Springfield School Board — July 27, 2026

0:00 Of the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Director Langworthy has agreed to read the land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that we are in the traditional homeland of the Kalapuya people, specifically the community that was known as Chafan, the area that we now call Springfield. Kalapuya people have lived in this region since time immemorial, were illegally dispossessed of their land and forcibly removed what are now the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations over several years, but most notably in treaties between 1851 and

0:46 1855. The Kalapuya are now members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians. And members of the 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 responsibility to honor the heritage and the humanity of all people, and to promote unity within our school district. Thank you. We'll start things out by reviewing the process for the candidate interviews. I want to start with just a thank you for everyone who did apply. I think it's super important for a school district to have involved community members.

1:33 I'll say up front that, my gosh, there's a lot of talent in the pool. So, thank you again for putting yourself through this. Hopefully it's not so bad. We'll go through the process. So, the vacant position is position four, and it's a midterm vacancy. The appointed member, whoever gets selected, will serve through June 30th, 2027. So, this position is up for election in the May election, prior to the completion of the term. So, because we had 10, and now nine applicants, we've broken it into three panels. So, each panel we'll just go through a list of seven questions,

2:22 and we've allowed about 30 minutes for that. Okay. It says I'm supposed to welcome you, which I did, and then sit at the table, which you are. So, thank you. Is Mr. Bailey here yet? Okay. So, it might be a panel of two. And the way it will work is that I'll read a question to candidate A, and then the same question will be for candidate B and C. And then question two, we'll start with candidate B and go through C and A, et cetera. So, a round robin kind of a situation. And, yeah, with that, any questions, or pretty self-explanatory?

3:09 Okay. After we complete all of the interviews, then the board will debrief on that and make the selection. There's actually an action item on the agenda that allows us to make the appointment, and then the swearing in or the oath of the office will be administered before we conclude the meeting. So, everybody, let's get ready. Okay? Board members, you have sort of a tally sheet there, and so make notes as we go. So, the first question is what is your motivation in applying for the open board position, and what

3:57 unique qualities will you bring to the board if appointed? Mr. Brandt? Yeah, absolutely. So, my motivation is usually pretty straightforward initially. I have three children that are in the district. My oldest, present here with me today, is going into middle school, seventh grade. I have a middle child, she's going into third grade, and my youngest is just now entering kindergarten. So, we're entrenched in this district, for better or worse, for the next 13 years. So intrinsically, I'm motivated almost selfishly that because I'm going to be here, and I care very much about this district, that I absolutely want to help make sure that there's a successful opportunity for not just my children, but the community itself. One of the main things that's always been present in my life lately,

4:45 is my wife and I, we really believe strongly in early childhood education. She's running her own preschool program. She went back to school to get her bachelor's in early childhood education, and between the two of us, we just really think that the strongest start for anybody, children in particular, is a good, solid foundation at the education level early on in life. The strongest predictor of success later on, and it's just something that we jive with. And being part of this scene now since January, when I kind of stopped with the blinders and assuming that I didn't have to be involved, I've come to take it under my own wing of responsibility that this is something that I should be actively involved in. One of the things that I strongly believe in my life is a position of what I like to call servant leadership. It's what I execute at my job, my

5:32 professional career every day. I don't believe much in the way of positional power or authority traditionally. I believe much more in the power of leadership through doing and leading by example. In all things that I do in my life, I try to ensure that I show others how I would like them to lead as well, and I do things very much that way head on. And it seems to me, and it occurred to me that I can't reasonably expect other community members to step up and do the things if I'm not willing to step up and do it myself, and that's just something that I think is incredibly important. I take this as an opportunity for me to do exactly that, for me to put my actions where my words are rather than stay on the sideline. So My unique qualities I bring to the board, in general, I like to think I can

6:17 draw on a lot of my professional experience. I work in the software engineering world. I worked my way up from being just a lowly customer service representative initially, over the last 12 years, to the highest positions within the product and business team there. A product manager itself, if you're not familiar, is nearly an identical role as a board of a director would be. Our job is to shape the vision of the product that we build. I work with customer stakeholders. I take what they want to have out of our product that we sell to them and build, and I translate that back into my engineering team, and I tell them exactly what the requirements are. I bring all of the stakeholders of our team together, which is our support team, our quality assurance team, the engineers themselves, and so on, and we work it out. We come together with a

7:04 mutual vision, and we execute on that. It's not much different than board of directors would be in that sense that we're coming together as a school board to shape the policies and vision of our education and successful outcomes for our students and our community, and we're executing it in this way through our administration and through the sole employee of the school board, right, the superintendent. We pass on that information. We don't have to delve too deeply into the how we do things, but just like a product manager, we stay at the, "This is what we want, and what we want to see." And so I think I have a lot of those same kind of qualities that would hopefully help us excel on the school board. Thank you. And an apology is in order, because I have the order correctly

7:49 on my list, but I was thinking left to right, A, B, C. So, since we have two, we'll just continue on if that's okay. Mm-hmm. So, would you like me to restate the question? Nope, you're good. Okay. Along with what Matthew said, my motivation is also my children. I have children all the way from high school to incoming kindergartner, but also all of the children of Springfield. As a parent to multiple students at all stages of school, I can see the real effects of what happens in this building in the classroom as well. That's all. Okay. Well, thank you. So, the second question then will go to you first.

