Springfield School Board — August 10, 2026

5:50 Hello. Well, hello, and welcome to this August 10th meeting of the Springfield Board of Education. I apologize for our late start. We were involved in some other matters prior to this meeting, and we ran a little over. So for those of you who were here, apologies, and we'll move forward. Go ahead and call the meeting to order at 6:20 Please stand 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.

6:42 And Director Brew, if you'd be so kind as 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 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 1855. The Kalapuya are now members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. The members of the Kalapuya still live, work, study, and thrive in this area, and continue to make important contributions here in Springfield,

7:31 across the land we now refer to as Oregon, and around the globe. This information is shared out of a responsibility to honor the heritage and the humanity of all people, and to promote unity within our school district. Thank you. Moving to the agenda item two, the approval of the agenda. I'll move approval. Moved by Director Cole. I'll second. Seconded by Director Matthew- Brandt ... Brandt. I'm so sorry. I apologize. Drew a blank. I could say, "Remember Matt." Okay. Are any changes, additions, deletions to the agenda? So I'd like to have the consent agenda item one,

8:19 removed from consent agenda so we can discuss it. Okay. So done. And I would like to pull personnel report. Okay, so noted. So items number 4A one and two under consent agenda have been pulled, so that leaves consent agenda item number 4A three is the lone item on the agenda. I would entertain a motion. Didn't we have one? Do we have to do another motion to approve it? I'll move that we approve the agenda as amended. Second. Okay, and a second. Thank you. Call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye.

9:05 Aye. Motion carries five to nothing. Which moves us then to the agenda item three, public comments. We have folks signed up for that. I'll go ahead and read the statement, and then we will go ahead and call people forward in the order they were received. So this is the portion of the agenda for public comment. The board provides three ways for community members to share public comment: written public comment, in-person 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.

9:51 The deadline for submitting a request for oral public comment was today at 2:00. Those who requested an opportunity to speak this evening were notified by the board Secretary Marty about their request. Time permitting, the board may also hear public comment from individuals who signed up in person as you walked in. We encourage groups with a common purpose to designate a spokesperson. 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 allows for a limitation of three minutes per person. Board will not hear comments regarding any school personnel,

10:36 whether named or implied. Any complaints regarding a particular employee must be processed through the procedure set forth in board policy KL, which requires the 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, and the board. Speakers are reminded that their public comments are, again, limited to three minutes, and Vice Chair Langworthy will be the timekeeper, so you can sort of keep track of where you're at. So the first speaker this evening is James Mann.

11:25 Yeah, please. And do you have to hold down the... Nope. So you're good to go. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm James Mann, and I'm here as the president of Thurston Football Club. We're a youth football tackle football program serving the Thurston area. We're part of Thurston Youth Athletics, which is a nonprofit organization run by Thurston parents that serves the local community. Since Springfield Public Schools does not provide a youth football program for elementary or middle school students, programs like ours have to exist to provide this opportunity for our local athletes. Thurston Football Club was founded this year by a group of Thurston parents who volunteer their time to run the program. We have 104 players registered for the season, and all of them live within the Thurston High School boundaries, except for one.

12:11 That student will be attending Thurston High following his older brother, who's already there right now. Our coaches, board members, and team managers are all Thurston residents who volunteer their time to serve students from third grade to eighth grade We created this program in April of this year, and the very next month, we applied to be a partner organization with SBS so that we could rent local field space at the same rates as other youth sports programs like ours. Unfortunately, SBS did not approve us as a partner organization, which means that we'll have to pay nearly 10 times as much simply to rent field space for practices and games. Instead of paying $1,300 in field rental fees this season, we're going to have to pay close to $12,000 in field rental fees. This difference of over $10,000 is creating a financial burden that threatens the existence of our local program.

12:56 Simply put, we don't currently have the funds to make it through the rest of this season, and the season just started today. I'm here today to ask that SBS treat us the same way that they treat the other youth football programs that exist in Springfield. The only difference between our program and Thurston Youth Football or Springfield Youth Football is that we'll play four games outside of Lane County. We have to go up to Lebanon, maybe Salem. Whereas Thurston Youth Football and Springfield Youth Football, they'll play one game out of Lane County. They have to go down to Roseburg. Aside from that, we are near identical operations. We're nonprofits. We're here to do it for the kids. We'll hold all our practices locally in Thurston, and we'll have four games locally at Thurston High School. When I attended the meeting in May with SBS,

13:42 the partnership agreement that they handed me read the following: "The goal of the partner program is to ensure that these activities remain affordable and accessible to all SBS students." As you can imagine, paying $12,000 simply to rent fields does not make this affordable. We're a nonprofit who strives to keep our registration fees as low as possible for local families. Any funds we generate go straight into the expenses to run the program. We do not maintain a surplus. If we pass along this $10,000 burden to parents, it would make it near impossible for lower income families to participate in football. It would also limit the number of full scholarships that we'd be able to give out to families who can't afford to pay the current registration fees, which is $275 for the entire season, one of the lowest in Oregon. We would have to significantly increase our fundraising in the local

14:28 community to cover this excessive rental expense, which ultimately puts a financial strain on Thurston families, since they'll likely be the ones footing the bill. I've never attended a board meeting before, but I'm hopeful that this board can work with SBS to make the right decision for our local kids and for our community. Again, all we're asking for- Thank you ... is to be treated equally and to pay the same rates as youth football. Thank you. Thank you, James. And I apologize for my attire. Tonight's our first practice. If you don't mind, I'm going to bail and go catch the second half of our practice. I think you're doing good work. Thank coach for the Go forth. Thank you. Loretta Halter? If you have something to hand out, then Marty will make sure we get that

15:14 or, yeah, formal record. Thank you. Hi, my name is Loretta Halter. My husband JT and I are retired public school teachers from California who moved to Springfield a year ago. In January of this year, we joined CAPE, the Community Alliance for Public Education, which has included 10 members who are residents or teachers in Springfield. Since then, we've been attending board and CAPE meetings, learning about the challenges of our public schools that what they're facing in Springfield, and sharing the passion for the welfare and success of our children that we see

16:02 expressed in all district families and employees. But we are excited about the possibilities in and for all our schools. We see you, the new superintendent, the new board members expressing a fresh vision. We know you, together with the administration, are dedicated and ready to explore ways to reconnect with the public about how we can come together to find solutions to the problems we face within our school community, starting with ways to reach the families who have left the school district or are considering leaving by having an open dialogue with them to clearly understand why and to urge them to consider staying.

16:48 Second, to look honestly and courageously at how narrowed test-driven curriculum damages the love of learning in many students, making too many of them shut down or give up and/or rebel. With acknowledgment of this truth, to consider the steps we can take to broaden the elementary school curriculum. Teachers can be encouraged to empower deeper language arts, writing, and math acquisition by incorporating science, social studies, civics, critical thinking, and the arts. Third, to instill curiosity, a love of reading, learning, and exploring a variety of subjects and genres so that children can and will learn and can

17:35 succeed. Last, to restore the dual immersion Spanish and English language program that the SAFER group is advocating. Reinstating and expanding this program would encourage more families to stay and to move into our district. Springfield teachers are poised to become leaders in making the meaning of No Child Left Behind a reality. If I can contribute in a humble way to this growth, I will be grateful, but mostly my joy and belief in all the good that you can accomplish is so strong, so thank you.

18:20 Thank you, Loretta. Ingrid Nordstrom. My name is Ingrid, and I'm the parent of a third grader and a fifth grader here in Springfield. I listened in on the board's retreat last week and was impressed by the dynamic between the board and the superintendent. It was clear to me that the board is asking thoughtful questions that reflect concerns and priorities raised by our community, while the superintendent is demonstrating a genuine commitment to transparency, collaboration, and building trust.

19:07 I'm hopeful that this board configuration, together with a more caring and community-focused approach from our superintendent, will help move the district forward and shift its focus back to what matters most: our students, teachers, and staff. I've spoken up a few times over the past year because I'm deeply concerned about the education my kids have received, particularly the overemphasis on reading and math at the expense of other important subjects, including science, social studies, art, and health. We know that ODE determined the district was out of compliance in science and social studies, and I appreciate that the district has taken some steps to address that, including adopting a new science curriculum. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, and it doesn't address the broader issue of what our elementary students are missing across the curriculum.

