, do governance right, then everybody else can do their job, and then we can focus on kids again. You say that it's black and white, but there's a lot of words like "may be coordinated" or "could be

2:23:11 considered." There is a lot of gray. And those only apply when you want them to apply, and that's the thing. I would like standards. And there used to be a board that agreed on governance standards. And there are laws about that. I think Jonathan Light was trying to find out when a... I'm sorry. He was trying to find out when a report was going to be released. We're not going to re-litigate something that was substantiated. My goal with tonight was to discuss policy BCB. I don't agree with it. And no other board members wanted to change it. This is a really bad example. You and Heather Quazana raked him through the

2:23:57 coals. Um, there's just been continuous- Can we just stick to the matter of BCB? Yes, please. Thank you. So if people want to have a social meeting and have a conversation, this is the- Excuse me. Excuse me. Point of order. I think people can all go back and review previous board meetings, and that's fine. So moving on. So policy BG review, and uh, you have in front of you

2:24:43 the operating agreements and then proposed changes to them. Uh, policy BG actually talks about three different items, staff communications to the board, uh, board communications to staff, and then visits to schools. Um, I will say, uh, the statement that board members don't belong in the schools is in error. Uh, our job is to provide oversight to our constituents. I have actually been told by previous board chairs that our primary responsibility is to support the superintendent. That does not honor the design of board governance,

2:25:31 which the voters are at the top of that, and they elect the board to represent their interests to the best of their ability, and that's why there's five, not just one. So, uh, I know that the prevailing training and, uh, thoughts of many board members, particularly new board members, is to stay at 30,000 feet, govern through policy, hire a superintendent and approve the budget. But I would put out there that the primary responsibility is to provide oversight on all aspects of the organization.

2:26:16 So if the organization is not getting the results that our community wants, we have been designated to address that to the best of our ability and to put those things in place that will indeed provide that oversight. There's no disagreement from this chair that we don't mess around with operations, but we have the responsibility to give guidance for the betterment of the district, whatever we deem that to be. And so when I am not provided information as a board member, I can't do my job, and part of that is getting out and visiting schools and talking

2:27:02 to staff and having the ability to actually find out what's going on in the schools. So I'm sorry if there's differences of opinion. It goes beyond this board. But there are board members who do understand the design of school district governance and how that's supposed to work. So take your shots. However, that's my understanding of my responsibility, and if I'm making decisions on budget and policyThen I need to have the information that I'm fully informed so that I can make a quality decision. Now, my decision is only one of five. So you share the expertise, you share the wealth, you share the

2:27:48 perspectives, but the bottom line is to be in touch with constituents, and that's all constituents. That's our associations, that's our staff, that's our students, the families, community members. So that's where I'm coming from. If people take exception to that, then again, we have different views on what it means to be a board member. But I have done this for 21 years. Whether that means anything to anybody, to me, it's just trying to make our district a model district with happy staff, happy students. And that's not indicated by the numbers. We've lost 2,300 students. That's a sizable chunk of money to the district.

2:28:36 So when I propose a board policy that will make some changes, understand that these policies were a lot different prior to the previous administration. Okay? And so what this reflects is, in practice, what is experienced in almost every other district. So, and I know our current policy even is in alignment with other districts, but I'm talking about the practice, and I've touched base with board members across the state as well as in our immediate area, and the proposed changes are what they actually practice. So I'm asking the board to take a look at that.