8:34 What do you believe is the role and responsibility of a school board member? My answer on this is really short. It's the shortest question, or answer. To make sure that we focus on the children. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Brandt, same question. Would you like me to restate it? I'm all right. Okay. Absolutely, and I kind of touched on it in my previous answer there. But yeah, I believe the strongest form of the school board member and the responsibility is to essentially understand the policies that are

9:20 there and evaluate the landscape that we find ourselves in. Obviously, this last year, too, has really taught us that there's a dynamic landscape of budgetary issues, school curriculum issues, and things that can drive negative outcomes for the success of the overall district. And so it's important that, I think, the school board take it serious to understand that landscape, understand the community, the stakeholders, the realities of the challenges the administration faces, and to do their best to have an open-minded opinion about how best to proceed and execute on things we all agree on, right? What is best for the students? What is best for the community? What is best for the long-term sustainability of things? Not simply just trying to avoid a painful decision in the short term, right? It's really balancing that perspective of what's right in front of

10:08 us versus what we need to envision how is it going to look five, 10 years down the road from where we are today. And so understanding those is the responsibility of the school board to make very calculated decisions when we make votes in these meetings. Thank you. Question number three, then we'll start with you, Mr. Brandt. Describe a time you had to navigate conflict while maintaining respectful relationships. How did you go about resolving the conflict? Yeah, absolutely. There's so many things that I can do in my professional career that, as a product manager and in general, you're dealing constantly with conflict. You're literally just dealing with the client

10:54 is always asking for something to be delivered next week, the day after tomorrow. Whatever you can do, right? And of course, engineering is there to tell you, "Ooh, can't do that. That's not reality," right? And you just have to really work with making sure you understand the perspective of both sides very definitely, right? So, you can say to your engineering team, "Okay, fine. Maybe we can't do it exactly as they want. What can we do in the interim? What gives us steps that we can build a path where we can actually get to the eventual outcome we're looking for, while making meaningful short-term interim goals," right? And it really helps when you bring it back to the team that you're not just saying, "No, you can't do that," right? And just leave it at that. What you do is you come back and say, "Hey, here's what I can do, and these are the things we can do, and here's what we can work on." As it comes to

11:39 things here, I've had some very definite obvious differences of opinion with how certain budget decisions were made early in the year. It's how I kind of came to be involved in this. I'd like to say that I've had many conversations with sitting board members where I've expressed my opinions, but I always approach things from a point of view where I'm not looking to try to become adversarial, right? Any time that you work through a conflict, the goal is that we try to understand what we're mutually trying to agree upon, and we work Towards that. And sometimes it doesn't always end up in a change of opinion on either side, but you attain a better understanding of where people are. And sometimes it's perfectly fine to agree to disagree. And I'd like to say that I have a pretty cordial and professional working relationship with most people. And I like to think that they tend to feel

12:27 comfortable sharing their differences of opinion with me rather than be afraid to say, "Well, that's not something he's going to agree with, so I'm just going to shy away from it." I'm open-minded, and if somebody has a convincing case on which they have a reason to believe their position, I'm willing to understand and change my position on that. It's not something that I approach conversations or conflicts with an immovable position. I think it's incumbent on everybody to have an open mind, particularly when we're dealing with something as large and the gravitas of school board decisions, right? Thank you. Since we're streaming, I'm going to go ahead and restate the question for each of the candidates, so then if people are watching or reviewing, it's a little easier to find. So, Ms. Puzio,

13:12 describe a time you had to navigate conflict while maintaining respectful relationships. How did you go about resolving the conflict? So, while serving on the Springfield School District's budget committee, I worked with people who had different opinions, and I listened to their perspectives, asked questions, and kept the focus on what was best for students even when I fully didn't agree. We were able to work respectfully, and that's experience I have reinforced the importance of collaboration with effective listening and maintaining positive work relations. All right. Thank you very much. So the question number four, I believe we'll start with you, Ms. Puzio.

13:59 How would you balance representing the interests of multiple perspectives or constituents? Please provide an example of how you've done this in the past. I would listen to all perspectives with an open mind, consider the facts, and focus on what's best for the district as a whole. My goal would be to make it thoughtful, informed decisions, ensuring... I didn't add a past thing on this, sorry. Ensuring everyone feels heard and respected. Okay. Not good. Yeah. Thank you. Mr. Brandt, same question. How would you balance representing the interests of

14:44 multiple perspectives or constituents? And please provide an example of how you've done this in the past. Yeah, absolutely. So my work, like I say, I'm regularly dealing with multiple different teams constantly. More specifically, though, I like to think as it relates to what we're dealing with here in the school board, one of the things that I absolutely delved into was trying to understand the decisions that were being made back in January and to this reduction in force. And I dove headfirst into gathering multiple perspectives. I had built a website that had gathered a lot of community feedback on the topic itself, something so that I could get perspectives from where everybody else was on the