19:54 I didn't see the K five curriculum on tonight's agenda, but I'm hopeful that this is something that the board is asking the district to address and to report on publicly as soon as possible. To that end, I want to reiterate three questions I raised during public comments in May and June that I have not yet seen the district address. First, how will you support students who have been denied consistent instruction in science and social studies? What interventions are you developing to help students who will enter middle school without the foundation that they should have received in elementary school? And what are you doing to address the other subjects that are essential to a well-rounded education? Second, what changes will be made to the elementary schedule and report card? Right now, science, social studies, art, and health are expected to share a single

20:39 hour of instructional time each day, and students are graded in these subjects based on effort, which is not clearly defined. How will that change and when? And third, what measures will be put in place to ensure that every student is actually receiving the instruction they deserve? And importantly, how will parents be able to see and verify that these changes are happening? I hope you will approach these issues with a real sense of urgency. Our kids will be back in the classroom in just a few weeks, and every year we wait is another year of learning they can't get back. I'm hopeful that this year you will have more respectful, productive, and focused conversations that will lead to meaningful action on behalf of our kids. Thank you. And I don't have paper copies. I didn't have a printer, but I will email it to all of you.

21:24 Thank you. Thank you, Ingrid. Nicole DeGraff. Nicole? Okay, moving on. Oh, she's virtual. Okay. Whenever you're ready. Good evening. My name is Nicole DeGraff, and I'm a parent of a seventh-grader. Can you hear me? Hello? Jeff, are we having technology issues?

22:10 Because we can always circle back. Good evening. This is Nicole DeGraff. Okay. Emily Timoshevski. I am so sorry. Timoshevski. How is it? Huh? Paper copies are great. You can give them to Marty, and then she can distribute. It's nice to have that backup. It's not a requirement. I did it. Okay. And your last name? Timoshevski. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yeah. Shall I go? Mm-hmm. All right. My name is Emily Timoshevski. I'm a graduate of Springfield High School and have

22:56 two sons in Springfield Public Schools. I'm here tonight to advocate for a total cultural change in the way the district collaborates with parents and the community. I acknowledge that we have seen steps towards relational healing between the board of directors and the district administration in the last few months. That effort matters, deserves recognition, and I hope these positive first steps will continue into a full gallop this next year. However, there remains a deep, unaddressed rift of mistrust between the decision-makers at the district and the parents who entrust you with our children. Trust is not broken in a single moment. It is eroded through pattern and practice. I have dozens of examples, but I'll highlight a few personal or public examples from last year. We saw it when the secondary dual immersion program was cut at the end of the year, despite years of parents and

23:42 teachers coming in good faith, offering collaboration and sustainable solutions. At the end of last year, the district was still adamant that it was not cut, but a restructuring. Over the summer, the SPS dual immersion website was scrubbed of any mention of the secondary program. We saw it with our science and social studies curricula. While parents raised concerns about inadequacy, the district adamantly insisted everything met standards, only to quietly adopt a new curriculum later. Even after the Oregon Department of Education issued its findings, there was no acknowledgment of deficiency, no accountability, and no transparency. Last year's public forum seemed like a positive first step towards collaboration, but in practice, they felt heavily scripted. Meaningful input and genuine concerns were routinely redirected. At the education advocacy table when parents asked how to work together to

24:29 advocate for more funding, district representatives cast blame onto the state and suggested the only solution was to cut costs. This is not collaboration. That is deflection. Every parent I know who went to those forums came out feeling deflated, and that it was merely a checkbox for the district to feign community involvement. But it does not have to be this way. Some of us are hanging on because we see the positive steps that have happened with the board and district over the last several months, and we have hope that the same can happen between parents and the district. If we want true collaboration and restored trust, we need structural avenues for parent voices. I recommend establishing parent and community steering committees for key programs such as TAG, Dual Immersion, SPED, ELD, athletics, et cetera. Give parents and educators a formal seat at the table

25:16 before decisions are finalized, not after. Give us an avenue to express concerns and have meaningful conversations. I'm here tonight because I believe this district can heal. I believe Springfield can be a strong, thriving district, but to get there, we must root out insular policies that protect the district from public accountability. We must choose transparency over self-defense and authentic partnership over scripted forums. We must rebuild this district together. Thank you. Thank you, Emily. Crystal Sunstrom?

26:06 This good? Yeah. Okay. Okay, good evening. My name is Dr. Crystal Sunstrom. I'm a Springfield resident, Springfield graduates, and a former employee. I served as the elementary Dual Immersion program coordinator until that position was cut due to funding, and I then taught fifth grade Dual Immersion and ELD at Springfield High School. I'm here tonight to advocate for restoring the secondary Dual Immersion program, and I want to highlight a key benefit of Dual Immersion for English learners' academic achievement. In a June 9th Lookout article, a district representative responded to a question about belonging for Latino students and said that Dual Immersion was never designed to be a primary way to engage and foster belonging for Latinos in the district. The article then described other district efforts to engage Latino students and

26:53 families. Those are important efforts that I support 100%, and also, this is not a zero-sum equation. We don't have to choose one benefit at the expense of another. Dual Immersion is a value-added endeavor where there are multiple benefits for everyone involved. So speaking about academic achievement, I want to quote directly from ODE's annual report on English learners in Oregon, the same report that Dr. Brian Megert is going to share tonight. So quote, this starts on page 36, great section about Dual Immersion. "Research consistently shows that English learners in dual language bilingual education programs outperform their peers in English-only settings on academic outcomes. Dual language programs also have shown to be superior to other instructional

27:38 models, such as pull-out or ELD class periods, in promoting English proficiency. These programs also align with the state's goals for equity and inclusion by valuing multilingualism as an asset. Expanding access to high-quality dual language programs is a key strategy for supporting English learner success and a priority under Oregon's Multilingual Learner Strategic Plan." The report presents Oregon-specific research findings showing that Dual Immersion helps reduce opportunity gaps between English learners and their peers and supports English proficiency growth more effectively than other ELD instructional models. At the secondary level, there's another crucial benefit. English learners can access core academic content in their primary language,

28:24 exactly the kind of access envisioned by House Bill 2056, the Access to Linguistic Inclusion Act. This is especially important for recent arrivals, who can earn graduation credit for core academic courses while continuing to develop their English proficiency. So by maintaining secondary Dual Immersion, we can increase academic achievement and foster belonging for multilingual learners while also building cultural competency and supporting academic achievement for native English speakers. It's like compounding interest. The benefits stack and multiply for everyone involved. And speaking of interest, tonight's financial report, by my reading, could be off, but it shows that the district entered this year with $16.53 million in fund balance, which

29:10 was $1.73 million more than budgeted. So I encourage you to use some of that unexpected cushion to preserve this program and restore the secondary teaching positions for Dual Immersion. Thank you, Crystal. Brandon Ferguson? I only have a paper copy for me. As comments have come in, we know, we still remember there's a lot to make up for from last year. But I'm choosing to focus on positives. I hope you're all having a great summer so far.

29:56 I wanted to come speak for a few reasons. First, as a general reminder for the board and administration to continue considering an official association report in the agenda every month. But more importantly, because I'm more optimistic about the future of our district than I have been in a long time. There's plenty of challenges to tackle. I agree with a lot of the speakers tonight. But as I've met with Dr. Stover and Dr. Megert, and most of the board members, hi, Bob. Hi. We'll have to get together soon. The consistent theme in our conversations has been the need for trust and transparency between all stakeholders in our community, and a dedication to making it happen.

30:41 I feel incredibly lucky that I get to be the spokesperson for our certified educators in this moment, where I hope to be able to celebrate positive changes, report to the board on improving morale, and bring these educators' ideas and voices to the table with me when we collaborate on meeting the challenges ahead When I talk to my friends who teach in other districts, I want to be able to have a slightly arrogant smirk on my face when they complain about their districts, and I can reply, "I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm glad I work in Springfield." Enjoy these last few weeks before the rubber meets the road, folks. Thank you, Brandon. Jeff, were we able to get Nicole?

31:29 Okay.

32:37 Hello, can you hear me? Hello? Yes. Hello? Oh. We can hear her, she's just very delayed. Hello? Hello, Nicole? Can you hear us? Yes. Hello? We're here. Oh, yeah, I can hear you.

33:26 Yeah. Nicole, there's a significant delay between our voices, so if you want to just start speaking, we'll listen carefully. My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- "Nicole, there's a significant delay between our voices, so if you want to just start speaking, we'll listen carefully." My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- "There's a significant delay between our voices, so if you want to just start speaking, we'll listen carefully." My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- "There's a significant delay between our voices, so if you want to just start speaking, we'll listen carefully." My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- "There's a significant delay between our voices, so if you want to just start speaking, we'll listen carefully."

34:13 My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- "There's a significant delay between our voices." Can you listen to- "Between our voices." My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- "There's a significant delay between our voices." Can you listen to- "Between our voices." My name is Nicole DeGraff. I'm a parent of a seventh grader and former board member. I want to talk about something- Nicole, a quick timeout.