2:29:21 We don't need to discuss it tonight. I wasn't able to send this out to you earlier, I apologize. I should've gotten it into the board packet. But these are changes that I think are critical to the responsibility and obligations of any board member. We have to understand how the organization works and what the results is that we're getting. Director Brew. How does... Did you- I'm sorry. So I would just like to-- Yeah, I'm sorry that you didn't get this out earlier, because I think that there was some, in the comments from the audience, there were some misunderstandings. And this is in keeping with

2:30:08 what I heard when you proposed this change, and significant to me is the last part where it says unofficial, "Visits may be directly scheduled by contacting building leadership with a courtesy notification to the superintendent." So no one is showing up at the school and showing up in your students' classrooms. It's allowing board members to schedule directly with the principals that know best what's going on with the school at the time, rather than going through, Marty's great, but rather than going through Marty and then the superintendent and then the principal, and then trying to

2:30:54 triangulate all of that. And so I think this just removes the asking for permission from mom or dad to talk to the person that's actually running the school. So, I'm supportive of these changes. So, in my knowledge, a board member of this body actually decided to go against this policy and publicly admonish staff. And, as a result, we did get a letter from the Springfield administrators and confidentials group, and part of that letter was, they said, "Forcing a building administrator to make this type of decision and then publicly expressing discontent with an administrator is problematic and unacceptable.

2:31:41 We need our administration to be able to follow protocols set forth by the district without fear of being publicly admonished. I bring this to your attention to prevent similar interactions from occurring in the future." And my ask to you is knowing that we have board leadership that continues to go against good governance in policies and ethics, we're going to be okay trusting that they're going to not admonish people publicly when administrators say, "Well, we have testing," or, "We have a safety issue, you can't come." Are they going to then make a statement at every board meeting? And this changes it significantly. I have been able to do my job

2:32:26 with informed oversight well. So not once was it understood when we did board roles and responsibility that it was my job as an individual board member to do everything that Jonathan says he wants to do. And so I've never been hampered by this. I don't ask mom and dad for permission. I think this would be a bad precedent. I think that there's power dynamic issues. We don't go to the schools without people knowing that, yes, we are elected officials and therefore we carry a bit of authority, and that staff do feel pressured when we show up. And having just a regular visit scheduled beforehand is not a big deal. It's never been a big deal except for Jonathan. So I'm not in favor of this.

2:33:12 Well, it's been a big deal for me. I have not been able to really get into the schools. I've asked, I've been formally invited by eight teachers. I put out a request to see those teachers, or I'm sorry, I think it was 16 teachers at eight different schools. I can't remember. It was back in October, November, and I've asked to see those schools. I was told it was best to not have conversations with teachers one-on-one. II have a very different experience of what it means to be a board member. I have been blocked from doing board work. This works for some, but it doesn't work for all, and it

2:33:59 would be great to have something where it does work for everyone. And I'm definitely not looking to go into anybody's school and make anyone nervous. I've asked teachers before if that makes them feel nervous, and I've been told, "Yeah, maybe a little, but I'm really happy to see you come in there." I'm happy to volunteer. I'm happy to stuff some papers in mailboxes. I am really just simply a mom who also happens to be a board member, but I also understand that power dynamic that you speak of, Nicole. So, I want to honor that, but I was elected to get into this position to carry a heavy responsibility, and it's

2:34:46 been heavy. It's been very heavy, and I've been blocked from doing my job, and that's what I want to do. I want to do my job, and I want to do it well. And this is why I want it to change. I don't get the same opportunities. It's not equal. So I have a question. Just about every meeting you've kind of said that. So are you going to then, when an administrator says, "No, you can't come," for whatever reason, are you going to come in every meeting for the next eight months, say that you weren't allowed to go into X and Y school? Well, why- Because that's how you are. You say things that maybe are what you think is true, but I know actually is not true. That's- So you're allowed to say anything you want about staff, and they get up and

2:35:31 leave because they're kind of tired of it. So I'm just asking you, are you going to do that? And why don't we have board roles and responsibilities training first? How about that? So that we all have a shared understanding of what a board role is. That's- As defined by who? And that's your perspective that I would tell a principal that I'm coming in there and then commit... I don't even know why that would be mentioned. Of course, I am a very respectful person, and I would like to have an opportunity. I don't understand why this is such a block. Well, and this doesn't change anything about the way that appeals to you, Nicole. There's nothing in here says you can't continue to

2:36:19 do things the way you're doing. What it does is, if it says formal, there should be a definition of informal. If it says official- We have that definition. You just don't like it. It's not in there. Under paragraph- We have unofficial visits are any time after school hours. I think during the day, board members should, because who is the operational head? The superintendent. So going through the superintendent's office is the right thing to do. If you're doing it otherwise, then that's you thinking you are micromanaging the district, and that's the power dynamic we just talked about. That's never the intent. Because you guys bring stuff to the board all the time that's your own personal things that you hear, and it's not decided by the full board.

