Springfield School Board — October 26, 2026

2:10 Good afternoon. Welcome to everyone to this October 26th, 2026 Springfield Board of Education work session. We'll open this session at 12:45. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic

3:28 for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Director Langworthy will read the land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that we are in the traditional homeland of the Kawapooia people, specifically the community that was known as Chifen, the area that we now call Springfield. Kawapooia people, who have lived in this region since time memorial, were illegally disposed of their land and forcibly removed to what are now the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations over several years, but most notably in treaties

4:16 between 1851 and 1855. The Kawapooia are now members of the Confederated Tribes in the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. And members of the Kawapooia still live, work, study, and thrive in this area and continue to make important contributions here in Springfield, across the land we now refer to as Oregon, and around the globe. This information is shared out of responsibility to prevent the erasure of native culture, heritage, and people, and to ensure a quality contemporary education for future generations. Thank you. Moving to agenda item two, the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes or comments?

5:02 If not, I'd entertain a motion. Yeah, I would like to add item, I would think item 4C, under action items, to take action on what we discussed in executive session. Thank you. Is that a motion? Okay. Any other additions, deletions? Okay, I would go ahead and entertain a motion. I would move that we approve the agenda as amended. I will second. Approved by director-- Motion by Director Cole, seconded by Director

5:47 Light. Any additional comments? Hearing none, I'll go ahead and call for the vote. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Thank you, Matthew. Any against? None. So the motion carries five to zero. Okay, then to public comments. At this time, I have no indication of public comments. So we'll go ahead and move past that then to agenda item four, action item A, approval of the request for proposal for superintendent search resolution 26-27.018.

6:37 Welcome. I'm having- How about now? There you go. Great. Let's see. Thank you. Yes, I will. Thank you. Good afternoon, school board members. Thank you for having me. My name is Damian LaDotte. I am the purchasing and grants manager for the school district. I am here to present resolutions 26-27.018 and 26-27.019 regarding superintendent executive search services. On October 2nd, the district issued a request for proposals for executive search services to assist the board in selecting our

7:24 next permanent superintendent. We received nine proposals, eight of which met the solicitation requirements outlined in the RFP and advanced to evaluation. All five board members independently evaluated the proposals using the established evaluation criteria. I would like to take a moment to thank you all for taking the time to carefully review and evaluate the proposals. I appreciate your participation and commitment to this process. The consolidated scoring results have been provided to the board for review. The resolutions brought before the board today are to approve the selection of Human Capital Enterprises, the

8:12 highest-scoring proposer, to provide superintendent executive search services for a total contract amount not to exceed 37,200. This includes a base fee of 31,000 and up to 6,200 for optional additional services authorized by the board. Approval would also authorize the interim superintendent or designee to execute the necessary contractual documents. Melissa Stalder, Director of Finance, and I are available to answer any questions you may have. Thank

8:57 you. Thank you. And thanks for your work on putting this all together, getting it to board members, printing, and all that stuff. So appreciate that. And accommodating all our schedules to get in there and review them. So, yeah. Since it's listed, a question to the board as two separate items, do we need to vote as two separate items then? Yes. Yes. Okay. So are there any questions from board members, Matthew included? I guess I have a question. I thought we already approved to do the request for proposal for the consultants. Is that not what we took action on before in a previous meeting to provide for the solicitation? We did take action to

9:43 start the RFP process. What we're talking about today is selecting the firm after we've gone through the evaluations and reviewed the proposals that were received. So today, you would pick the firm. I understand that, yeah. So oh, the approval is we're approving then the proposal, not the request for proposal then. Is that correct? Because it says approve request for proposal. Yeah, that's it. Correct. Yes. Thank you for this. This was a lot of work, and I appreciate you working with my schedule. So I'm looking at the response from Human Capital Enterprise, and you gave a not to exceed fee. I could not find that in

10:31 the proposal. Am I missing something? Yeah. I can show you where that is located. What Human Capital Enterprises put in their proposal was a base fee of 31,000, and then on page... Believe it's page 16, bum. Thank you. Page 16, they talk about the not to exceed fee being approximately somewhere between 20% and 30%, depending on what optional services the board would like them to do on our behalf. So the 6,200 is a 20% increase. Okay.

11:16 Since they said it's typically 20% to 30%, I would not have read that as responsive, but that's not up to me. So thank you. I had trouble finding that also with that particular proposal, so thanks for the clarification. But if we're putting a not to exceed cap in the contract, I'm fine with that. So what I'm not clear on is, so it says there's a base fee of 31,000. So is that a fixed price that we will pay regardless, or is it time and materials? So if we only use part of their services, are we just paying on the work they do, or do we pay at least the 31,000 total?