35:01 We're having significant technical issues in obviously us hearing you, but the other way. We can try to solve it. She's not on. Someone needs to reboot the matrix. So I would suggest we move on with the agenda, and at such time when we can make a valid connection, we can make allowance in public comments to extend that. Is that okay with the board? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Absent actually making that connection, I would suggest perhaps for Nicole to send a

35:46 written summary of her thoughts, and we'll get them that way. And of course, if we get those soon enough, we can include them in the minutes for this meeting. So moving on then to action items. First up is four A, the approval of the consent agenda. We just have one item on the consent agenda, and that's item four A three, and the others we will discuss individually after we look at item four A three. Move approval. I'll second. Okay. Approved by Director Cole, seconded by

36:31 Director Bru. Any comments or questions? Just, I guess we heard a specific public comment about that, that I think there was the perception that we'd be getting a report tonight about that, and it's just included in our packet, and I think we're going to get a more detailed report later at a future board meeting. Yes. We're working on something for the work session, and we also want to have a plan to address some of the questions that were here. I think one of the complaints you heard is there wasn't input into the decision-making, and we don't want to make that same mistake twice. So we're trying to work on a report and also some involvement of current dual-language parents in the decision-making.

37:18 My comment would be, and I had this conversation earlier with Superintendent Stover, that report is written, my question is, who is the audience? Because it was highly technical, very dense, and if the intent is to inform the public, I think maybe we should give feedback regarding whether that is actually serving its purpose. So part of the responsibility of being on the board is that we do come across these reports, but they're supposed to serve the public and/or board members, and I think that could probably be done a little bit better. So that's just my own personal view on it, but what they call an executive summary I thought was not

38:04 typical of the executive summaries that I've seen in the past. So I'd like to be a little bit better at that in all of the things that we do to keep our community and staff engaged. Other comments or questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye. Aye. Are there any against? Motion carries five to zero. So we'll move on then to action item 4A1, the financial statement resolution 26-27.003. And we'll go to Director Cole. Do we need a motion to approve it first before we have discussion? Yes, sir.

38:49 Yep. I'll move approval. I'll second. So moved by Director Cole, seconded by Director Light. Comments or questions? Yeah. On the first part of this, the annual investment report, I just point out that our policy talked about including administrative accomplishments, and then trend for the economy and interest rates. I see we have at our desk, we've got a summary of economic summary for Oregon. I guess it's for last year. So I guess I was hoping that this report would address those things in the policy. There's a lot of good information here, but I'm wondering if then we can get a report that includes those other pieces.

39:35 Likewise, if there's administrative accomplishments, it would be good to know what those are, and a chance to tell the public about those as well. I think we are prepared to answer some of those. Okay. And if the board wants to read the summary, we can provide that for you as good follow-up. Okay. Yeah. So I guess, was this part of- This was part of the, we put at your desk, just the most current economic data outlook that we could- As part of that request. Okay ... proactively. And that report is based on the

40:20 2025-26 year, which is what this annual investment report is reporting on. So that, I believe, meets the intent of the policy for an economic summary for the year that we reported on. Oh, I thought they were trends, and so you were expected to project out with the- I- ... forecast what the economy is looking like and what interest rates are going to- I don't feel like we have staff that are economists ready to project what the economy would look like. We bring in a lot of people for our board that are professionals, but this district doesn't have staff that are economists to project the economy. Okay. So maybe that's something for the policy to talk about whether or not we want

41:05 to revise what's included- Yeah ... should be included in the report. Well, the best we can do right now... I think the best we can do right now are really lagging indicators. Economic forecasting is just something that requires a lot of advanced, being an economics major- Right ... a lot of advanced skills. I'm reading our policies- No, it makes complete sense ... which is what we said we're supposed to- And I think you pointed out- Yeah ... that we need to catch up on some policy. Yeah. Okay. And as far as the other two issues, the way this report is written, I felt like we had highlighted, although we didn't bullet them, we had highlighted some administrative accomplishments. Having highly liquid investment positions, meeting all of our cash flow needs, including debt service. Making sure that we aligned our

41:53 investments with our balance of year contracts, which they approach $20 million. Safety liquidity were primary objectives consistent with the investment guidelines, so we were in line with our investment guidelines. You will remember that we did not go outside the LGIP or the money market, which is we typically would not do that unless we had a long-term financing project such as a general obligation bond. That's the only time that districts usually go out because you need absolute liquid positioning depending on what you do. As far as the annual investment or annual interest rates, I did identify in here in the third paragraph that throughout the year, annual interest rates fluctuated between 4% and 4.6. The reason I didn't put the table in here is because in

42:40 your June 30 report, you have every month and what the annual interest rate and interest income was. So I did provide the information tonight for the board as outlined in the policy, although we can attach this to the annual report to make sure that we are under your interpretation, compliant with the policy. Okay. On the June 30th, the revenue expenditure forecast for the June 30th, 2026, and I didn't have a chance to go back and look, next to the last bullet on the first page talks about the county school funds, the $250,000. Is that something we would typically see- Yeah ... before the end of the year?

43:25 It's a timing issue. We did receive it after this report was completed. We received it in July. We will have to journal that back to the '25, '26 year. Okay. Well, good. And I And because we had not received it by the time we prepared this report, I did not include it in here. Okay. Actually, it wasn't July. I think it was maybe late July that we received it, but we got that along with some federal forest fees. We're still checking with our auditor to know whether or not we should journal it back or whether or not we have to consider it this year revenue. Preliminarily, we've been told we have to consider it this year revenue. Okay. And that's different than what we've done in the past. Okay. So we're still getting clarification on that. Okay. Well, it's good to know that we got it. Yeah. It seems to get later and later every year,

44:11 and it is a flow-through from the LAN ESD, so it doesn't come directly to us. Okay. Thank you. Same report, top of the second page. The first bullet, I guess the last sentence in there, we're talking about salary expenditures. It says, "Total salary expenditures equate to 98.83% of the budget for salary related items, have include balance of contract payments." I didn't follow that last sentence. Could you clarify? Yes. So we spent 98.83% of our budget for salary related items, and that number includes our large balance contract payouts in June. That was the only point, is that we had- Oh, so that was the retroactive item? Not retroactive. We pay June, July, and August- Oh, okay ... to our mainly certified staff for balance of

44:59 contracts. There are years that we would pay that each month, June, then we wait till July, and we wait till August. That is an annual decision based on our PERS interest rate, because if we pay balance contract all in June and the PERS rate's increasing- Okay ... we can save significant amount of money. If we've seen the PERS rate decrease, and we would pay in June, then July and August, because then in July and August we would see a decrease in PERS rate. Wow, thanks. Okay. So it's a way for us to try to be really good stewards of the finances. Great. Thank you. The third bullet in this section, the last sentence, it talks about, I guess, we're talking about the capital outlay expenditures. The last sentence says, "This was significantly underexpended

45:44 due to midyear spending freeze and not being able to proceed with structural repairs." Right. So were the structural repairs part of the... I didn't think those were part of last year's budget. I thought we had- We had $1.4 million in the capital outlay, and we knew about the structural repairs, so we were intentionally holding off on spending those in the event that we could start some of those structural repairs. We weren't able to do that because we didn't have a contract in place, so that's why we did not- But the structural repairs weren't anticipated when we had adopted the budget for that- They were not Yeah? Okay But we had that 1.4 million, and if you remember, we had a lot of other projects identified, field rehab, a lot of those things.

46:29 During the summer last year, we learned of structural repairs, everything took a backseat because we knew that that was going to be significant. Okay. Or we anticipated. We didn't know. We anticipated that was going to be a significant expense. Okay. Thank you. Below the bullets, the paragraph, the additional notes, isn't it, the last sentence there says, or, "As a preview for the '25, '26 budget process." Should that be the '27, '28 budget process? I mean, now we're talking about- I'm sorry. Yes, it should be. The '27, '28. Okay. Yes. Good catch. And let's see. And speaking of our ending fund balance, the positive thing is that we have grown that a little bit from where our adopted budget was. This is

47:15 unaudited. If this comes in as an audited number, we'll be about 10.9%. We will have drawn down our one-time reserves by 4.3 million, which is a drop of 21% in reserves. Yeah. So I would like the board to make sure that you guys are aware of that. That's significant. Yes. I appreciate that. And lastly, I guess the last paragraph in that, it talks about, the first sentence, the '26, '27 proposed budget, but I guess that should be the adopted budget, right? Utilizing reserves. Yeah. Okay. Then the only other question I have is on the July 31st, 2026, the last paragraph on page

48:01 two. I think it says '25. That should be the '26- Sorry, yeah ... fiscal year. And obviously this, yes, and this forecast is not very informative because it's the first one of the year, and we only spent 2.7 million that first month. Obviously, we have a long way to go. Yeah. And so these projections are very inaccurate. Right. And they, as you know from previous years, we will tighten these up as the year goes along. Illness or anything like that could really, as it did, it can- Ice storms, or- It can take huge swings-

48:46 Yeah ... in this budget. Yeah. The last thing is, in the last sentence, you said, we're talking about the unanticipated loss of enrollment. And so is there further unanticipated loss of enrollment now? We don't know that until September 30, or September. When we get kids in schools, what has happened the past several years is we have been, as you know, we've been under projections with enrollment. So if that continues, then it would be unanticipated- Okay ... because it would not align with our enrollment projections that we presented during the budget. Okay. That was it. That was all I had. When will we know population? I know that we have to report to the state. Is it September?