2:37:05 It's your own personal things. So yes, there is- It's our own personal thing by listening to the community, and we shouldn't do that, listen to staff, listen to the community? No, you bring it to the board to discuss as a board priority, and that is not happening. Well, we've never had that at board discussion. How many times have I put forward the idea of having a retreat, and you're not available? Have a retreat, do it in August, not in the middle of the year. I've never said no. It's just the times you've asked for it. You actually, Nicole, before we could even set a date, you said you were busy. I just want to clarify. Yes, I was. This was a while ago. Before we even had a date. Yeah. Okay. So what we're trying to do here is trying to figure out if we can come in and do school visits.

2:37:52 Let's see. Call the principal, call the district advance. Don't you think it's easier for one person to make appointments for everybody versus five people to call 20 different schools and, you know? No, because I haven't been able to get into schools. I haven't. We live on a different planet. Okay. You have gotten to schools, but things have- So- ... been pretty difficult, my understanding of the superintendent's office. So- Yeah ... you keep saying you haven't been in schools. I haven't been in schools for a month either. It's just been really crazy with the superintendent search and trying to keep priorities. Well, when you're- So- Yeah. Yeah, please. This should- Make a recommendation. I would like to recommend that the board maybe table this.

2:38:37 Okay. Get some advice from OSBA on policy changes, which you always want to do no matter what. But my recommendation would be that when the board looks at their planning document for next year, you specifically set once a month, Bethel does bagels with the board, and they choose a different school to go to every month before school where they can go and interact with staff members. And then you set specific times during the year. These are going to be elementary school visits during these two weeks, and they're scheduled through the superintendent office. And then this month it's middle school, and you're going to visit schools during these two weeks so that everybody in the district knows these are the two weeks where board member visits are happening. So if we have some fun activities or some engaging activities that we want the board to see, we're going to make sure we schedule them during those times.

2:39:23 Everybody knows when they are. They're scheduled no matter what, and they're organized, and that allows the board secretary to track which schools the board members have been in and haven't been in, in order to schedule them. Just my suggestion using that planning document you guys already have and really fine-tuning what's on that planning document. Sounds good. Director Cole? Yeah. I'm not supportive of the change. I think this is more about, umThe board's job and how we've interacted with the administration in the past. And I personally think that we ought to have a good working relationship with the superintendent, and to let him know, and I think we're trying to fix

2:40:10 something by changing the policy that's not really going to fix the issue. And so I would suggest we leave the policy and the operating agreement as is for now. Director Brew. And I acknowledge that I'm new on the board. My experience has been in city government, county government, state government, and it would be very unusual for a city councilor to ask the city manager for permission to visit a department. Likewise, the same at the county and certainly at the legislative level. So this is a new thing for me and it feels a little bit

2:40:56 stilted, but that's my naivete perhaps. But I'm totally fine with tabling it. I'm fine with tabling it as long as if in the broader discussion we also include our associations. When I've mentioned board members going to buildings, there's always been this comment that it sets fear in the buildings. That's not been my experience, and I have not had an administrator say no. I've had an administrator say, "I'm not going to be there," so we reschedule, but sometimes it's just as simple as wanting to say thanks to the staff. So I'd like to check out, is this a

2:41:42 problem for building staff at any level? And if it is not, I think then the board should be listening to that input also as we move forward, because I find these policies really restrictive. I can't even send a congratulations to the Springfield choir program for going to State under the current policy without going through the superintendent. For one, do I need to bother the superintendent with that? I don't mind CCing, but the main congratulations is not to the superintendent for having this program, it's to the teacher. And that's- You can write it to the superintendent. Excuse me, let me finish.