12:01 That could be part of the contract negotiations. If we feel like we would like to negotiate a lower price, that's something we could discuss with the firm. But 31,000 is their base fee, so we would decide how we want to enter into those contract negotiations and go from there. I'm just thinking on the chance that we don't pursue the full solicitation of a permanent superintendent, that I would suggest that the contract terms be time and materials, if that's slightly more, so that we only pay for the services they provide, such that if we decide not to do the services of their going out and getting candidates and all of that, that

12:47 we don't pay for that. I think they would have to give us a line item dollar amount for all of their services, and I don't think that was part of their proposal. So they had a 31,000 base fee, and that included a lot of things, but not each thing had like, "Okay, this one thing is this dollar amount, this one thing is this dollar amount." So we'd have to go back to them and say, "This is what we want. What would that cost be?" I think in the next phase, there are certain elements that can be negotiated. One would be the timeline. If we, as a board, don't feel it serves our needs, then that's something that we can definitely take a

13:35 look at. One of the options in front of you today is to, instead of picking one to move forward with, decide to conduct interviews before you pick a firm. So if you wanted to interview the top two or three and discuss some of these things, that is an option. Thank you for that reminder. Yeah. And from my perspective, I think there's a clear number one. They had the highest points. They were selected first, and three of us that evaluated picked them as the top firm. They were second for somebody else. So, to me, there was consensus about one firm.

14:21 I wouldn't be in favor of doing interviews just because I think there is a clear... I would just ask if we could talk to them about maybe it's phased thing. They give us a price for doing the community engagement piece that was part of that, or whether it be time and materials. What I'm hearing you say is basically, and if we're looking on page 16, basically could they give us an option to stop after step F? Because step F is when we go outside, right? Yes. I believe that sounds right, Bob. Thank you.

15:12 Yeah. Melissa, do you want to chime in on what our options are with moving forward if we're not going to accept their proposal the way it has been presented? Oh, go ahead. It could be hard because we did not give these options to all the other proposers. So that's where I would... If we asked everyone to put in a base bid, that's what we asked for was the base bid. We didn't ask everyone to give us different criteria for the bid, and that's where I would strongly discourage maybe asking that information from just one firm versus all of them.

16:03 Thank you, Melissa. So I'm a little confused. You did everything right. Your team did everything right. But I thought when we were discussing this, I think I brought up the idea, I believe Matt Brandt brought up this idea about what if we decide to not go forward, and it doesn't sound like we put that option, to put in fairly out into the proposal. And granted, I did read all the proposals and the RFP, so at least that's partly on me, but... The board does still have the option to not move forward with

16:51 any of these firms. I don't think there is an option to move forward halfway with one of the firms. Yeah. Well, I'm not in favor of redoing the RFP initially, just to add that extra condition that we were briefly discussing just a moment ago. I am of the mindset, Bob, as you pointed out, that it would be nice if we had kind of a pull rip cord if we decided not to go, but it's not a deal breaker for me. I'm leaning more into the we're likely going to go through this process fully. I think it's important that the public be involved, and having a company help facilitate that is going to take a lot of pressure off of

17:38 the board, the administration, to handle all that separately. So, I think Ken's right. This particular firm came out top of the list for pretty much everybody, so there is consensus. I don't think interviews would be a good use of time investment. So for my part, I'm happy as is with the amended, not needing to change the language with the proposal there. So that's just my two cents. Thank you, Director Brandt. Any thoughts, Director Langworthy? Not at the moment

18:23 Okay. Is there a motion? I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve the request for proposal for superintendent search Resolution 26-27.018. I think we want to do a motion for both of them, right? Because- Yeah. I thought we needed to treat them separately since they're listed separately. They're on- It's all in- They're on our motion here as both. Okay. It's one piece of paper for both motion items. One resolution. So in addition then, I will make the motion that we approve action item B, authorize

19:09 district representative to execute final agreement for Superintendent Search Resolution 2627019. I'll second. Motion for approval by Director Light, seconded by Director Cole. Any other comments, questions? Hearing none, I will call for a roll call vote. Director Brandt? Aye. Director Cole? Aye. Director Brew? Aye. Director Langworthy? Aye. And Director Light is an aye, so action items A and B are both approved five to zero. Thank you. And thank you, Damian.

19:55 Thank you all for your time today. Thank you, Damian. At this time, we'll move to agenda item 4C, the addition to the agenda for action on what occurred in exec session. I move that the board delegate a subcommittee to work with the superintendent to develop goals and standards for the evaluation of the superintendent, that such goals and standards be adopted by the board. Second. Motion by Director Cole, seconded by Director Brew. So, at this point then, is there interest from any member,

20:41 or any direct thoughts on why you can't or wouldn't or that kind of thing? So... I'd be willing to serve on that subcommittee. I too would be willing. Anyone else? Okay. Hearing none, would you like to make a motion? Well, I already did, so I can make an amended motion that the subcommittee be comprised of Director Light and myself, Director Cole. Does that work? Sure, and I'll second that. So moved by Director Cole, seconded by Director Light. Super Brent.

21:33 I'll move on. I hope so. There, good. Director Brandt? Aye. Yep. Aye. Okay. Director Cole? Aye. Director Brew? Aye. Director Langworthy? Aye. And Director Light is an aye also, so the motion carries five to zero. Thank you. And again, thanks to the team for all the work on the superintendent search. I know it takes a bunch of people to make that happen. Moving on to agenda item five, the discussion items. Item 5A is the board priorities action plan. I'll turn this over then to Dr. Stover.

22:21 Thank you, Chair Light. Thank you, board members. Good afternoon. And I'd also like to thank you for the accommodation of moving the time as well. We appreciate it. So what I have for you is, this is hopefully probably the last step as we look at the priorities that the board wants more information on. We have created kind of, for lack of a better term, an action plan. Yeah. We're waiting for it to get directed, an action plan for each of the four goal areas. And what we're hoping from is just any feedback. We gave you these ahead of time. Hopefully you've had a chance to review them, and we have actually, I've asked Dr. Megert to take some notes.