15:29 same issue. And it was important to me that I tried to balance how I felt about the issue and temper it with maybe that's just my one take on it, right? Maybe that's something that I felt and I'm out of character for what maybe where the community was. And it was important to me to gather input so that I could understand maybe it's not just me, maybe it's not an isolation chamber that I was in, but there were, in fact, multiple perspectives, most of which I aligned with, some of which I didn't. But I understood that one of the biggest common denominators that we can do to bring multiple perspectives and interests together is the form of education, educating myself on what it is that we were even looking at and talking about, and then sharing that information with all of those stakeholders and multiple constituents. Because if people come off and have one idea,

16:17 but maybe they're misinformed, it's incumbent upon me to help explain what it is we're even dealing with, so that we can all make a fair, informed decision, make sure that everybody's opinion is balanced on the fact that we're all talking the same language. When it comes to understanding budget cuts, budget concerns, deficits, and things like that, it's important that I understand myself first what those even mean, what are the mechanisms of choice that we have available, and then sharing that with the people that maybe don't understand that as well, so that when we all start talking about it, that we can actually come to the table and talk the same language, make meaningful progress, and go, "Oh, okay. That's why this had to happen this certain way." I understand that maybe that shapes the direction of my feedback a little bit more, where, okay, maybe we do have to make tough decisions, but now at least we understand why, right?

17:03 And helping that moves us a lot past the emotional knee-jerk reaction to a lot of things and helps us move into more like, okay, now that we've talked it through, let's see what we can do to make us move in the right direction, right? Thank you. So question five now, I believe we're moving to. I think it comes to Holly, correct? Just keep me on track, Boyd. No, it goes back to Brent. He just answered, so the next question goes to him. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. So given the short-term nature of this appointment, how would you

17:49 quickly become a contributing member and make informed student-centered decisions? What would you need from us and staff to support you? Well, I like to think that I've already kind of- Keep myself relatively involved. Since January, I've attended every meeting that I possibly can in person, and the ones that I couldn't make in person, I have attended online, virtually, so that I am kept abreast of news, including our budget committee meetings. I like to think that I'm in the background also trying to push my ideas forward. I've emailed the board several times with a couple of resolutions pre-drafted of ideas that I've had and proposals for agenda items. And eventually preparing myself to run to be on the board anyways, in the upcoming election.

18:37 And so, I'm not really waiting necessarily for an appointment or an election as much as I'm trying to stay informed and abreast of what's going on right now. And so, as far as what I would need to come up to speed is I'm not necessarily worried about the board waiting for me to catch up as much as I'm on waiting to be put to work. I'm ready to go now. I think 100% that my entire life I've always learned by doing. And I don't necessarily believe that every barrier needs to have a perfectly qualified candidate on paper in order to be an effective worker. And so, that's where I'm at. I'm just ready to be put to work. So, whether that's on the board or continuing in the sidelines as advocate that I've been, I'm just going to keep on showing up, so...

19:23 Thank you. So, Ms. Puzio, again, same question: Given the short-term nature of this appointment, how would you quickly become a contributing member and make informed student-centered decisions? What would you need from us and staff to support you? So, my whole reason when I went out for the budget committee was to learn more about what was going on in my kids' school, and that's what's leading me here. I have watched multiple of your guys' meetings. There's not much I would need, but I would ask questions if I was confused,

20:09 and make informed decisions to better Springfield School District. Okay. Thank you. So, question six: How should a board build trust with students, staff, and the community? Trust is built by listening and communicating openly. Being transparent is a big one. When people feel heard and understand how decisions are made, even the difficult ones, it strengthens confidence in the board. My focus would always to act

20:54 with students at the center of every decision. Thank you. Matt, same question: How should a board build trust with students, staff, and community? Yeah. I think it's the same thing. The biggest thing with trust is for people to feel that your words and your actions align. Right? And one of the things that I think really it can go a long way for the board itself is that engagement with the community. And there were a lot of things that have happened recently that absolutely are amazing and go a long way towards rebuilding trust.

21:41 I know recently the superintendent, Jodi, had started some coffee and conversations that allowed the community to reach out directly to her. It was a way of opening that door of communication that I think people really crave. And as a school board, we're already taking actions. There's mechanisms that you guys are already taking to bring in leadership from the union spokesman to have dedicated time within the meetings separate from public comment that are of the same vein. Right? We're introducing people that have a voice that allows them to feel heard and allow them to present their concerns, and I think expanding on that is absolutely one of the things this board can do. It doesn't have to be limited to just public comment sections or addendums to the current public meeting. We could shape new policy to stand up