2:42:27 In the policy of staff communications to the board, it's in violation really of the constitutional right, freedom of speech. When I had a legal counsel on some of the things that were happening in the district, the comment was- Order, Chair. That is not a legal counsel that the board delegates you to get opinion on. I think we're entitled as individuals to get our own counsel. It's your own counsel, so you're using it for a board matter. So- I'm using it to give my experience and to inform what this attorney said. You're free to contact any of the board attorneys and see what their interpretation is. But as a district, we cannot ask people not to speak to

2:43:14 board members if they're not on the clock, on the workday, or on district property. Otherwise, you're checking your rights to freedom of speech at the door, and I don't think that's right. I don't think that's what this policy says. And before you move on to it- Can I read it? I give the superintendent letters all the time. There's people in here that are staff that have received those letters of celebration and thanks, and it was forwarded right away. It's not what you say- Well, that works for you. I'm not saying to quit doing that if that works for you, but- And I personally have sent thank you cards. I've dropped things off. So I don't think you- That's great ... I don't think you're as hamstrung as you're making it out to be. No, we're definitely hamstrung.

2:44:01 If you can write a thank you letter, you can send it. The current staff communications to the board, it says all formal communications or reports to the board or any board committee from staff members will be submitted through the superintendent. Notice the word formal. I think that's important, and I don't disagree with that if it's a formal communication. And then this procedure will not be construed as denying the right of any employee to address the board about issues which are neither part of an active administrative procedure nor disruptive to the operation of the district. Well, that sounds like a disclaimer that even though we said it has to go to the superintendent, it doesn't

2:44:46 restrict you. In addition, this procedure does not restrict protected labor relations communications of bargaining unit members. Again, I'm a little lost on what that actually means and why it's there. There's nothing about informal communications. Do I want to respond to an invitation? I want to send a congratulations. I want to clarify a schedule. There's a lot of informal communication that goes on in the district, and we need to delineate what that is if we want to have a policy that's accurate. I don't understand what the problem is with communicating. So if I wanted to respond to an invitation, I might just forward it to the superintendent and go, "Hey, I'm thinking about going.

2:45:31 Are you going?" It's easy communication, so I don't know why it's confusing to you. Because it doesn't work for one of the board members, at least one. How is just forwarding or saying, "I want to go to this," how is... You're expecting a superintendent to communicate with you, but you don't want to do it back. No, I'd do it where appropriate. It should all be appropriate as a board. OkaySo direction? I think we discussed this last year, so I would leave it, or to end table the- Been conversation about tabling this till a later date.

2:46:18 Do we have any idea on what a later date means? So again, I'm not supportive of the- Mm-hmm ... the changes. So... Yeah. Not either. So I don't need to table it, but we've got a few other priorities in my book. Well, this is a priority. I mean, it wouldn't be- No, it's your and Jonathan's priority. I mean, of the board is to hire a superintendent. It wouldn't be a priority if it wasn't a problem. If I were able to get into schools when I've asked to, it wouldn't be a problem. What if you were just ignored on that? What if you were told, "No, they're in bargaining, you can't go"? Why? I mean- Right. That's what I was told. I'm like, I'm just going to go visit a school. Like- If they're in bar- All right ... I'm just going to go visit some- So I'm

2:47:04 going to suggest that we table this- There are- ... and we'll discuss it in the retreat. Oh. That sound like a direction? Uh, no. Not for me. Board retreat in early August. I don't want to discuss it then. I'm with Ken, so... Okay. So moving on to discussion item F, SEA ability to comment at board meetings. I believe you brought this forward, Director Langworthy. Yes. SEA, they want to come to the table and be able to have an opportunity to share what's going great with them.