49:31 September 30. 30th. Yeah. But we'll have an idea of what that number is? Yeah. So we do. We are obviously, from day one, we're monitoring- The amount of students that are in seats in our schools. It's after the 10 days, that if a student doesn't show up for 10 days, then they're required to be dropped. And so, we would look at that through the first three weeks of September, and on September 30, we have to make that official report to ODE for enrollment. We'll have a rough number- Yeah ... around the 20th. Yeah, I believe we bring it back. We'll bring it- Because we start late this year. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Director Brew. Mr. Yancey, and I want to thank you, and I want to thank the staff at all the schools and

50:18 at the office here. I know those mid-year freezes were difficult. Yeah. And a lot of people had to do without stuff they would've really liked to have, and I know the sacrifices aren't easy. But it shows up in the fund balance, and I appreciate that, so- Yeah, thank you. I will also tell you that it also forces a lot of people to look in their closets. Yeah. Including central office and everywhere else. You start getting, when you need something, a notepad, you dig a little deeper to see if you can find a notepad versus- You get a little creative, yes. Yeah, you get more creative, for sure. But thank you, and thank you to everybody involved.

51:03 Yeah. And it's never easy. Believe me. No. Schools are going without a lot of stuff, and that is not an easy decision for us to make. Okay. Other comments? I had one other question. In the '25, '26, we had in the capital outlay, like you said, there was about 1.4 that was earmarked, essentially, for these press improvements, anticipated cost. In the '26, '27 same capital outlay line item, you only have 742,000 in the current adopted budget. Right. But no expenditure on that? Yeah, so- Have we already spent towards- Yeah, thank you. So it's not solely for the structural repairs. Sure. So capital outlay will be a number of things across the district.

51:48 So we have a lot of projects that we do in our schools. We have a lot of requests coming from principals. We have HVAC work that we need to do. All of the systems that we have. The drop was intentional. That was part of our budget solution. So we took $700,000, $800,000 out of that line item to get a balanced budget for '26, '27. The structural repairs, you guys have already hired, or the board has already hired the contractor. Tonight you are considering the authorizing resolution for financing that. So that will, unless we would need to go there, we would be holding the 742 for other capital work across the district throughout the year.

52:33 Okay. And the reason I ask is because I was going to mention that later when we get to the authorized financing, that we're asking for essentially the amount with the contingency fund that was lowered- Right. Yeah ... to 7.8. Correct. So we're only covering in that financing instrument that exact amount. Yeah. I thought our understanding before was that there was some money that was going to be put from this capital outlay from last year's budget towards it, and then this- Not for this year, but the board will have, if we need to get there, we can come back to the board for a request for our general fund contingency, which is a separate line item than that capital outlay. You have a million-dollar contingency- Sure ... for unanticipated expenses. That's where we would request the board lean into instead of taking our operating budgets to solve those, so that we can meet other needs across the district.

53:19 Yeah, that makes sense. So the 742's pretty well earmarked for other things already, or- We're using a chunk of it this summer. Yeah. We have a lot of projects that we're doing this summer. And then it's our preference not to spend it all in the beginning of the year, because you hit January, and as Director Cole said, you have an ice storm or you have something like that, we have HVAC systems go out, we have things of that nature, we would lean into that budget to address those type of expenses. Fair enough. Thank you. Director Cole, do you happen to recall the policy that we're talking about needs to be reviewed and updated? DFA. I just want to include a marker that we actually come back to that sooner rather

54:06 than later while we're thinking about it. Superintendent Stover, I think I mentioned this at our retreat, but when we get pedantic about those policies, it's because when we join the board, we take an oath to uphold the policies. And so we don't want to be... If there's a policy that doesn't reflect practice, we would rather just change the policy rather than be in violation of it. So, we're supportive of when it makes sense to alter a policy because we can't do what we're being asked to do, then I think we're all open to that.

54:52 Well, Director Brew, I hope you heard me say that in the board retreat, I'm going to follow the policies that you have as written, and that's the nice thing. These are your policies. And we actually have a policy on how you can amend policies. So we will certainly look at that, and we're working on some ideas from that retreat that we're going to share, and one of them may be establishment of a policy committee to look at that. Okay. Any other comments or questions? Director Cole. I'll go ahead and call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Motion carries five to zero. Then moving on to action item 4A2, the personnel

55:37 report, a resolution which was pulled by Director Langworthy I'll move approval. Approved by Director Cole. Second. Seconded by Director Brew. Comments or questions? Yeah. Hi, Mr. Reese. I see that there's eight resignations. Have exit interviews been introduced? Yes. We send exit surveys to every employee who's departing. And what's the percentage? Has anyone filled out their exit interviews? Has anyone filled out the- Yeah. Yes ... their exit interviews from right here? Like- I don't have that information in front of me.

56:22 Okay. Yeah. What percentage of people usually fill out exit interviews? Like in a- I don't have that level of information here. I'm happy to provide information after this. I don't have that specific... I don't want to give incorrect information here. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. How long have we been collecting exit interviews? So, in one form or another, since my first year. So exit surveys, exit interviews, exit conversations weren't happening prior to me getting here. They've changed form over the years. I would say the current form, the last three years probably. Yeah. We were using a different organization to help us with it before. Okay. And, so what are we doing with that information?

57:09 Once you get the exit interviews from folks, when do you take that all in, and what do you do with that information? So it depends on what's submitted. So, it's a tool for HR. So the HR team gathers the information, and then depending on what information's been shared, we might share that with the level directors. If it's something related to the building, we would share it with the superintendent. If it's something district related, we would share it with building principals if there's something that was pertinent to them. If it was something within my own HR team, then we would have conversations around that. So it really just depends on what's being submitted. Okay. And is there any plans in the future to have the board maybe read about what's going on in

57:55 people's world when they exit? Well- Is that a thing? I think in other districts, you can talk about, "Here's the reasons that people gave us for resigning," in very broad terms. Like, pursue other opportunities, not with teaching, things like that. I'll have to get with Director... Director, sorry, I'm promoting you. Executive Director Reese on how to do that while maintaining confidentiality, because that's one thing we have to maintain- Right ... strictly. But I think in general terms, it's useful to see if we have folks pursuing other

58:42 educational opportunities or something like that, that maybe helps us see if we need to have a program or something like that. So it's always useful information, and I think that's what I heard Mr. Reese say, is we're using it. But I don't see any reason why we can't say, of the however many resignations, we got 10 people that filled out a form, and here are the general reasons they said. Mm-hmm. We can try to put it in buckets. We have probably 12 or 13 kind of open-ended questions that we ask. Mm-hmm. So, we try not to narrow them down into a specific thing. We do have a rating scale that we ask them to fill out, but then everything else is really open-ended. So people have thrown in very varied answers, so

59:27 we can try to put them in buckets- Mm-hmm ... and kind of share those buckets. For sure. Yeah, that would be great. It'd give us a lot of information on how we can be more competitive and see what's going on, what the morale is, and yeah. Thank you so much, Mr. Reese. Do you have conversations then with our two associations, the OSCA and SEA, regarding the trends that an exit interview might uncover? It depends on what it is. So I wouldn't discuss with the associations issues where an employee maybe had an issue with their supervisor. I wouldn't discuss necessarily issues that would become kind of bargaining

1:00:13 type conversations. So it would really depend on what's being shared. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I'm open to it. Like I said, it would kind of depend on what information I'm sharing, but I'm happy to think through what that would look like. Okay. Yeah, I think it's important to respect the confidentiality- Mm-hmm ... of the employee. At the same time, it can be used as a tool for us to do a better job in retention, maybe in areas of professional development, et cetera. So I agree with Director Langworthy. There's some real value in diving deeper, particularly when you look beyond a one month to one month, when you're looking at a year or even over several years, so. Yeah, and we've been tracking the trends of resignations and retirements over the

1:00:59 last eight years. I know, Ken, you were, Director Cole, you were doing some of that work looking in the agendas. I think this year is the lowest we've had with resignations. Probably in my time here, I think it's the lowest that we've seen. So we do collect that data. We do offer an opportunity to meet with someone in HR if that's something that they want. If they have feedback that they want to provide via email separately, we give them that opportunity, too. So they have a big variety of ways that they can share information with us. Yep. Thank you. Yep. Matt? Yeah, sorry, I'm just playing the new card, being the new guy here. I was taking a look here, and I had a curiosity question for the new hires. I only saw one, and this is what drew my attention, is that it was a rehire from

1:01:45 layoffs, but there were nine other new hires. And I trust in what you guys are doing. Is there a process that you follow? Are these new positions, or were we reaching out to formerly laid-off people first? So I'm not going to talk about personnel matters in the open space. But what I will tell you is we have a very clear recall process. We have a recall procedure that we've worked with SEA on for teachers. We have successfully, I don't think I've shared this yet, we've successfully placed every employee that was laid off in OSEA. And SEA were working to do that, but I don't want to get into specific- Yeah, that's fine ... instances today in the open session, yeah. Thank you. Other comments or questions?