22:29 regularized public meetings that are specifically community forums. One of the things that we do in software engineering, or at least in our team, we have the thing called a retrospective, and a retrospective is something we do at the end of every sprint deployment. When we do a software release every two weeks, we get together in a meeting two weeks after that, and we reflect on four exact questions: What went well? What didn't go well? What are we worried about? And what are we looking forward to? And everybody on the team, including those that did work or didn't do work in that sprint, are allowed to comment on any of those four questions, and then we come together as a group, and everybody has an equal voice to say what we would like to discuss on those things that people have brought forward. And I think that's something that this board could institute, a similar

23:16 forum that we could host with the community, maybe quarterly, that just has very basic questions at heart that the community can then come and reflect and say, "Hey, look, this is more than I can say in a public comment in three minutes," and maybe this is a way to get a more dynamic inter-dialogue between board members and community members. Right? And instead of a one-way public comment where people feel like they can vent, but not necessarily see action based off of that. Right? A lot of the problem, I think, the trust is coming from the board can hear, but they can't really respond, and maybe sometimes people feel like there isn't enough action based on the feedback that they've been given. And something like this can give us a mechanism to help kind of bridge that gap between where we are sentiment-wise in the community and where

24:01 we want to be as a unified body again. Right? We're all on the same team, community and school board and administration alike, and we all want the same thing. So, finding ways to make sure that what people want and what we're doing is probably the best way to rebuild that trust. Thank you The final question goes to you, Mr. Brandt. The appointment of position four expires June 30th, 2027. If appointed today, what would success look like for you after one year? For me, the biggest thing that I want to accomplish, if I were to be appointed to the board, is to help shape the way that our budget and our

24:46 budgetary concerns are often feeling like they're catching us flat-footed, both community and board members alike lately. A lot of things seem to be coming up that are fairly urgent-seeming, that shouldn't otherwise have been. It occurs to me that government and public schools are probably one of the more slower-moving vehicles out there, and they're not super dynamic in the way that they should be, as unpredictable as they have been in the last few years. So one of the things that I would hope to do and accomplish is try to help restore a semblance of predictability. So that if we come up with difficult decisions we have to make, we should know about them well enough in advance that if we need to ask clarifying questions, we don't feel like we're obligated or feel under pressure to make a decision right then and

25:34 there. We should feel comfortable enough, and established enough of a policy change, that things aren't brought to the board at the last minute. They're brought to the board well in advance so that we have enough information to actually act on them. And if we don't, we don't feel pressured to say, "Hey, let's table this till the next meeting so that we can gather community feedback, because this is something that's going to be a bit more sensitive than we can decide on in the next 45 minutes." Right? And if we can accomplish that by the end of this term, establishing a normal policy of making sure that we have all of the things delivered to the board in advance so that anybody going forward doesn't feel that same pressure and that community enragement at having to make a decision that we didn't even understand, right? Or we felt like we didn't have enough time, we just had to

26:21 decide, right? I think that looks like success to me, that anybody on the board going forward can be a bit more breathable. So that you don't feel this constant level of stress and pressure. That's what I'm looking for, is to help move us in that direction. Thank you. Ms. Puzio, the appointment for position four expires June 30th, 2027. If appointed today, what would success look like for you after one year? I would consider it a success if I had earned year fours' respect and trust, and the community's trust, and

27:06 contributed to helping move the district forward in a positive way. Well, thank you. Thank you to both of you. And again, wish you luck. Thank you. Our next panel is Daniel

27:51 Stevens, Michelle Heisler, and Kimberly Buckmaster. I don't have them. No? At the board's discretion, I would propose that we move to the last panel, and if any of the three show up, we can then do an additional panel. But open to suggestions. That works for me. I think if they're not here, yeah, I think we should move on with the next group. Okay. So the panel that we're going to interview now is Christina Scott, Tracy Lily,

28:36 and Kai Fireside.

29:49 Well, again, I want to thank you on behalf of the school district and the board for volunteering to put yourself in this position. I'll get it right this time and start with Christina on the first question. Are there any questions before we jump in as far as how the process works? No. Okay. So, Ms. Scott, the first question is, what is your motivation in applying for the open board position? And what unique qualities will you bring to the board if appointed?

30:34 Excuse me just a moment. All three of you, if you can make sure and speak into the mic since we're streaming. Mic was off. Oh. Yeah. Doesn't matter how close you get, if it's off. I think, is it on on all three now? The light screen. Yeah. Okay. So sorry for interrupting. Let me restate the question, and feel free to answer again. So what is your motivation in applying for the open board position, and what unique qualities will you bring to the board if appointed? My motivation is because I'm really good at rebuilding things and turning trash into treasures. I'm very optimistic at our community as a whole because I have chosen to live here for 13 consecutive years, so I

31:20 know what we have to offer as a city and a community. When it comes to the school district and my experiences, and my triumphs and tribulations, and all these things, I have all that that I've been through to get involved with the rebuild process and really target, and what's important is the students. And so my qualities that I bring would be the patience, the ability to see the before, the after, the potential. I have done a lot of regrowth in a lot of my years. I have 12 grandkids, and I've lived many, many lives, so I am bringing all of my

32:05 qualities and my volunteer time for the rebuild. Okay. So, Tracy, what is your motivation in applying to the open board position, and what unique qualities will you bring to the board if appointed? Thank you. I want to be on the Springfield Board of Education to strengthen the relationship the Springfield School District has with the community at large. As a lifelong member of the Springfield community and a graduate of Springfield Public Schools, I care deeply about the success of our students and really the strength of our schools in how they compare against the nation.