2:47:52 And I think that's a wonderful opportunity. Jodi had suggested that it goes under the umbrella of public comment, and they get three minutes. I thought that was a good idea that they have an opportunity to come share what's happening in their world. So they gave public comment tonight for three minutes. How would that be different? Because that's... Yeah. That's one scenario. Well, they get a space. A space will be held just for them to come in and talk. Should we hold spaces for everybody in the community? What if a parent misses a public comment and wants to have a space?

2:48:38 What about other associations or PTOs? I don't understand. I don't think- Please ... it's a good idea for political or advocacy groups to have a special time that they're- That would be at the board's discretion ... institutionalizing that. So- If we wanted to entertain that, I would lean towards providing a slot, but not a public comment. I think they deserve, as any of our associations, so yeah, if that's what it takes. If that's what we take. Again, in a bygone era, the SEA met monthly with the superintendent and the board chair.

2:49:26 Okay. We're talking about right now, though. What's the problem you're trying to solve? If they can give public comment, I don't understand, especially when the roles should be delineated, especially for bargaining. So what's the problem with- Can we just table this till next time? I think I'm done for tonight. I'm sorry. Okay. I- Any other comments, though, since it is a topic, and I don't want to cut anybody off from weighing in on this. Yeah, Nicole. When I discussed it with the superintendent, my feeling was, I think it's fine. Give them three minutes or five minutes. If the other bargaining units want to do it as well,

2:50:13 I think that's fine. Do it on a six-month basis. Do a six-month trial, see if it works, revisit it in six months, and if it doesn't work, then we'll make that decision. I think the survey for this interim superintendent kind of really pointed out that there is a disconnect between the faculty and the district administration, which I consider ourselves to be a big part of that. Mm-hmm. And so if anything we can do to keep those lines of communication

2:50:59 open, I'm fine. And I think if we stray into bargaining issues, I think we just call it out. Yeah. I think there's different models. What it says in the request to me is that at least the SEA is interested in more dialogue with the board. And I think, as an overarching principle for myself, more conversation with all of our associations is better for the board if we understand the situation they're in. It doesn't have to necessarily be at a board meeting. It can be these monthly meetings that we used to do.

2:51:45 It could be planned listening sessions. But I think it does need to be intentional, and that's what we've not had, any real intentionality or regularity. And face it, uh-They're the people doing the work. And so, as a board, again, providing that oversight means that we have to have full information. And however that looks, we need to be proactive in making it happen. So, guidance on this. I would be supportive of it. I guess, I presume it's not going to be a discussion back and forth where we would listen to the

2:52:33 SEA give a report monthly on what's going on with them, and make sure it doesn't veer into negotiation issues. Right? My vision would be a little more interactive than that. Not to get in depth- No, that's a really bad idea, especially- Excuse me ... if we have a time or a thought- Excuse me. I'll finish my comment now. Of course. Thank you. So, I would want to look at, dare that we do anything that a neighboring district is doing, but I want to see what their model is. I know public comments, we don't create this dialogue, but sometimes in the public comments, I'm left wanting to ask a clarifying question. I would look at other models, talk with SEA, talk with the other associations if they'd like to do the same.

2:53:18 But again, if this board would do more listening, that would be better. And that means everybody. So, we'll bring this back around. Leave it up to you. Okay. Thank you. Well, maybe we should leave it up to the whole board, not just one person. As far as the timing, did you want to bring that around again, Nicole, sometime? No. Would you like to be a part of that process? The board needs to be a part of the process of what this board deliberates on. That's my point. Okay. Moving on then to reports and information. OSBA Summer School Session, Item 7A.