1:02:31 Okay, we'll go ahead and call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, motion carries five to zero. Then moving on to action item 4B, approve the Oregon School Employees Association, the OSEA contract, resolution number 26-27.005. Dr. Magert. Thank you, Chair Lait, Vice Chair Langworthy, Board. As Chair Lait said, this is in reference to Resolution 2627.005.

1:03:16 It is recommended that the Board of Directors approve the new two-year agreement between Springfield Public Schools and Springfield Oregon School Employees Association, effective July 1, 2026 through July 30, 2028. I move approval. I'll second. Moved by Director Bru, seconded by Director Cole. Comments or questions? Well, I'm happy we came to a good resolution on this. It sounds like it was a productive process, and looking forward to the work ahead. Yeah, it always feels good when we come to an agreement with our associations.

1:04:02 They're partners in the district, extremely important partners. So yeah, it feels good from this seat. It seems like there was a reasonable level of tension that was resolved, and I think that we all came out of it pretty well. Okay. Other comments or questions? I'll go ahead and call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Are there any against? Hearing none, motion carries five to nothing. Congratulations to all parties. I see that our OSEA president is here. Would you like to say anything? Love to invite you up.

1:04:48 Okay. Wasn't sure if I was going to talk. So I'm Melissa Blomquist, the Oregon OSEA president, and this year during our bargaining session, it was extremely collaborative, very respectful, and I'm, just like our SEA president, very optimistic moving forward. I would like to say that I feel that we got a lot of good language, and I'm really looking forward to next year. I met with our association, and they were really excited to

1:05:34 hear what we had come to the table with. And it was a collaboration, like I said, with mutual respect, and I'm really looking forward to this year. Yeah. Thank you for voting it through. Much appreciation. Well, on behalf of the board and the district, thank you. Thanks for the work your members do. It's really a team approach, and we're really looking forward to this next year. Yes. Or next two years. Yes, as are we. Yes. Thank you. So thank you so much. Thank you. Moving to action item 4C, approval of authorizing financing resolution number

1:06:22 26-27.006. Thank you. Mr. Yancey. Thank you. Members of the board, it is recommended tonight that the board approve the resolution, which is attached in your packet, authorizing the financing for structural repairs in the amount of $3.7 million. Also including the designation of authorized representatives and the appointment of special counsel. And this resolution was prepared by district bond counsel, which is why all the whereas and legal terminology in here. I move approval. I'll second. Approved by Director Bru. I get a motion. I didn't catch the second. You got the motion. Second. Seconded by Director Cole.

1:07:09 Comments or questions? I guess I'd just like to take the opportunity. It would be nice if we could get periodic monthly progress reports on the expenditures and how things are costing and progressing. I know we got one report with their schedule and that, but be able to see, yeah. And I think we agreed to do that, and I'm working with Mr. Yancey on that. Okay, great. Yeah. And I wanted to thank Mr. Yancey. I know we've had some questions, and I feel like you've resolved them, so thank you. Just a question from me, Brett. When do you

1:07:54 anticipate we'll be starting to work on any of these projects? The projects actually started two weeks ago at Walterville. Once- Okay ... the board approved the contract, we immediately got the general contractor moving, mobilizing. Work has started at Walterville yesterday. Today. Today's Monday. Today, work started at Two Rivers, Dos Rios. A week from today, work will start at Centennial. So there are four teams working at the same time in different facilities. Obviously, the goal is to make sure that we're as least disruptive to students and staff as possible. Walterville is extensive. Briggs Middle School will be a little disruptive just because the areas in the school that we're doing the work

1:08:41 is the gyms and the cafeteria. So we're having to get really creative with how we work with the principal there, and serve lunches, and do some of those things. Okay. And then, once students are back, my understanding is we won't be doing any actual work, but we may be doing work during Christmas break. We're actually working with them to do the work during school, as long as it's not disruptive- Okay ... to students, staff, and it is safe. They are, obviously, as you know, to a general contractor, time is money and profit. And they have a very aggressive timeline. I think the timeline I shared with you is they're projecting and with a goal of being done in February of 2027, which is very quick.

1:09:27 We obviously will have to get those tested and re-inspected- Yeah ... and all that stuff. But they're doing a great job so far. We have monthly or weekly meetings with them to make sure we get updates. Okay. Thank you. It might be interesting, I'll just offer this as a suggestion. We have the before pictures. Yeah. So it might be nice to have after pictures that we can share with- Sure ... the staff and community. Yeah. You know? It's not very exciting because it's all going to be behind ceiling tiles and walls, but we will get pictures of the work being done, and then it'll all be covered up again. Well, I remember the pictures where we had some pretty significant cracks in some of the beams. Yeah. And, uh-

1:10:12 Yeah, we'll be filling all that with epoxy and- Okay ... yeah. There will be a significant amount of pictures. And then to satisfy PACE, do we have to do a re-inspection that we submit to PACE, or how does that work? We have to, yes, and we have to submit a letter from the structural engineer with their stamp on it. Because it was such a low cost, and it was very quick for them to do, we will have received a letter on every one of our 21 buildings. Okay. Even Hamlin. I wanted that stamped letter for every single building, so there's no question moving forward that the district is in solid shape. Thank you. That's good oversight. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Just a quick one. So do we have the consultant out there

1:10:58 inspecting as the work is ongoing? Is that- Carlson Testing will be, yeah. Oh, okay. Separate- We had to do, it's part of Springfield, you probably know this. It's part of Springfield building code and law that we have to have specialized testing, a third party come in and test the work that they've been doing to make sure that the pressures are allowable. And we have them on contract now as well. But, well, I presume Miller Engineering, well, is also coming out and looking at the- Oh, yeah. They're there all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we have- So- ... project managers with them that is- Okay ... continuing. Yeah. So it'd be good to know also, I guess, when we wrap up the total cost and how much we spent with consulting and all of that. Yeah. So what I'll provide for Dr. Stover is total costs broken out by Essex, Miller Consulting, Carlson Testing, and then any change orders that we've had along the

1:11:46 way. Great. Thank you. Because we already have some change orders. We have an asbestos abatement that we have to do up at Walterville, which was found in the mastic in the sheetrock. We also found lead 13 layers deep in that wall, too, with the paint. So we have to abate that as well. It's a number of things. Is those findings, are they going to materially affect the budget that was already scoped for it? So far, no. Okay. The abatement at Walterville was like $8,400. I say $8,400 on a $3.7 million project is- Yeah ... but I remain cautious, nervous about that. When we get into Gateways High School, that's our oldest school in the district,

1:12:31 meaning Bratton Campus, so that one will be yet to be seen. And then I had two follow-up questions. The financing agreement is for, is it a line of credit, or is it a full up? No, it's a- Cost it ... it's called a lease purchase, so it's actually a financing that we pay back over a 10-year period of time. Yeah. This one's a little different because we're keeping it in an escrow account. Yeah. It was part of the requirements of the financing, which is fine. We still get all the interest accrued and all of that. But as we draw down based on our needs, it'll just come out of an escrow account, and it's turned very quickly. Beautiful. And then I suppose the other thing, which is clarification again, that if anything exceeded that 7.8%, contingency that- Yeah ... we allocated, that our exact plan is to pull from the

1:13:16 contingency fund? So, we would, yeah. So what we'll do is we'll bring that information and a recommendation back to the school board. Say, if we got to the end of the project and, say, we had a, for example, a $20,000 change order in January or February. Instead of tapping our contingency, if we still have money left in that capital projects account or the capital outlay account, I may choose to go there. I'm trying to maximize- Yeah ... the project while minimizing the impact on the district. Contingency, they're all one time. Well, no. Capital outlay is a roll, typically, unless we change it, it could roll over from year to year. That contingency, it's almost like hitting our reserves. Okay. And so I want to be cautious about that, and I would talk to Dr.