32:50 I would bring a unique combination of community connection, professional experience, and a strong commitment to listening and collaboration. My education and background has taught me how to navigate challenging and complex issues, balancing the competing perspectives, communicating clearly with all of our stakeholders, and really making thoughtful and informed decisions. I'd approach the board service with integrity, respect for diverse viewpoints, and a willingness to listen to students, staff, families, and community members while keeping student success at the center of each decision. Thank you.

33:36 And again, rereading the question, Kai. What is your motivation in applying for the open board position, and what unique qualities will you bring to the board if appointed? I've been in this room before giving comment to you all because I pay attention to what's going on in the district, and I pay attention because I care. As I've told you before, I don't have kids. I am not a teacher. I am just a person that wants to live in a well-educated community. I've seen this board dealing with a flood of very complex issues, particularly over the past two years, and I want to support you in helping things. If we're being honest with ourselves, it's been rocky here, but I think I

34:23 can work with you all to settle things and to strengthen the district for whatever the future has for us. As far as unique qualities, I've been told I am extremely good at digging deeply into issues and synthesizing information to find unique solutions to problems. I'm also good at meeting people where they are so that we can work together collaboratively and effectively. I also think I do bring a bit of a unique perspective that the board does not have right now. Thank you.

35:09 The next question then, we'll start with you, Tracy. What do you believe is the role and responsibility of a school board member? Thank you. Board members are responsible for establishing policies for the district that further the educational opportunities for all students. A board member should proactively maintain an understanding of the public's concerns regarding local education while staying up to date on district-wide trends in education to remain an informed board member and decision-maker. Thank you. Same question, Kai. What do you believe is the role and

35:54 responsibility of a school board member? Well, the role of the board is district governance, oversight, and accountability. The board is responsible for hiring the superintendent. I was lucky enough to be in the community group that interviewed those applicants. The board will go through that again when this interim period is up. And a board member should be able to work collaboratively and respectfully with other board members, as well as with staff, the administration, and the community to help set policy goals and ensure responsible budgeting. Thank you. I'm a slow writer.

36:40 Christina, again, the question is: what do you believe is the role and responsibility of a school board member? It's what we all have said. Plus, I would like to add pizzazz to my own position and show up at sporting events, athletics, all that stuff, and be a front leading, face time, action school board member. I think you guys do a great job at handling politics and policies, and mingling the top leadership. So I anticipate just joining your team doing that.

37:36 And thank you. Moving to question three, we'll start on this end. Describe a time you had to navigate conflict while maintaining respectful relationships. How did you go about resolving the conflict? So I'm involved with a number of different community groups, and it's normal for us to have a common goal and disagree on how to achieve that goal. This came up last year when we were dealing with the installation of flock cameras. I wanted to meet with the chief of police and talk with her about community concerns. Another member of the group was adamant that I should not talk with the police.

38:22 So we talked, we debated, and ultimately, we handled it democratically within the group. So we voted on it, and I agreed to make sure that the chief knew that our community and our group was not unanimous in our stances. We're not a monolith, but we maintained respect with each other so that we could continue to work together for these community projects. Okay. Thank you. Christina, again, the question is: describe a time you had to navigate conflict while maintaining respectful relationships, and how did you go about resolving the conflict? I have a background in restaurant management, and my age was

39:07 always a conflict. I was the youngest store manager in my times, before I retired and became disabled. Anyways, I would have to say it's pretty stressful to navigate a restaurant full of 12 to 25 people at a time, including call-ins, all these other things. I'm not a political affiliated person, so I like to be more of a heartfelt and lead with food and love and friendship and fellowship and meet in the middle of any side of confliction and just be the bridge to build and have the patience and grace to do so.

39:53 Thank you. So describe a time you had to navigate conflict while maintaining respectful relationships. How did you go about resolving that conflict? In my current employment, I regularly navigate conflicts involving employees, supervisors, administrators, all with differing perspectives and with differing expectations. In one situation, an employee was frustrated that their request could not be approved without required certification. Listening to concerns is where I start acknowledging where they're coming from,

40:40 their perspective, only builds that trust and having that open line of communication with them. Also in terms of finding a resolution for them, even though I couldn't fulfill their request and give them exactly what they were looking for, I provided them with resources that were alternatives, but still useful and still something that the employee could take with them to resolve their issue. I am always one to leave the line of communication open with our employees. Specifically if they ever have questions, they're more than willing to reach out to me, and I'm more than willing to communicate with them and resolve things. Thank you. Question four, we'll start with Christina.