2:54:03 So, there was an email that went out. The OSBA Summer School Session is actually in Eugene this year, so just a little reminder to please let us know if you want to register for that. Side note, if you do register, please make sure if you can't attend, you also let us know so we can cancel it, because we have to pay for reservations that aren't canceled. So please make sure that you get that. It's a great opportunity, and it's local from OSBA. So, just encourage the board to attend. I think Marty signed up, right? As I understand, yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, deadline's June 1st to sign up or to let Marty know so she can register and get you guys registered. And it's July 16th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, all day. Thursday, July 16th. Yeah.

2:54:52 Okay. Then superintendent communication. Okay. So, since the April 13th board meeting, I've had weekly scheduled meetings individually with district leaders and as a district leadership team. Had my monthly one-on-one meetings with each board member. Several visits, visited facilities. Thank you, Brett, for such a great tour. And I see Terry's still here too. It was a great tour. Transportation maintenance, the warehouse, it is an amazing facility. Very impressed with the bus drivers and custodians and maintenance, and it was a great staff. Really fun to do that. I attended the SCF board meeting. I visited Thurston Elementary, Douglas Gardens Elementary. We had one of our monthly EEAC meetings. Thank you, Taylor, for organizing that.

2:55:37 Couple coffee and conversations, one at Cream & Bloom and one at Starbucks at Gateway. I visited Joyce Douglas at the YTP farm. I've met with SEA Union leadership, outgoing and incoming. Went to Bratton Campus, saw their amazing cosmetology program. Super impressed with what's going on at Bratton Campus and Gateways. Mount Vernon Elementary School, Agnes Stewart Middle School. SHS had a great... Sorry, turned it off. Student-led tour that was very well organized, and that was great. Maple Elementary. I met with Karen Babcock about school libraries and the amazing work the librarians are doing. I attended the SHS Multicultural Assembly. That was phenomenal. Wow, I just can't say enough about that.

2:56:24 I took a tour of Willamette Leadership Academy, and then I just attended the AANHPI Heritage Celebration at Guili. This week, just for your information, Gateway's Cosmetology is having their Avant-Garde. It's Thursday. I can get you the times of that. And then A3's Confluence is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, and I can get you the times of those as well. I also wanted to share. So, at every board meeting I've been present for, it has been stated in public that board members are not being provided the opportunity to visit schools. That is a direct reflection on the office of the superintendent, and I would like to address this concern with the public and the board. As the board stated in my interview, each of you were looking for someone to come in and heal the district, calm the waters, build trust, and put

2:57:12 students first. To do that, I needed to be visible in the schools and the community. Therefore, scheduling my school visits have taken priority over board member visits. In addition, I did some research and found that board member school visits were postponed beginning in November due to the status of certified bargaining at the time. Following the conclusion of bargaining and the ensuing midyear layoffs, it was felt that schools needed time to adjust to the changes before resuming board member school visits. There is no intentional preferential treatment of board members happening in relation to scheduling board member school visits. At the beginning of my job on March 2nd, after beginning, I realized the magnitude of the role I was taking on, um-So not just superintendent, but as I said before, assistant superintendent. To do that, I have had to lean heavily on district

2:57:59 leadership, and that includes Marty. While I realize Marty is also the board secretary, that should only be a fraction of her role in the district. Unfortunately, with the board having two board meetings a month, along with other duties like the interim search for the superintendent, Marty's job as board secretary has doubled in size. I applaud her for the adjustment she has made midyear. I also applaud the amazing adjustment all of the students, staff have made this year as you've navigated midyear cuts, changes to schedules, and staffing adjustments. There is a saying that comes to mind, "You don't know how strong you are until strong is all you can be." It's the only choice you have. So thank you to everyone who has worked hard to minimize the impact of midyear