1:14:02 Stover about that, and we'd bring a recommendation back to the board for how we dealt with that. Yeah, I would make sure that the board is informed well in advance as far as we know- Yeah ... that if we're even approaching considering having to use that- Sure ... that we have enough runway to weigh the options between a capital outlay versus- Yeah ... contingency. That's the only fund that the district has at its disposal for anything that goes wrong, right? Yeah, for sure. We will provide as much advance notice as we can. Those are my concerns. Okay. And then just as a reminder to the board, although it's a 10-year lease package, there's no prepayment penalty. Yeah. So, hopefully we'll have a pot of money and

1:14:47 We'll put our lottery winnings toward it. Keep a good thought. That's our job- Yeah ... as we approach the next legislative session. So. Okay, I'll go ahead, and if that's all the comments or questions, I will go ahead and call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, motion carries five to zero. And then action item 4D, actions on information discussed in executive session. We had several executive sessions, so I will entertain a motion. On which? I think the first one we should tackle, we should just do them in ...

1:15:34 So the parent appeal. Okay. Get them in the order we- Yeah ... discussed. Okay, thank you. So, I move that the board take no further action relating to the complaint discussed in executive session, and delegate authority to the chair to draft a response to the complainant based upon the board's discussion. I'll second. Moved by Director Brew, seconded by Director Cole. Any comments or questions? Hearing none, call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, motion carries five to nothing. Complaint number two. I will go ahead and move that the board retain an investigator to investigate the

1:16:20 complaint discussed in executive session for the first complaint, and delegate authority to the chair to work with the district's legal counsel to retain the investigator. I second. Okay. Moved by Director Brant, seconded by Director Brew. Again, any comments or questions? Hearing none, I call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any against? Motion carries five to nothing. And then the other- And then I make a second motion here for the- Please ... second complainant discussed. I will move that the board retain an investigator to investigate the complaint discussed in executive session, delegate authority to the chair to work with the district's legal counsel to retain the investigator. Second. Okay, moved by Director Brant, seconded by Director Brew.

1:17:09 Comments, questions? Do I declare conflict and abstain from voting on this? You always may. Yep. Okay. So, abstention noted. Oh. Should I have ... I didn't abstain on the first one. Yep. We could reconsider. Never mind. Okay. Question then? Director Langworthy meant to declare on ex- We can reconsider, and then she can make the declaration. So, just kind of like going back in time- Okay ... a bit. So, can we then go back to complaint number two and restate the motion? Yeah, let's finish this one, and then we'll go back. Okay.

1:17:54 Okay. So, we have a motion on the table by Director Brant and a second by Director Brew. Yes. And we have a declared abstention on this complaint. Yes. Okay, so we'll be voting as four. So call for the vote, all in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All against. Okay, so the motion carries four to one, or four to zero to one- Yeah ... with one abstention noted. Okay. And I move we reconsider the second complaint. Okay. I'll second. Okay. So motion by Director Brew, seconded by

1:18:39 Director Brant. Okay. And would we like to go ahead and restate the motion? Yeah, so I move that the board retain an investigator to investigate the complaint discussed in executive session, delegate authority to the chair to work with the district's legal counsel to retain the investigator. Okay, moved by Director Brant. Second. Seconded by Director Brew. Comments, questions, abstentions? I will abstain. Okay. So an abstention from Director Langworthy. So again, we'll be voting as four. Go ahead and call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, the motion carries four to zero, to one abstention.

1:19:27 Moving on then to agenda item five, discussions of school board representation. This is sort of an annual thing that we do in assigning board members to the various partner agencies that we work with. Currently, we have LCOG, Lane Council of Governments, and the representative is Director Cole. We have an open position on the Springfield Education Foundation. Our representative to the Wildish Theater is Director Brew. Our representative to Lane ESD is Director Langworthy. And of course, we're all on the budget committee. So, is there someone who would like to participate as our

1:20:13 representative to the Springfield Education Foundation? Is there a timeline on when that can be adopted? I have to check with family first. What's that? Is there a timeline we can come back and discuss joining that? I might be interested, but I'd have to check with my schedule and everything else. Can we table? I would be willing to be an interim- I think yes. Well, remember, if you look where they're not meeting in August, so I think if you can decide by the August work session, I think we're in good shape. Okay. Does that work for you? Yep. Okay. And then I just want to circle back again. Director Cole, are you okay continuing- Yeah ... representing with LCOG? Yeah. And, Director Brew again with the Wildish Theater?

1:21:00 Absolutely. Okay. And Director Langworthy with Lane ESD? Yes. Okay. Thank you, board. So, and then again, we'll just sort of put a marker on revisiting that at our August, or later meeting this month. So, moving to agenda item six, reports and discussion. Uh, we have the superintendent report, the entry plan. I think, board members, you have a document to help guide us, and I will turn this over to superintendent, Interim Superintendent Stover. Good evening, board members. Director Lang, um, Vice Director Langworthy

1:21:48 trying to get, um, the PowerPoint to show here. Yeah. It makes it brighter than me here. I heard something about two screens in mirror display. Ah, there we go. Yeah. All right, perfect. It's like I'm sitting in front of my monitor. And copies of this document will be on our website if they're- Yes. Yeah, they will, um, copies of the document I'm about to walk you through will be

1:22:34 available to the public on the website, either tonight or tomorrow morning. Okay, thank you. So everybody can see that, and we have some printed copies here available as well. Would audience members like? I am sure, and I will put this in the hand, um, of our public relations. Yeah, I have. So, good evening, board members. As I approach this year serving as your interim superintendent, I wanted to take the time to really understand and learn the district and create an arc of planning that isn't just your typical 100 days. I'm not sure that you can

1:23:21 come in from the outside and learn a lot about a district in just 100 days. But I also want to make sure that I'm efficient. So I'm going to try to do all those things in one plan. We'll see how it goes. I think it's really important, and it was great to hear some of the comments. I heard a consistent theme of trust, and I think trust is the oil of change. I was a little less poetic than I think some of our speakers, that I think it's earned in drops and lost in buckets. And I understand that and the actions I take and what I model... Oh, goodness. I did something crazy apparently.

1:24:07 We're going to proceed. Yeah. I won't touch anything from this point on. The other guiding principles are it's helpful to see things firsthand, right? I need to form my opinion, but I also need to give space for our stakeholders to have a voice. The way I'm going to approach my first 100 days is listening with a sense of awe and wonder and not having preconceived notions on what's going to happen. We are a learning organization focused on students. And so I also want to understand what it is like from the student experience. And you'll see that there are some specific things that we're going to do in

1:24:52 order to achieve that goal. Big picture, it is about starting with the students and understanding what their experience is like, building trust, and then seeing the district through the eyes of all our stakeholders. Seeing the district through the eyes of our classified staff, for our bus drivers, through our principals. It's important. I can't simulate the experience that they have. When I was a teacher, I was last a teacher in 1997, it's a different world in 2027, and so I understand that. And just because I happen to be auditing a class or co-teaching doesn't mean I understand exactly what it's like, but I think I can get an appreciation.

1:25:42 So, the first month I've been here, it really has been what I call a plan to plan, getting to know, refining my entry plan, and putting the things in place so that I can hit the ground running, so to speak, from tonight. Typically, when I've entered a new district, I've had some months before the actual hire. But because the contract was officially approved on the 22nd of June, I was about to say 2022, that would have been a real long one, right? Wouldn't it? I have used this month, I think it's particularly the way the school district, we have most of our principals out. It was a good month to get myself oriented and settled. So that's going to be up to now. We have the first 100 days, which is going to

1:26:29 be from today until October 18th. At the end of that 100-day time, I will take a couple of weeks to work with staff and come up with a 100-day report that I'll actually present to the public and then present to the board meeting, I believe at our October 26th meeting. And what I'll say are these are the big three or four themes that I found. I have no idea what those themes are because I wouldn't be listening with a sense of awe and wonder if I did. So I'll have a report, and then what I'm going to do based on those themes is further listen, but listen in a targeted manner. So let's say there's a theme of everybody thinks that we should have Fridays off and a birthday party

1:27:16 every time for all of our kids, which I know that's not going to be a theme, so I'm comfortable saying that. Then I would investigate, I would talk to more people about that, what are the cost benefits of it, and be able to report. At the end of that kind of 100-day timeline, I'll actually have a report to the board saying, "Of these themes, this is what I've heard, and this is where I believe the district should consider as they're thinking about a strategic plan." And I'll make some proposals of here are some ideas for a strategic plan. That'll be work that we do. I imagine there'll be some retreats involved in that. And we will pivot towards that plan, getting more feedback on it, making changes.