23:08 This is just a proposal for the board to consider. If there are things we need to add, other timeline or anything like that, that's what we're here for. This is the part of the work session. Any questions on what we're trying to achieve? Okay, great. I guess I'd just like to state, as long as we're talking about this, that we make sure that we're also considering whatever research is out there on, I would like to, research-based curriculum as well, that we know something is going to work because we're not only talking to the community, but also that we're consulting experts. I know we have experts, but also making sure that the

23:53 curriculum has some research history that it works. So, one of the things, if we're getting into the potential timeline, then it's making sure that in our presentations we're referencing research or with standards. Like for instance, on science, one of the things that we look at is the National Science Standards, which is done by, I think, the National Science Teachers Association, for instance. So things like that, that are the- Yeah, that would be great. Something- Right ... yeah, that outside of our purview that we have, there's agencies or entities- Right ... that are saying, "Yeah, this is a good..." Good use of curriculum. And then also, one of the things we could do, if it's up to, if the board would like,

24:40 I could provide in our newsletter, the weekly newsletter, some things like science. Here's what the best the current research says. Here are some sites where you can look at, like the What Works Clearinghouse, for instance, would be one. And there's some sites that rate curriculum materials on a national level that we could include the board as well. Thank you. Great feedback. Thank you. And I would like to have the report card on there, a revision of the report card. Right here I have-- This microphone's really hard for me. Yeah. Can you hold it? Can you...

25:26 So right here I have fifth grade science standards from ODE. And then I look over at our report card and under content area it just has science and it's graded on kids' participation. So I'm passing around a fifth-grade report card right now, and it shares what it's evaluating. And it's very clear with mathematics, with language arts, but once you get to science, social studies, arts, health,

26:11 and so on, it just grades kids on effort. And what I have here, and I've been looking around, and I do want to be clear, I'm not talking about how we're grading. That's not at all what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is having the standards be explicit in our report card and show the parents and show the students what the kids are learning and getting a grade in on. I also have a fifth-grade report card from California, and I'm not suggesting that we do that. I'm just showing an example of what they do have.

26:56 They have history in here, describe pre-Columbia settlements, describe the impact of institutions, and anyway, they just go through the standards and it really is very explicit to families what their students are getting taught and what they're getting evaluated on. And I will also pass that around. I also have from, I think it's from North Carolina, Mooresville. I have their report card and they're also very explicit on what they're going to be teaching and what they expect the students to know. And this would be great because on our report card, it just, again, it just shows effort and I want us to have

27:43 some higher standards than just effort. Great. So- My question would be, I guess, the report card, what's the audience? Or is this for the parents? Or yeah, so that we're trying to convey certain information to the parents. And I'm just trying to understand is, and are there other ways we can do that than revising the report card? I'm certainly not an expert in this, but it just seems like there's information out that parents want and so is the report card the best way to provide that as opposed to on our website with curriculum and that? Or is that the tool that is best

28:30 used? Well, the problem is it's not even on the website. Like I can go onto 4J and I can find the curriculum on there. I can go to Portland Schools, I can find the curriculum there. In fact, they even have screen time curriculum and shows how many minutes, and we don't do that either. So, it's very hard for me to find much of anything. And if you look at those, our report cards, and you do a side-by-side with Springfield's, please go ahead, you'll see that once again kids are just being tested on their, on what? We're being tested on... And as a parent with a fifth grader, this is important. I want to know what my kid is learning

29:16 and right now I really don't. All I know is she's got a thumbs up. And I will look at this. I want to hear what you're saying so I'm trying to listen to you and look at that but it seems to me the issue is information, right? And so jumping to what's on the report card, maybe there's other ways to do that, to provide that information. Because you're just looking for information and you're not finding it, and I think that's a problem. We should be able to have the information for parents, but I just don't know if the report card is the thing that we should be focusing on. I think what gets taught gets evaluated, and that's what I want to see. I want to see what my kid is getting taught and I want to see how she's been

30:02 evaluated with that. Again, I can't express enough just having her purely on her effort for the day or for the semester. That's not enough for me. I have very high standards for her education and I would like to see it reflected in this report card. So if I'm understanding, for instance, when I look at math and it says, "Fluently multiplies multi-digit whole numbers," right? That's really clear they're teaching that and they're being evaluated on that, and you're saying that they're not providing that kind of ... whatever understands butterflies or whatever the thing is that

30:47 they should be studying at each level? Well, if you turn it over and you, because it does talk about math, it does talk about language, so it goes into great detail of that, and that's wonderful. But then look at the other content down at the bottom of the back page. Hmm. Yeah. What are you seeing that- Yeah, where it just says content area art, one, two, three, health, blah, blah, blah. No detail about what is included in that, in what's being taught at that grade level. That's right. And with science, students are to be learning earth and space science, earth systems, earth and human activity. Here's

31:38 the science standards, and this is what I would like to see is, how is she doing with her comprehension with this? And what are the kids learning? Because other districts are showing that they are teaching this, and they're evaluating the kids on that. So I think what we could do is we could-- This is something we're going to have to work with our teachers on. My understanding is the last revision we did took two years to do this. And this is something we very much, I as superintendent, really want to do something with the staff on, the teachers, because they're ultimately the ones with the evaluating the students.