2:58:46 changes on our students. One of the first tasks I completed when I was hired was to restructure the district leadership team. That was out of necessity, since the two main district leaders were no longer with the district. And when they left, they took decades' worth of institutional knowledge with them, as well as an understanding of the operational structure of the district. As a leadership team, we have been working through a new division of roles and responsibilities to get through the remainder of the school year, all the while working to bring a divided community together through community meetings. With the amazing support of the district leadership team, Brett Yancey, Dustin Reese, Brian Richardson, Marty Stigliter, Brian Megger, Whitney McKinley, Joyce Johnson, Mindy LaRue, Melissa Stalder, Taylor Madden, Jeff

2:59:31 McNutt, and I'm sure there's some I'm forgetting. We have been able to ensure that our focus remains on our students first and foremost. I ask the board's patience and understanding as all of us in the district are navigating uncertain times with developing a balanced budget, adjusting to a different leadership style, and structure at the district office, budget and staffing reductions, and an interim superintendent search. Again, all the while keeping our focus on what's most important, the students. Thank you. Moving then to board communications. Thank you, Jodi, for that. Director Cole?

3:00:17 Yeah, not much to say other than I did attend a LCOG meeting. There wasn't a whole lot of activity at that meeting, just an update of revised budget, and so that's all I've got to report this time. Okay, thank you. Director Brew? Thank you. In the 1915s, there was a famous cartoonist. His name was Rube Goldberg, and he would design these fantastical inventions to do really simple things. If you've ever seen the game Mouse Trap, where you're adding all these little parts to try and catch a mouse at the end, or if you've ever seen Pee-wee's Big Adventure, where he- ... has this incredibly complex machine to make his breakfast and

3:01:03 flip his pancakes, or OK Go had a great video where they had this... Anyway. So I'm learning that's kind of my job, right? It's like I view that being the, as Chair Light alluded to earlier, I've expressed that I think I have really three jobs. The people that elect us up here, it's like we're expected to deliver a balanced budget, choose and select the superintendent, and evaluate them, and then adopt

3:01:50 policies as needed to support those other two roles. So whether I'm managing the budget or supervising the superintendent, or even doing these policies, it's like I can't put the thing on the... It's like, okay, my goal is educated, happy, thriving students, right? But I don't have any of those levers. My levers are way over here, like in the Mouse Trap game, right? I can do this, I can change policy, or I can vote for a budget, or I can choose a superintendent that does this or that, and hope that through

3:02:37 the school staff and the school facilities and the family supports and our curriculum and the dollars that we allocate, somehow that will turn into these happy, educated, thriving students over here. So I just want to make it clear that when I ask for information or when I have hard questions, it is just because I'm trying to fulfill those roles, and the questions that I ask are all part of either coming up with good policies,

3:03:22 creating a reasonable and balanced budget, or evaluating or hiring a superintendent. And so I will ask questions, and I've said all that because, Mr. Chair and Superintendent, there are three things that I would like to ask you to consider for future agendas or discussions. First of all, I'd like us to have an attorney at every board meeting.In every public agency I've worked at, there's always been legal attorneys at the board meeting, and we learn to look at them and see them when they shake their head and stop talking.

3:04:08 I think that's very valuable, and clearly useful. My second item for discussion, we've talked about losing students over the years. I would like to propose us looking at potentially a family exit survey, reaching out to broadly, not just anecdotally, I heard from my cousin who said that's why they left Springfield. I would like to do a legitimate survey of folks that have left the district and find out why, or folks that their kids are no longer coming to our schools and find out why.

3:04:58 I'm not afraid of getting data, even if it's- ... bad news. So I'm not afraid to ask questions. And then the last thing that I would like, the board has an anti-bullying and harassment policy. I would like a presentation on whether it's the district-wide implementation of that policy or if it's not implemented district-wide, if it's just by school, a presentation on how that is done. Because we have this policy, I need to know if our policy is working.