1:28:01 So really, I hope our stakeholders will see there'll be three distinct times of increasing kind of clarity on which to give feedback. And I think we're getting back on track here, which is good. Okay. And then, depending on where we go, we can have a kickoff, this is working with the board, kind of like where we unveil our strategic plan at the end of May and June. Or we can do all kinds of different things. So I've designed it so that we have lots of options. But that's the actual design, the arc of the plan as I sit here now. I think it'd be good for me to take some time just to do

1:28:49 a plan walkthrough. Okay? So I start off with a letter to the community where I introduce myself, and I am here, and I think a lot of educators are here because of the experiences they had in the classroom. I was not the paragon of virtue that you see sitting before you when I was in school. I was the person who always got Ns in something called self-control, which stands for needs improvement. I think one time I got an S minus, and I was very proud of that, which is satisfactory, but barely satisfactory. I think I might have gotten a U one time there, too, which is unsatisfactory, which means they didn't want me around.

1:29:35 But because of the teachers, and specifically my fifth-grade teacher, she inspired me, and that has happened all the way through college. So I'm here because educators saw me as an individual student and reacted, and that's my wish for all of our students. I want our students to feel loved, I want them to feel challenged, and I want them to feel prepared as they move on. So there's a little entry in trying to introduce me and the themes. I've also included some of the guiding principles that I just went over, and I want to call out specifically the goals that I have. First of all, it's to build relationships with students, employees, families, the board, and community partners. Our schools, when they're working at their best, are a reflection of the

1:30:21 communities they serve, and as such, we should listen to our community. And when we're really doing our best, we're kind of reflecting out upon the community some values. And I've held this principle every place I've gone. I think that's why I've been successful in such diverse districts as a very conservative district in North Carolina and in Washington, DC public schools, because I hold that same philosophy. There is no Sean Stover plan of improvement. It is really to listen and learn and then take what I learned to come up with some suggestions that the team helps refine and the board will stamp. I think with anything, we all have strengths, we all have areas of

1:31:06 improvement, and we all have a culture that we work under. And I think that's the first 100 days is truly learn that. Learn what the challenges are. I plan to ask some of the similar questions to all stakeholder groups, and then I'm going to actually record them, and part of my findings will include, here's a summary of the recording. This is where I'll probably take advantage of generative AI to have them kind of synthesize everything that we hear or I hear. We have already started, I think, strengthening governance, collaboration, and organizational alignment. We will continue to do that, make sure that the practices that we do in the district actually align to our goals of student achievement every student,

1:31:52 every day, and being better together. And then finally, developing a shared system-wide framework. And that's, boys, I'm reading it, I'm saying, "Boy, you really did edge speak on that one, didn't you?" But basically, a strategic plan that everybody understands and it addresses, and that maintains the focus on students. I probably should have said that instead of develop a shared system-wide framework that maintains a relentless student-centered focus to inspire, engage, and empower every learner. That's a lot. But I want to have a really good strategic plan. Okay? I've already gone over the deliverables, but that's in our plan. And then kind of the rough phasing of it. So as I said, phase one, which is the listening and

1:32:38 learning with a sense of awe and wonder, is going to go through October. Then November, January, we're going to tighten our focus on those big themes that we've heard. And then in February and June, we'll start the development of a strategic plan, hopefully kicking off that strategic plan so when we go into the '27, '28 year, everybody will hit the ground running, and everybody will be moving in the same direction, understanding what the goals are, that we can actually make measurable and accountable for everyone, and maybe even have a district dashboard. And then the last thing is just going into more specifics with phase one. You'll notice that phase one is one whole page because it's more well thought out. Phase two and phase three are really determined by what happens in phase one. Some things that I will point out, one thing that we will be

1:33:26 doing is shadow a student. I'll ask principals and district staff to spend a day kind of seeing, following the student's schedule, taking all the classes, eating the same lunch, those types of things. I've done this before and it was really transformative for everyone. We'll all come together, say, "Here's what we learned," and that's going to help inform where we go next. Going to try to do the same. I'll team-teach with some of our teachers at all grade levels. I'll follow some of our principals. I'll ride a bus route. I'll serve on a cafeteria line, things like that. Again, will this give me, like, I really understand what it's like to be a bus driver

1:34:13 in Springfield? No, I won't, but I'll gain an appreciation. I actually do know what it's like to be a bus driver because I did hold my bus license and instead of keeping kids in the gym after school, I chose to drive the bus because it was a lot less stressful on me to do that than to keep them in the gym while someone did a double run. I no longer have my bus license, sadly. So I will not be able to do that. So I'm sorry, Mr. Yancey, I'm not going to be on your list. And then phase two is where we're going to, depending on what we find, go deeper, ask some more strategic questions. If we say math as instruction is something that we really want to look at, then I'll spend a lot more time in the math classes looking at instructions. In phase three, again, the strategic plan.

1:35:00 All of these things, while I'm going to be doing, the team is going to be doing, and I consider the board part of the team, so I will be inviting you. If I have some listening sessions, I think it's very appropriate that staff, board members all attend so we can hear the same things. I know you're not going to be able to follow the same schedule that I follow, but we'll make sure that you have those opportunities. And I would ask the public, one of the things I would love to do is have small group listening sessions. I think, Emily, I replied back to your email, and so if you have a group, I'm willing to come anytime and any place, to come to you. And really, these are just open forums to hear. We're going to try to figure out ways to make sure that we also hear from

1:35:48 voices who we do not hear from regularly. In past districts, I've actually reached out to public housing, and they've set up some listening sessions with parents, so we'll try to do that here as well. And so that's it. I'll be happy to entertain any questions the board may have. Board members? I'm excited for it. I like hearing it. I like the plan, and I like the idea of the listening. I think it's exciting for everybody involved. I think it will be great watching this process go forward. I think it's not just performative, it's real and it's sincere, and

1:36:35 I appreciate that. Yeah, I feel that same way. Better Together is an encouraging place to begin, and reading this very thoughtful, organized plan that you have here, it feels very hopeful for our community to really have a voice, and I do look forward to being a part of this journey. This is exciting. And I do want to give credit where credit is due. I talked about, I think one of the ideas that I had with the staff, I really liked. They did not like it, and they came up with the alternative of Better Together, and I think it was just perfect. So I want to make sure that I give credit where credit is due. Yeah. And thank the staff for that, but that's what this is.

1:37:23 Superintendent, my job is to see the big picture. We all have jobs in our district. No job's more important than the other. I just have a specific role, and so I really count on the staff, our classified, our certified, our district team here in the central office to all pull in the same direction. So I'm looking forward to that and very encouraged with the staff that I have here and everybody I've met. I will say I'm excited for it as well. I just wish it could be done tomorrow. But yeah. We'll- We can maybe get one of those. I'll talk to Hermione Granger. She apparently had this thing that she could split herself in half. And maybe we can accelerate it, do a 50-day listening and learning plan.

1:38:09 Yeah, I would just like to say thank you. I've served or had the opportunity through multiple hirings of superintendents I don't believe I've ever had a superintendent with this level of detail, process, inclusion. So, in so many of the comments that we've had in public comments or our surveys that we've done, transparency comes up, accountability, and you've included all that and made that commitment. So it's super exciting for me as a board member. And I'm looking forward to

1:38:54 working together. It's going to be great. Thank you. And thanks. I want to thank technology team and all that. I appreciate the valiant efforts, and I think I should-- I can be focused even in the little distraction. Also, I know Brian has some ideas on making sure that there's a page that people can see some of the progress that we're making and some of the lessons that I've learned. And we're going to try to keep that updated. Great. Well, thank you so much. Any other comments or questions for Superintendent Stover? Okay. Well, thanks again. We're going to move on then to 6A1, the summer session highlights. I was not able to attend.

1:39:39 I was out of state, but we had multiple board members attend and our superintendent, so I'll yield the floor to hear any comments that you may have on that experience. Or how do we move forward from things you learned? For me, interacting with the other board members from other districts was beneficial. Some of the presentations, I thought, were a little generic. I would prefer more case studies of what districts are doing. It was more about OSBA, kind of a broader perspective, which is fine. But yeah, so the format was just one day. Where in the past we've had multiple days, and so they weren't able to get into subjects as deeply. But I'll look forward to

1:40:27 the fall conference for that, I guess. Yeah, I thought it was good. And yeah, a lot of it was pretty high level. So we really didn't get into much in depth. But it was good to have the learning opportunity and also get to talk with Superintendent Stover a little bit and my board members kind of outside of this meeting. So that was nice. Yeah, I was kind of there too. There was a lot in such a short time. I did enjoy conversations around the new House Bill 141, the

1:41:14 accountability. I got to hear from Bethel School District superintendent and his thoughts and it sounds like a lot of people are going to be coming together to have some conversations with legislators. Yeah, I kind of miss the longer retreat just because we got more depth with items. But yeah, they were, as always, Vincent Adams and the team, they do a good job. I was going to ask the attendees, and we have new board members who haven't experienced, but this was a change in format.