32:25 I certainly understand, for maybe even something like science where we're now, that is now going to be one of the areas that we did the local assessment on, and I wanted to remind the board on that, that might make some sense to have those level of standards in there, particularly for fifth grade. And there are some models. I'm not sure there's going to be, for instance, something like PE. We'd be asking the PE teacher to do a lot of evaluating. And in all my years, I've never seen anything with PE onto the level of standards. It really is just, "Yes, they participated well," things like that. So I think maybe even looking at with staff and teachers, are there areas we want to add

33:10 that same level of detail to that we have for math and ELA, I think would be wise. This is definitely something I want to do with the teachers there. And so maybe at the meeting, we can work on providing a framework or some options, a report on options that we're looking at for a potential elementary report card revision, maybe in February or so, January, February timeline. Because we're going to need some time to gather some feedback as well from-

33:55 Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure. And I like that you'd be working closely with the teachers, the ones who are working directly with the students. Yeah. And Dr. Stover, I'm really supportive of working with the teachers. I would suggest perhaps that we also include parents in that conversation- Yes ... and maybe even input from students. The one thing the report card clearly shows is it's weighted in favor of two subject areas. And it's been a few years since I've had kids at the elementary age, but if I'm concerned in any of those areas, how will I help my student if I don't have that information?

34:40 What are the doables that we can commit to teaching? I've done a pretty deep analysis of Oregon Department of Education, their standards and outcomes, and honestly, I've run it by some teachers. I've run it by some other people. I don't know that it's doable. And so the Oregon Department of Education doesn't actually ascribe a hierarchy. It lists eight subjects. And when I have reached out, I have not found that they're basically not saying there is a hierarchy, but they're allowing districts to sort of set the standards and the

35:25 outcomes. So I'll use the case of fifth grade. I believe when you tally up all the outcomes for fifth grade, it's 415 outcomes. That's over two a day. So I think the district should take a look at those and say, "Well, what are the most important?" Most subject areas are foundational, meaning that you have to have a clear understanding of a certain level to move to the next. And so I'd like us to take a look at that, but I would include parents and students in that. It's been a number of years ago, but at one time the district did do,

36:11 it was right after the quality education model came out from the state, and Springfield designed their own called the SQEM, the Springfield Community Springfield Quality Education Model. So I would suggest if parents have a clear knowledge of what the district is going to teach and teachers know what they're going to teach, we may have better outcomes. Something to take a look at. Yeah, I appreciate it. And Director Langworthy, I did research kind of like Do we have something? And we've created somehow similar, almost exactly like the one you shared with me from 4J. And we're looking at that, and it was on the website at one time.

36:58 And so we're looking to see if that still works in putting that type of document. It's almost exactly like the one on 4J on the website. We did some, because a lot of that has been prepared already. So this is a curriculum guide? Yes. For- That shows parents, for instance, these are the curriculum standards for this grade level. There's a link right to it. Okay. I compared the two, and what we already had at one point is remarkably similar to what 4J posts currently. Can the board get a copy of that? Yeah. That would be great. I want to review them and make sure it's- Sure ... something that I feel is- Okay ... appropriate as well. But yes. So yeah, again,

37:43 Director Langworthy, I'm taking a look at that report card, and I want one that clearly reflects what we're teaching, and then our commitment. So I have a real basic request, and I would just like to have a weekly elementary schedule that explicitly includes all eight subjects. And again, looking at other districts, that seems to be a possibility. I'd like to see if we could work on that, so that our families, our students, teachers, everyone knows here's the time. And perhaps that would include a survey going to those stakeholder groups, the teachers, the students, the parents,

38:29 asking them. It's one thing to provide curriculum, and that's what Division 22 addresses. Do we have the curriculum in place? And actually, we were found deficient a couple of years ago. But more than the curriculum, do we provide the time, the resources, the materials to actually be effective? So, it's a big conversation, but I think if we can really take this as the opportunity to really define these things, I think we'll have better outcomes. So I'd like to take a look at that. Yeah. We can certainly take a look at the schedule or compile some of the schedules that teachers do. Again, this is one of those things where it's been my experience, we create some broad categories.

39:17 I've seen schedules where the schedule I had when I was an elementary principal is we outlined the specials, reading, art, music, et cetera, and then we put in our literacy block time, math block time, and we had a block of time that said social studies, science- Yeah ... health, that was rotated. And I left it up to the teachers if they wanted to do a unit on science, then move to social studies or health, et cetera, or they wanted to do a regular rotation. And so it's trying to find that balance of teacher autonomy, and district guidance. And so we'll look at that and maybe we can start gathering some schedules and see how it's done at various different schools.

40:06 Anecdotally, and even through public comments, we've heard from families who have dis-enrolled their students from Springfield schools, at least because of the perception of not getting this well-rounded education. So again, I would underscore the fact that I would like to be very explicit in when we're going to teach this, and then ask the further question, is that enough time given our winnowing down of the enormous number of standards and outcomes, is it doable? And then some things I think within each of the subject areas are going to be considered more mastery types of outcomes that we want. And I think we call them power standards in education.

40:53 But again, intentionality and design, I think, if we really pursue that, I think we can accomplish some really good things. The last thing that I have is I do believe, I know that there's some other thoughts on this, but I believe class size makes a difference. And so I was wondering if it'd be possible to get a class size, actual class sizes by building, by grade level at the elementary level so that we know whether we need to apply resources in those areas. Is that a possibility? That was just sent to the union as per labor law, yeah.