3:05:44 We hear a lot of stuff in the media and so on, but I would like to see some real data in how we're addressing it. And thank you for my time to ramble. Thank you. Just a clarifying question. So are you looking to have a conversation around just a policy or a more comprehensive look at the behavior, a behavior plan district-wide? Just... Our policy is the model from the OS, from the Oregon School Boards Association. Mm-hmm. And it's just very broad and this is what harassment is, this is what bullying

3:06:30 is. And the superintendent will adopt a plan to address these issues. And so I just want to see what that plan is, just so I can understand and see how it's effective and so on. So that's more of a presentation. And just related to bullying or broader than that? Bullying specifically. Okay. I think our policy talks about bullying, harassment, dating. Yeah. Yeah. So... Thank you. Director DeGraff? Yeah. We also have board agenda information on our operating agreement. I don't know if you've seen that.

3:07:17 It talks about board preparation and emailing the board chair and the superintendent. Like if you wanted something the week before the Monday we have a meeting. So the operating agreement has a bunch of that stuff in there. It's like a quick find for different policies all lumped together. So it's on the district website under the Board of Education. And I just want to read the SCF update, otherwise I'll forget something. This is from Sona Hodai, she's the executive director. The SCF is deep in grant application review right now. The grant awards will be announced in the next few weeks. There's going to be a grant giving tour scheduled for late May,

3:08:04 and they have received over 50 grant applications. I know they are working on that tonight, so I know they're excited to share about all the different projects that are going to be funded. And then they're going to have a summer celebration on Saturday, June 7th. It's a celebration for the upcoming grants for the coming school year. So basically, we'll gather with teachers who won the grants and our supporters with live music and a barbecue. So more information will be coming soon on that. And we're also still hosting a series of fundraisers at Public House called Toast to Teachers. It's basically an all-day event. For May, the event will benefit Thurston Middle School.

3:08:51 Hosting and gathering there after work and yeah. So if you can join them, it'll be coming up soon, this Thursday. And then lastly, as a reminder, SCF can purchase supplies and items for schools using their SCF school accounts. These SCF accounts are available for schools to use at any time with the principal's approvals, even during the spending freeze. Those funds roll over year to year and make a big impact for schools and classrooms. And also, they do take donations, like a one-time gift or monthly gifts through SCF to add to their school fund. And you can visit SCF at scflane.org.

3:09:44 Thank you. Director Langworthy? I'm going to pass tonight. Okay. Just a quick thing. I went to the, let me see if I can get the acronym right. The celebration, AA-N-H-E-I? I think that's right. Anyway, it was at Guy Lee, and I know how to say Guy Lee. It was an amazing celebration. I think the district should support more of those activities, bringing community and families. Kids were everywhere. And shout-out to the staff at Guy Lee for making it work, and for all of the volunteers who made that work.

3:10:30 It was outstanding. And I just missed you, I think, when I got there, but... Let's see. And then just for a calendar thing, again, I feel strongly that a retreat would help our board a lot. I'd like to be looking tentatively at maybe the first Saturday, and that's the 8th or the 15th, I think, in August. Because I think the shared understanding is very important, and we haven't really reviewed or revisited our goals or our mission in at least eight years. So it'd be a good start because we're basing things off of those, and yet I think it's important, we have

3:11:19 so many new board members, it's important to routinely visit those, and do they still work? And are there metrics in place to see how we're doing? So we can start thinking about it now with the intent of maybe establishing what we would like on an agenda, and go from there. But at least start looking at possible dates or what dates don't work. Doesn't necessarily have to be on a Saturday, but quite often they are, and they run six, seven hours or so. Okay. All right. Thanks for everybody who's managed to stay for the duration. Most of our meetings aren't this long, but as a board, we do appreciate people addressing the board.

3:12:04 And I think one of our directors said it might not always be comfortable, but it's important to listen. So our next meetings, and I think I'll have to update, the May 14th Budget Committee meeting is no longer on the calendar. Special meeting on the 20th is around the screening, and that's okay. Executive session, May 21st, no meeting. May 27th, special meeting that's also related to the search. Okay? And executive session. All right. Thank you, everyone. This meeting is adjourned at 10:13.