41:25 How would you balance representing the interests of multiple perspectives or constituents? Please provide an example of how you've done this in the past. I would definitely draw everybody's foundation to the base, which is the students, and the main target and a resolution, and then just pull everybody in of all examples and sides of how we're going to get to the end resolve. One thing I did during the pandemic and all the vaccines and masks and all this is I used my stimulus to do restaurant reviews and tours and stimulate the economy and do all that. So I had to follow these COVID rules, but then also appease an audience that didn't believe in them.

42:13 And it was hard at first to navigate people, but I did spend my entire life studying them, so I was able to proactively build a restaurant community of people going and having dinner and trying out different restaurants and keeping it positive. I never had any negative experiences posted online because I always felt that it was the mission of community And the common ground being food and surviving financially. People's businesses, and then our wellbeing. So that would be my example. Okay, thank you.

42:59 So Tracy, I guess we might've gotten out of order a little bit, but how would you balance representing the interests of multiple perspectives or constituents? And please provide an example how you've done this in the past. I work to understand each perspective, and to communicate expectations clearly, and find solutions that are fair and consistent. I would bring that same approach to the board by ensuring students, family, and staff, and community members feel heard, while keeping student success and the long-term wellbeing of the district at the forefront of our decision-making. In my current role, I regularly balance the needs of employees, supervisors, third-party administrators, and the institution,

43:44 with ensuring compliance with state and federal laws. Okay. Kai, how would you balance representing the interests of multiple perspectives or constituents? And please provide an example of how you've done this in the past. A lot of times, I think we hear the answer to this question is to make sure that we listen to all sides, and I think that's good, but it's not quite enough because I think we need to make sure the different sides also have a chance to hear and understand each other's perspectives.

44:29 That's completely necessary for any collaborative effort to really be fair. My example is that I helped write Senate Bill 1516 that was passed by the state legislature in this last session. This is a highly contentious topic. It was about surveillance and the automated license plate readers. And I got not just bipartisan support, which is amazing in this day and age, true bipartisan support, but within the group, I had to find ways to get the ACLU and the police on the same side. So not to make it political, but getting Republicans and Democrats to agree was nothing compared to trying to find a balance between the wants of law

45:14 enforcement and the wants of the ACLU. But we did it, and we passed this legislation. Thank you. Question five is, given the short-term nature of this appointment, how would you quickly become a contributing member and make informed student-oriented decisions? What would you need from us and staff to support you? And we'll start with Tracy. I would spend time becoming familiar with the present day struggles of schools around the district, and I mean intimately familiar. I'd like to set up visits to these schools, working with the superintendent

45:59 to really hear from our educators and the support staff. I think that our educators are really in need of that support, that line of communication, feeling heard. And so I'd really like to understand intimately and deeply what these schools need, starting from elementary all the way through high school. I think it's deeply important to really understand the struggles at each level of these grades. Our current test scores on Oregon assessments are not where they could be, and I have a very big goal in mind to help improve those, but I want to do that in collaboration with all of the students, with all of our educators, and with all of our support staff as well. Thank you.

46:46 Kai, given the short-term nature of this appointment, how would you quickly become a contributing member and make informed student-centered decisions? What would you need from us and staff to support you? I know you're all concerned with the onboarding time that might be needed here, and I know that because you talked about it in the meeting, and I watch your meetings, or I come to your meetings, so I've been fairly involved already. I have some experience with what you've been working on. But I don't know everything, so I would still want to meet with you all and talk with you. You have a lot of institutional knowledge, and I want you to share that with me. I want to review documents. I've done that to some extent already. But frankly, there are things that are not available to the public, even

47:34 through public records requests. So, I learn best by reading, and that's something that I would need. And I want to be able to meet with staff at different levels. I know how the community feels. I meet with them, and I talk with them, but I need to hear more specifically from people who work inside the district. Thank you. Christina? Oh, let me read the question. Sorry. Go ahead. Yes. So given the short-term nature of this appointment, how would you quickly become a contributing member and make informed student-centered decisions? What would you need from us and staff to support you?

48:21 The cool thing is I'm already there with student-centered decisions. I am involved in different advocate groups in town, whether it be special education with My George or poverty resources, that sort of thing. I manage different street kids and things like that already. So introducing you to my lifestyle or my access to the streets and things like that would be fun and cool. So if you're willing to learn a little bit of the different sides of the city of Springfield and the students that we serve, that maybe you haven't been as informed about or aware of because it's taboo. People don't talk about it.

49:07 Or the kids aren't on Facebook and social media with their adults or their parents. So it'd be cool to mingle the two worlds and have everybody student-centered and enlightened when it comes to that. And thank you. Question six, we'll start with Kai.

49:53 How should a board build trust with students, staff, and the community? Trust is built on transparency, and transparency is a two-way street. People are also more trusting when they feel they've had input on an issue. To Matthew's point earlier, sometimes it feels like these problems are sprung on the board and the community, and we don't really have time to consider or offer a whole lot of input. So I think just having a little bit more foresight and a little bit more communication and transparency would do wonders for trust.