41:41 We can provide what we sent to the union, for sure. And what did we provide to the union? I think exactly what you were talking about. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to make sure as we enter the budget cycle, and I don't anticipate our budgets are going to get substantially better. So I think we have to be very purposeful in how we spend the money. And if a class size is really large and then you add in English language learners and some other maybe behavioral factors, I think it becomes almost impossible to actually ask for the outcomes we desire. So we just have to be intentional as we take a look at all the factors that affect the learning in the classroom. Thank you for that.

42:27 And one thing I would say, some of these elements are going to bleed into each other. So I think we have some comments, but I think we'll be able to get a really good understanding of what our stakeholders feel about curriculum when the survey, our family survey closes on the 30th. I spoke with Mr. Richardson today, and we're at over 1,000 responses right now. So I think that will be a really- Oh, that's great ... representative sample and we can see how opinions have changed, if they have changed at all over time. So we're excited to dig into that. Yeah, that'll be good information. And- I know that later on we're talking about feedback and surveys, so- Yeah ... some of the input I'll save for then. Hopefully not as late later on. We're on there. Any other comments?

43:16 These have been very helpful, thank you. Are any other comments on elementary curriculum? I think we've gotten a... It's knowledge, and then what are we going to do with the knowledge is what I'm actually hearing from the board. I will say that to not underestimate, and this is why we want to lay these out, because historically, and in my own experience outside the district, report card change is not something that we can snap the fingers on, and we really want to get a lot of feedback. And make sure it's what teachers feel is viable to do and, to your point, what families feel is appropriate to have in front of them, and at a level they understand. So bridging that takes a little negotiation, a little

44:01 time. Well, I want to thank you- I have a comment ... Dr. Stover, for being willing to have this conversation, and thank the team for that also. I think this is a tremendous opportunity, actually, to be reflective of what we're doing. And I'm convinced that we can create a better system, that we actually arrive at our outcomes. Well, the one thing I would say to that is that, and you'll see this in what I've learned so far, is the district's on sound footing with a lot of this, so this isn't going to be as heavy as the lift is if we were starting from scratch. Because, again, we have a lot of these documents in place that we can build on,

44:46 and move forward, and make sure everybody's on the same page. Which again, is going to be one of my goals. Thank you. I believe I heard maybe Director Brandt trying to- Yeah ... sorry, I can't see you, so- No worries ... feel free to hit the mic or something, and we'll try to get you on board. Yeah. No, I think this conversation's been fantastic. The only thought that I wanted to contribute to this, and I heard you mention it, Superintendant Stover, was the teacher autonomy is something that is kind of important to me. And I was wondering if in the presentation, there was a way that you could collect data on which teachers have submitted differentiated curriculum from the prescribed curriculum that we have, lesson plan-wise?

45:31 And is there a way to maybe see a comparison of when those assessments come back after they're done, how well students performed on a differentiated curriculum than just the standard one versus other students? I guess my concern has been, and from what I had heard in previous parent feedback, is that a lot of the teachers in the past have felt that they weren't really allowed to waiver from the fidelity of the subscribed curriculum. And as a result of that, they basically only get to teach what is put right in front of them. And I know that we've had a lot of discussion about how that

46:16 is maybe no longer the case, and that we're supportive of any teacher that could justify their own curriculum in lieu of, right? And that this is just the baseline. But it would be nice to be able to see how many teachers are taking advantage of that, that have submitted lesson plans that have been approved. And to try to compare what the outcome of those are in comparison to, say, those teachers that are using just the base curriculum alone. Well, so one thing, and we might have to talk a little bit further about this. The one thing that we have is the standards must be taught, and we have a pacing guide, and we have some things that are done at the school level. So what happens is, practically is the grade levels meet together on what we call

47:03 PLCs, professional learning communities, and they actually discuss their approach, how they want to teach the curriculum as a team. So the fifth-grade teachers will get together, the first-grade teachers, et cetera, looking at all the things in a school. And that's where you're going to get some variation between school by school. What we really can't vary are the standards that we teach, and which ones we think, as Director Light said, are the power standards. Where we want to have teacher autonomy is on sometimes the materials they use to teach it, the approach that they take, and that's where we have some autonomy. And I am finding that there were, in some instances, some circles,

47:49 what was perceived to be a top-down approach of like, "You have to be here at this time on this date," and that is not the way we're approaching it this year. The team, we want to make sure that we provide a viable curriculum that is consistent across all grade levels in between schools. But then how the teachers present it, how they teach it, is really up to them in their professional capacity. So striking that balance. And I think what I would like to do first, if this is okay with you, is maybe incorporate some of that, how we do that, into our presentations. Specifically the December presentation where we actually say, "And this is what we teach, and here is the areas that teachers have

48:37 autonomy and decision-making over." Or I would say grade-level teams at each school. And then I think we could go from there, if that's okay with you. Oh, yeah. That's exactly what I'm hoping for, is to just help. Not just for my own and the board's edification, but also the general public, right? Yeah. Because of that, like we're talking about, it's really helping broaden the message of where we're going and how we're doing things that I think is super beneficial. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate it I'd like to add one more thing. Most of our conversation has been revolving around these eight subjects as defined by ODE. But I think the conversation, since we're having it, should also include things that parents have shared with me.