1:41:59 Mm-hmm. It was a one day, and they tried to be more regional, so coming down to Eugene, et cetera. In the past, it's been two days, and years ago, it was over in Bend. And then it's been in Salem. Your thoughts on that? It seemed like there was a particularly good opportunity in the two-day to train new board members who might have come on. And I don't know, but I like the two-day format because that's what I've experienced, and I thought there was enough good information that it was of value. But what are your thoughts there? Feedback we can give to OSBA. For me, personally, I didn't feel like there was any opportunity

1:42:44 to network or get to know anybody else. It was kind of like you come in, you sit down, they lecture at you for four hours, then you break for lunch, and then you're back at it. So really it wasn't... And then everyone went home. So there really wasn't a lot of time to get to know other people. Although Amber has a different perspective, I'm sure so. But yeah, it was a lot of being talked at. We really didn't get to talk much to other people. No, I had a similar experience because when I've gone for the multiple days, I had an opportunity to talk to other board members and just get to know how they had retreats or they're having this. We got to really have some discussions and

1:43:32 again, we were talked at, and then we were let go. So I did miss that connection time. But yeah, that's what I got. I will say they did have a session where the Lane County school boards got together. They separated out that, although they put us out in the lobby . So I'm not sure the facilities were yeah, the best. There were a lot of locked doors at Lane Community College, that is for sure. Yeah. So, but we did have an opportunity to, in a smaller group of just the county boards, to talk a little bit. Do you mind if I add onto that? No, I was going to ask. I agree. I think that was the most useful session. Because also we saw other board members and superintendents acting

1:44:20 together or central office personnel, so there wasn't that divide. We were all sitting around just sharing some frustrations, and I think it was notable the commonalities of the frustrations much more than the differences between folks. I thought that was the best part. In fact, I was going to try to duck out a little early because I had my ride waiting for me. But I didn't. I wish I had now because I had a dead battery as a result of that. But we got a jump, and we were good I think with breaking us up, being a regional event, right? Lane County was by far the biggest- Yeah ... breakout group. And so they might want to think about that a little bit.

1:45:05 When they're going to do regional, they might want to break us up a little bit for our finder, because I think there were, what? Probably 25 people at our table. Yeah. So. Yeah. Pretty big. Well, thank you for that input. I think the networking is a really big part of any conference that you go to. Finding out how they do things in different districts or around the state is really valuable, but we'll communicate that to OSBA. But speaking of, next item on the agenda is just sort of a placeholder around the OSBA Annual Conference, which is in Portland at the Marriott. So if you can sort of bookmark those dates.

1:45:52 There's actually a pre-session, just to be aware of, that usually occurs on Thursday. So this is a Friday, Saturday, and then leave usually on Sunday. Although sometimes, you can leave whenever you want and get there when you want, but you might want to just keep in mind if they do have something on the 12th, the agenda hasn't been released yet. But oftentimes that is centered on new board training also. And it might be valuable to participate. Okay, any comments or questions on that? Okay. I just noticed board communication. So we're going to move to board communication. So in addition to summer retreat, any thoughts, comments,

1:46:39 questions, et cetera? We'll go in no particular order. Well, I just want to share I'm happy to be a part of this organization. I was able to be a part of the school board retreat, which I thought was a fantastic use of time. For me as a new guy, obviously it was an opportunity to ask a lot of questions, but get familiar with a lot of the different players in the district, as well as hear their point of view, which was very important to me. As well as be able to convey as a board things that are important to us as well, and it just seemed like a really strong, positive moment for me to see everybody coming together and sharing and working on how we're going to better the district here.

1:47:25 So I'm looking forward to it. I'm pretty excited. Good. I thought it was productive. I thought it was a good use of our time, so I'm hopeful to keep that work going. I thought the retreat was really great. I was a little bit uncomfortable with being... I'm a bit of an introvert, and when I walked in and saw 30 people there or whatever, when I was expecting six, I was kind of taken aback. But I warmed up to all of you all. And I appreciate your patience with me. I thought it was really valuable. I look forward to phase two, whenever that looks like, because

1:48:11 I think you said we mentioned we got through about an eighth of the stuff that we wanted to get done. We went four times as deep on that eighth, but I don't want to neglect those other things, and so I'm looking to our leadership to make that happen. Also, I want to make sure to get on the record that I think we need to, as a board, we need to go ahead with the help of, I guess it would be Brian, I guess it would be Mr. Reese, to start laying out our plan for our permanent superintendent.

1:48:57 I really appreciate Dr. Stover, and I really enjoy working with him, but we also have to do our due diligence and make sure we're running that track as well. And so, anyway, since it's a long runway, I want to make sure we have it. That way, if down the road we decide, "Hey, we don't need to go any farther. We're happy with where we are," we can do that, but we can't go back in time and do things differently. And so I want to make sure we dot all our I's and cross all our T's as we're going through the process. So

1:49:42 thank you. Thank you. Director Lange, were you? Yeah, and I guess with that being said, being a board member, we're expected to follow our governance roles. And I was glad that during our retreat, we were able to talk about what that meant and have an understanding for everyone. And I also want to get on the record, because the Oregon Department of Education identified the district as being out of compliance with state standards for elementary science and social studies. I believe it's important that we continue to keep this work in front of us

1:50:28 as a part of our responsibility to monitor district progress with student outcomes. I would appreciate an update on what is currently in place to ensure our elementary students are receiving science and social studies instruction this year, as well as how the board will monitor progress towards full compliance moving forward. Okay Thank you. I want to start off with the retreat. I thought it was really great. I thought we covered a lot of ground. And having said that, we didn't cover nearly the ground we wanted to. And I want to thank our superintendent and our facilitator, Tennille Weatherall from Laney

1:51:15 SD, who made that allowance, so went where the conversation needed to go, and I thought that was great. Talked to other directors saying, "Well, maybe a midyear retreat," given the amount of work and catch-up that we need to do. So that might be just something that we'd be thinking about. Something as successful as that doesn't happen with one individual. So again, I just want to acknowledge the work of Marty and her staff, and Jeff and his team. The board direction was to have it at a different location than the district office, and so that puts a burden on the team, which I thought they

1:52:02 met with flying colors. So again, Brian was there, your team. It was really a good retreat in that sometimes the unsung heroes are the ones that really make that happen. Dr. Magart, you participated, and it was fun to get everything going. And thanks to Hamlin also. What's that? Thanks to Hamlin also. And thanks to Hamlin, and the air conditioning. So, and again, I really appreciate the entry plan as a guide. Now everybody, the community, the staff, the board sort of has a general idea of how we're going to move forward. I do think we still have to come back and take care of some, what I call, housekeeping things. And we heard again tonight the

1:52:47 elementary curriculum, and can we be more explicit to our parents and families and to our students about what we're teaching, and when we're going to teach, and what the outcomes, et cetera, et cetera. But it's been out there for a long time through petition, through input from teachers and staff, so I'd love to pay attention to that. In your entry plan, you mentioned the listening, and I think that's not only a job for our superintendent, but a job for the board, and so being intentional on how that looks and creating opportunities for people to weigh in, I think, again, will help us be better as a district. I noticed on

1:53:33 one of your guiding principles, number five, is keep students at the center of every decision. And again, I would love to have the broader conversation with the board and staff in the district about what would it look like for student-directed conferences. So where you allow-- And I know we've done that. We do that routinely at A3. We've done it at some of our middle schools and maybe some other buildings. But as a district, I think giving the student the responsibility and the opportunity to sort of help guide their journey in education with their families, I think, could be a very useful and relatively low-cost strategy that has shown success in other locations.

1:54:20 So, I'm so excited moving forward. So again, thank you for being a part of our team and helping guide us. So, any closing comments? Okay. Our next meeting is August 24th at 6:00 PM. It is a work session, and around that, the vice chair and myself will be meeting with the superintendent on the Mondays ahead of the meeting. So we're allowing a longer runway with the intent of getting information out to board members. Particularly board members, we have a lot that we have to go through, and it's not lessening at all in my experience.

1:55:06 And I know that this is a very curious board who wants lots of information, so hopefully, that'll allow us to do a better job there. Please give us feedback. If you have items that you want to include in an agenda or a work session, let us know. We even discussed ways to maybe do that within the context of a board meeting, which I'd like to explore further. But again, we just sort of ran out of time on Wednesday. So, with that, there's nothing else. We'll see everyone back here on the 24th. This meeting is adjourned at 8:10.