50:44 Thank you. Christina, how should a board build trust with students, staff, and the community? I think it would be cool if we all showed up at the music events, the sporting things, and it's just really a hands-on grassroots level to build trust and connection. You can say and do things online, you could show up with certificates and awards and all these fun things, but at the end of the day, we need to be involved in all the elements and show that we're there to make votes and decisions off of all the cool things about our district, whether it's a band concert or a football game. I think it'd be nice if at least one of us went to every event and we just switched out

51:30 or that's just face time, getting to know people, and seeing what really goes on with every in and out, not just announcing, "Oh, the board's coming," and then everybody gets on their Ps and Qs, but literally just showing up every day randomly bringing coffee or something like that. That's my style. Thank you. So Tracy, how should a board build trust with students, staff, and the community? Trust is built through transparent communication, keeping students at the center of our decision-making, and showing respect

52:17 to our educators and support staff. By repeatedly following through and showing support for the community a board represents, they can build trust. It's about engaging with the community and the students who are going to come up and become our future. It is vitally important that, as Christina said, we do give face time to our students. To know that they have support on many levels in government and throughout the community is how we build successful futures for all. Thank you. The final question then comes back to Christina to start things out. The appointment for position four expires June 30th,

53:04 2027. If appointed today, what would success look like for you after one year? If we all liked each other, and also just getting the morale better in the streets and in the buildings and getting off of these budget problems and financial strain, because we're all going through it. But just being able to recognize and just secure this goal of the rebuild, and that we're going to do it as a team together and not leave anybody behind, whether it be the poor kids, the special ed, anybody. So that's what would be success after my first year would look like.

53:52 Thank you. Tracy, the question is, the appointment for position four expires June 30th, 2027. If appointed today, what would success look like for you after one year? Success would look like a demonstrated record of positive changes and commitment to the goals this board has set forth for the district. I do hope that if I am selected to serve on this board, that our relationship and communication between the community, the board, and our educators does improve. I have distinct goals for positive changes throughout the district and do hope that I am selected to make those changes. Thank you.

54:55 Okay. So the appointment for position four expires June 30th, 2027. If appointed today, what would success look like for you after one year? We're all still here, working together. We're a united front. We're not doing this again, because this is really destabilizing, having these mid-year upheavals. Success is measured sometimes quantitatively, maybe test scores are better. I trust that Shawn is going to help us with that. But success can also be qualitative, and really that feeling of stability for the district is

55:41 what success is going to look like here. Okay. Thank you. And thank you to all three. So, at this time, we'll go back and see if anybody is here from panel two. That would be Daniel Stevens, Michelle Heisler, or Kimberly Buckmaster. Okay. Seeing none, board, I can assume that we have the information we need on these five candidates who did interview. So again, thank you to all candidates.

56:27 I can't tell you how good it feels to have this level of interest. I know not all candidates showed up, but we had some amazing comments and answers to the questions, and leaves us with a challenging task at this point. So we'll move into the debriefing of the interviews. I will entertain anyone to jump in. So, I guess I'll just start. I really appreciate the variety of perspectives that we got, people that can contribute to the board, and so I appreciate that. It makes the decision a little tougher. Yeah. But

57:13 I guess there's... Yeah, I reviewed them and had a certain idea in my mind, and this changed some of that, so I'm still kind of going through that in my head. Okay. So yeah, to echo Director Cole, it's an amazing group of candidates, and I know any of the five of you could be on this board and be very successful. And all of the boards would be a little different with each of you on them, but I think they would all be really

57:58 interesting, fun, educational boards to be on. So, I would really like to thank you. And this is the worst part of the job, having to choose between you. Director Langworthy? Sure. Yeah, this will be challenging, and I do want to say a big thank you. It takes a real love for your community to show up, to step up, and raise your hand and say, "I will serve." So I appreciate everyone for doing so. Tonight, one of my big things was who's been paying attention?

58:45 Who knows where we've been, and what's been great and what's been challenging for us? There's a few people that caught my ear, and for me, it makes the board feel seen. I also have been taking note of who's been showing up for quite a while. So I've always appreciated someone's big interest. Before I became a board member, I showed up for quite a while myself. So, yeah, I will be taking a moment to gather my thoughts, but I do thank you.

59:32 Mr. Chair, may I say one other thing? You may. I'd also like to say that I interviewed three times before I was appointed, and while it was really challenging to not be selected the first two times, I was ultimately selected. So, if you're not selected tonight, please stay involved and either run for office or apply for an appointment again, because you all are very competent. Well said. Yeah, all five candidates, there was certain threads that ran through that. The desire for transparency and disclosure.