49:22 They would like their student to learn cursive. They would like the district to acknowledge the value of play, especially at the younger grades, but maybe even all the way through the system. Digital and online responsibility. So there are some things that aren't included in those eight subjects, and I think since we're having the conversation, we should broaden that. And that's where I think, really, if we can include the teachers and the families in that conversation, it could be that maybe the power standards that we have actually put weight on maybe don't resonate with all groups or maybe need to be taken a look at as we move forward. And the way I had this envisioned is really let's get a lay of the land type of

50:09 thing. And then I think that what you're describing, Director Light, is really more of a strategic plan type of direction that the district, the board could obviously put as a part of it, because to get to that level and do it well, it's going to be a year-long, two-year-long process to get there, maybe even longer. And so we're trying to prepare the ground so that whatever pops up with all these four priorities can help then guide the strategic plan moving forward. I agree with all of that. It is quite a meaty area to have this conversation around, and that's why emphasizing what are we doing now, what are we teaching now,

50:57 where's the timeframe to do that, resources, starting from a this is now, and then, hey, dream a little bit. What do we want it to be? So thank you. So that's good. Looks like we're on the right direction. Great. Going in the right direction. And we really appreciate that feedback. Okay. And I just want to say too, I'm saddened that we only find out about the gaps at the end of the year after the students are about to move on. It's like an autopsy. And so, is there a way that we could get progress on- Yeah, that's part of in our board priorities, and I didn't call it out here, but one of the things, I believe Director Cole asked for this too, is when we

51:43 get some of our interim information on the benchmark testing, our plan is to provide updates to the board. So we didn't call it out in the priorities because that's something that we're planning on doing when it makes sense to do so. Right? So I think our first stab at this, as far as benchmarks goes, is going to be after we get the mid-year evaluation. We'll say, "This is where we were. This is where our kids have grown," and we can compare that to last year at this time and last year where we started from as well. So that's what we're thinking of. So we didn't have that in this, but in earlier iterations of that, I think we committed to doing that.

52:29 Well, and I think we should not undervalue the participation of, and the ownership of students in their own learning. So I would also like to take a look at, which we do at A3 with some success, and I know we've done it at various schools around the district, but student-directed learning. So student-directed conferences. And perhaps, again, I don't know that one is sufficient. The number that pops out to me is three times a year. But have the students present where they were. One of the highly effective things at Ashland Middle School, when they sit down with families, is that student knows exactly where they are, and maybe more importantly, where they need to be and things that they need to demonstrate moving forward. And I'd like to get to that

53:17 kind of ownership from our students. So perhaps that's one of the key elements of engagement for them. So what can we do to help them feel the ownership, and what works for them? Great. Yeah. Thank you. Again, I think that's a really good discussion for as we think about strategic planning. Absolutely. And I absolutely believe that students are the receivers of this, and they should have a huge say in what we're doing, and I think there's a number of different options, even beyond student-led conferences we could look at. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? This has been a great conversation, and hopefully this gives the district direction. Thank you.

54:02 It certainly does. Thank you. All right, so moving on to student discipline. This is a little bit of the same type of cadence that we suggested with the curriculum, providing an overview, a broad overview on the 30th. And then in January, and based on the feedback from the 30th, provide another presentation that actually gives the discipline data, the trends, the interventions we're looking at. And then in February, similar to what we're doing in January for curriculum, do some site visits on where it is and maybe even have some of the principals go around and talk about

54:49 how they implement what we ask the district locally at their school level. So for instance, with the district, we have some standards that we set, but then how they're actuated, how the schools do them is really up to the schools and the teachers and the grade levels. We actually have committees where we're looking at discipline information, and I think having some of the schools talk about how they do that would be helpful after we give the broad lay of the land, if you will. And so that's my overarching sketch of what we presented for you. We'd love, again, to hear any feedback that you have.

55:35 So, thanks. My only thing would be when you make those presentations, if you could talk about how, I guess there's restraint and seclusion data, I think there's suspension/expulsion data that we report to ODE, and that data's available then for all districts. And be able to have some context about how that data relates to discipline and our material, the PBIS framework, and then also how we compare to other districts. Because when I've looked at it, we're substantially lower than a lot of comparable districts in terms of

56:21 our rates on- The number of- The number per thousand students or whatever. We have a lot lower rates in terms of restraint and seclusion and suspension/expulsion, and I'd like to understand that and where we're at. Very helpful. Thank you. For me, in terms of context also, it would be helpful to know what the state framework is. I know there are restrictions on how we can do some things that come from the state, not from our own policies. Or even the federal government. Yeah. And that would be helpful to know that context.

57:07 And also to the extent that it's available, does the district have a definition on what is and what is not bullying? Right? There are things like that that would be very handy to be able to look at and discuss as a group. Yeah, so the district support when it comes to in definitions like, I know we have a matrix of possible consequences for certain discipline infractions. Mm-hmm. So going over that type of information as well is what I think I'm hearing you ask. Yes. As well, and how we do bullying and things like that. Right. Yeah. That may seem like to you that that's bullying, but there's no power

57:55 differential. That's just normal inter-human conflict. Right. And some of that is, again, driven by some state regulations as well- ... is what is defined as bullying, what is not defined as bullying. And I think it's the more we can talk about it and educate both our students and our parents, that is also helpful, too. Because a lot of things that might look like bullying are inappropriate and need to be addressed, but might not be to the definition of bullying, which is really persistent and over a period of time, and even specific to the student. Yeah. Great feedback. Thank you. The heading is Student Discipline. I would prefer to look at it as student behaviors, because it isn't

58:43 all about discipline, it's also about proactivity and trying to address things before they get to the level of discipline. Having said that, though, I think it would be helpful, since we have 12 elementaries, four middle schools, and a number of high schools, to have some kind of a district-wide behavior guide. Something that says, "In this situation, we do this." And so it would, I think, be an asset to buildings to have some kind of information that says, "Here would be the response." And although I think the data from the state level is important, so when we compare ourselves to other districts, I think that's certainly an aspect of what we need to take a look at. But since dis-enrollment from public education is a

59:31 nationwide problem, I would think that it might be also useful to chase down some of the perceptions around behavior. We've had people come to board meetings and tell us that they didn't feel it was a good learning environment. And however they define that, I think if we're going to bring students back into the district, we really need to take a look at that. So we're surveying our families in the district now about what's good and issues that they may have, and I think that is fantastic. But again, I think we need to look at families that have left the district. And I would like to triangulate the information. We have teachers, we have our classified employees,

1:00:19 families, students. We have a variety of stakeholders that I'd love to hear from them and triangulate the information on, is there an issue or not? One way to look at that, which I've requested before, is SWIS data, our behavior data. Because SWIS data includes minor infractions as well as the major infractions. So the report that we got on the restraint and seclusion, my understanding, was regarding major incidences. But if there's an undercurrent of behaviors that are going on, I think that might be exhibited through looking at that SWIS data. So and again, overall, just a real opportunity for us to take a look at some of these things and-

1:01:05 Sure ... create the Springfield way. How are we going to do things that people start looking to come into the district? How can we partner with these folks? And I think that's the whole idea of our discipline system. Our student behavior system is that we are allowing the schools to dictate, which is with the teachers and staff, of how they want to respond, how they want to be proactive, and what they are going to do when they are reactive. I do believe we have a matrix that we use when- Considering student discipline issues. And so we'll make sure that that's included, and the board has the matrix so they can understand where we are. That would be great. Because the intent of this whole conversation

1:01:53 is to take a look at where are we now, and are we being effective with what- Exactly ... we're doing now, and being truly reflective as a district. And then to help use that information to guide where the district is going. That's the plan. And there might be interpretations of state and federal law that either are interpreted maybe differently than they were intended, or maybe they're interpreted correctly, but as a board we should advocate for adjustments. Much, much legislation, I will look at public meeting laws as an example, well intended, but there are unforeseen consequences, and I think that's where the board is uniquely situated to weigh in with our legislators as

1:02:39 far as changes we might- Yes ... like to see. Great. I'm going to move on to feedback and action planning. And we've talked about this a little bit already. Oh, sorry, Chair. Director Brand, was there anything else from you? He may not- No, that's fine. Okay. No comments from me. Thank you. Director Languard? Yeah, I did want to make sure that we're also talking to bus drivers. I would like to know what they're experiencing. Thank you, yeah. Yeah. Bus discipline issues. Great. Yeah. And, also, I am concerned with how, especially how middle school is doing, middle school teachers. I know they lost a significant amount of staff during the RIF, and I hear

1:03:27 burnout's pretty big, and the workload has not gotten any lighter, and the disciplines are still there. So, how are they getting supported? That's all. Thank you. So this is basically we're in the process of either implementing or creating some feedback and surveys that we're providing to various stakeholders, and this is where we're presenting them. So for instance, we're actually going to go to community schools to see if that's... We're actually doing a visit here.

1:04:14 In just a little bit we're going to head on to catch a plane to go to Anaheim High School to see how Anaheim Union School District involves the community. We're going to give a report on that. We're going to present the findings from the survey. I'm working with SEA, and again, we'll work with OSEA in SAC on a staff survey that creates broad categories, at both the district level and student level, or school level, on things like discipline, feelings of safety, feelings of being able to communicate. So we're going to release that at the very 1st of November, and so give reports on that.

1:05:01 That's where we are, trying to get information. That's also part of the entry process I have. The final thing we're doing is we are actually- Can I check in with the board on the topic? Oh, no. That was related to feedback and surveys. Okay. Yes. Yeah, I wasn't moving on to- Okay ... facilities yet. Thank you. Is we are actually calling families, both families who were in Springfield last year and chose another district or school, more appropriately, and families who were eligible kindergarten students who did not enroll. So we're doing that, and we want to balance that out with why families chose to stay. So that's

1:05:48 part of our surveying, and feedback as well. Okay. Now should I ask for input? Oh, yeah. That was my overview. Any input from board members? I think I would like to see more surveys, and I know that the data is sometimes not as rich as when you have a focus group or a listening session of some type. But I think, if we survey the students regarding are they engaged, are they engaged in the curriculum, what are their thoughts? I think kids as young as kindergarten would have opinions. What's the learning environment like? What's the overall school climate like?