1:00:18 The desire to listen more with our community, with our staff, with our students, and their families. It was said earlier that you all bring something a little bit different to the table, but it was amazing how consistent that message was. So, my goal as a longtime board member is how can we be more inclusive? How can we take advantage of your perspectives? And to that end, I'd like the future board to be considering ways that we can intentionally do that, so that we don't lose this valuable perspective. You each- Bring a perspective to the table that no one else can bring. And so how do we build on that strength

1:01:05 and use it to help guide the district? So again, really appreciate the thoughtfulness with the questions, the articulate responses, probably most of all, the passion. So with that being said, would anybody like to make a nomination? And I do wish, it's been said before, we could have a nine-member board, but at this point, we're limited to five. So I... Do you want... So, I would just preface this, that I would like to nominate Holly Puzio. I think that

1:01:51 Holly's involvement predates some of the recent struggles we had. She's been involved on the budget committee for quite a while and been involved in what's going on in the community. So, yeah, and I think she brings another perspective to the board- Okay ... that we could use. I'm going to take a quick little pause here. Given that our Superintendent Stover has years and years of experience, I'm just going to ask a procedural question, how to handle the nominations, multiple nominations, et cetera. I think what I would do, just let anybody nominate, like a board chair, vice chair, open the floor for nominations, then close it once

1:02:36 all board members have, and then I think you have a discussion amongst those folks that you nominate, and then call for the vote. Okay. Is what I would recommend. Thank you. Is that okay with the floor? Was that not on? Oh. Okay. Apparently it was done in time. Thank you. So thank you, Director Cole. Are there other board members who would like to make a nomination? It's hard because there are several people that I would love to have, but if I was going to pick one, for a few different reasons, I'd like to nominate Tracy

1:03:21 Lily. And then I would like to nominate Matthew Brandt. Okay. And since I think those are all great choices, I won't add to that. I think all are qualified. So we have three nominations. Let me just go ahead and restate for the record. We have Holly Puzio, we have Matthew Brandt, and we have Tracy Lily. If there are no other nominations at this time, I'll go ahead and close those.

1:04:07 Okay, so nominations are now closed, and we have the three candidates before us. So additional information? Well, when it came to Matthew Brandt, and we were facing the reduction in force, Matthew didn't just show up and say he was unhappy with things. He actually put that to action. He got involved, he reached out to the community, he gathered input through a petition he created and tried to find another path forward. He's also shown us he's looking into levy options. Again, I've said this before, we need all hands on deck right now, and I

1:04:54 feel like he's been studying deeply, and trying to find solutions for our district, and it's been impressive to watch. I've also enjoyed watching his passion. He is a parent, but that doesn't define who becomes a board member, but I know he's a volunteer in his kids' school. Yeah, he's just very invested in Springfield, and it has shown over and over. Other board member comments?

1:05:41 I'll speak to Mr. Brandt's involvement with the district also, and I know Holly's done the same, and Kai's been involved, and I really do appreciate the willingness, before an opportunity happens, to be informed in district affairs. So to me, that resonates. And Mr. Brandt being willing to step up with solutions, at least to put them on the table, shows a creativity and an innovation that I think education overall needs. And then with five heads getting together to

1:06:26 discuss these opportunities or possibilities, I think it creates a possible way forward. Any other comments? Okay, the nominations were The nominations, would we then just vote on those in order? You can... That really is up to the board. There's a number of different ways to do that. You could do a forced rank kind of thing. You put people for second, third, see where there's consensus. You could have someone say, "I move to accept

1:07:13 this one of the three nominees," then you could vote on it. So that really is up to how the board would like to do things. I think it's probably cleaner if someone makes a motion to this is... And then have the board vote on it. Okay. So with that guidance, is there a way forward the board would like to pursue? I'm fine with the motion. That's how we've done many things, if someone wanted to- Okay ... to make a motion. Hearing no other direction, then I will submit that if a board member would like to make a motion.

1:07:58 So I would like to move that we approve Matthew Brandt for position four. And do I have a second? I'll second that. So a motion by Director Light, a second by Director Brew. Any further comments? Okay, hearing none, I'll go ahead and call for the vote. I will do it, starting with Director Cole. Yes. Director Brew? Yes. Director Langworthy? Yes. And Director Light is a yes. So congratulations. E- echoing what was said earlier, for all of

1:08:45 the applicants, please stay involved. Help us create a better, stronger district. So thank you. So at this point, we'll move into the action item. So agenda item 5A, the board appointment, we have done that, and now we will do the oath of office. Is that it?

1:09:32 So Mr. Brandt, if you can please come forward and... What's that? Well- Yeah. Well, let's go to the middle. See into the back. Quorum. Yeah. Can I have all the board members... Oh. Oh, okay. They do this over the table. So maybe just...

1:10:20 So repeat after me. I, your name. I, Matthew Brandt. Do solemnly swear. That I will support the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the State of Oregon. And the laws thereof. And the policies of Springfield School District. During my term. During my term. I will faithfully and impartially dis- discharge responsibilities. I will faithfully and impartially discharge the responsibilities. Of the office of the board member to the best of my ability.

1:11:08 Thank you, and congratulations. Matthew, if you'd so... Yes. Our

1:11:55 next meeting is a board retreat on August 5th, that starts at 9:00 a.m. And then on August 10th, we'll have our regular meeting at 6:00 p.m. So at this point, again, one more time, I want to thank the applicants. I want to thank staff for putting together the process that worked. I want to thank board members for the additional work you did in reviewing the applications. And, thanks to the community and all those who have observed as we go forward with the district. So this meeting is adjourned at 5:15.