1:06:34 I think it's not necessarily definitive information, but it might establish some themes that we should pay attention to. I think families are important because they will tell us what they value in Springfield Public Schools. And it may be different from other districts. Are we clearly understanding what our families are saying about Springfield schools and what they'd like to see? You already mentioned surveying families that have left the district, and hopefully one of the questions would be, what would it take to bring them back? That is exactly one of the questions. Yeah. Yes. What can we do? We've heard, again, in public comments some suggestions, but I think people will be willing to share. And then our staff, I think they're just a wonderful indicator

1:07:22 of what's it like in the teaching environment, and I think we have to be humble as a district and a board and ask, "What can we do to support your efforts?" Some of it might have a monetary impact, which of course would lead to the budget cycle conversations. Some of it might be low cost or no cost, just things that we can do if we know what to do when we get that information. Yeah. And that is the whole intent of this survey that we are working with Springfield Education Association on Getting out to staff. Okay. And the goal is to have it come from all three of our- Associations ... associations-

1:08:07 They're ready ... and the district at the same time. So, and again, I work specifically with the president of SEA to develop the questions, and then we want to get feedback from the other two associations. So that's where we are. Great. Yeah. Other comments that we have? Okay. All right. And then this is a real weighty one. The one thing I want to say, and this is actually more specific. So this is creating a superintendent's advisory committee to look at various issues when it comes to facilities. This includes making sure we're maximizing our resources, it includes

1:08:55 making sure that we hold on to the right resources and maybe explore other options with district resources. It's just a lot of things. And I think what's going to be really key here is for the board and the committee, but the board really, to give some direction on where should we start. Because many of the things that we've talked about in our prioritization process are year-long things. It's not anything that we can snap our fingers and do. So I think I'm proposing that we get this committee going, that we meet and we work with the committee, get some feedback on what they think is doable in their prioritization, and then

1:09:40 present it to the board and have you guys give us further feedback on, "No, that's right," or, "No, this really should go ahead of that." That's my thumbnail sketch overview. I'm sure there'll be lots of feedback on this. Director Cole? So from a process standpoint, I guess I'm trying to understand the Superintendent's Advisory Committee versus the board, and the board providing direction on a Superintendent's Advisory Committee. So what's the rationale for this being a Superintendent Advisory Committee versus a Board Advisory Committee? Yeah, that's a great question. The Board Advisory Committee is a little bit more of a formal process where you have to have meetings, you have to provide public notice. Like the Equity Committee, for instance, was one that was even directed by

1:10:30 the state to say it needed to be a board committee, and then because of the flexibility in some of the discussions that needed to happen, they went to a superintendence. It can be a district level advisory committee. And I think what I'm trying to have is some instructions by the board on these are the things we want, and then letting the advisory committee work on that and presenting to the board decision point memos. Saying, "Here are the pros and cons that we've come up with, each of the options that we've come up with," and then letting the board decide based on that. I would suggest having at least one board member on the Superintendent's Advisory Committee. But it gives a little bit more flexibility, and I

1:11:18 think people feel the ability to speak a little bit more freely on some of these tough decisions. Not trying to obscure from public at all, because the public will actually be a part of the process, right? They'll be integral. But we'll consider a range of options and we're going to need great flexibility. So that's the reason why you would do a superintendent as opposed to a board. We are fine with either one, but for what I understood the priorities to be, this seemed like the best one. Yeah. I'm not sure I have a preference. I think that's fine. And I guess the one thing... Well, there may be other things. But I noticed on here, I brought up several times having some sort of capital improvements plan, 10 years, knowing what we're going to spend so that when we have things like the turf fields

1:12:06 or the structural repairs, we know, okay, what are we not going to do that we've planned to do, or where that money's going to come from. So again, I think it's very important to have a capital improvements plan at least 10 years out. I don't disagree, and I think that that could actually be part of the strategic planning process, and it's something I would want as a superintendent as well. So could that be added to the facility- Well, I want to make sure it's not in the... Yeah. At seven. I think that is what sustainable long-range plan. But that to me is the capital improvement plan. So we're going to add some, on page two it says probable deliverables. That would be seven, and we're going to put some clarification on. You can see

1:12:51 Dr. Maggard- Okay. Yeah, because the sustainable long-range plan, to me, that's very vague and could be a lot of different things. So maybe a lit- Well, that's why we appreciate, that's why we're doing this. Yeah. Because that is how we see that, is the capital improvement plan. For sure. Director Brew? So I'll say this, I feel that these are creatures of our own making. I feel like these have all gotten just enormous scope creep. Right? I said I want to survey families that have left to find out, because families that have left are dollars going out the door.

1:13:36 Right. And everybody says, "We need more money, more money." I said, "Here's an option." It's like, "Okay. Yeah, we'll do that, and we'll then survey the whole community, and we'll survey the teachers, and we'll survey the students." And now it's a year-long process. It didn't need to be. We created that. Right? I proposed a blue ribbon committee to look at our vacant property And find out what is the highest and best use of that. Right? And suddenly this became part of this bigger committee that's going to look at a clear definition of an effective SPS learning environment.

1:14:24 So we created... It's classic scope creep. Right? We had a finite task we could have done in a limited amount of time, but it's like, well, no, let's add everything else to the soup, and suddenly it's a year, year and a half, two-year-long process. And so the goal of trying to get some information that we can use in this year's budget process, it's blown out of the water. Right? In my opinion. And so I understand the idea of trying to pull stuff together, but I'm also feeling like

1:15:11 some of the underlying goals of some of the things that we've asked for have been lost in this amalgamation. Yeah, I think it's a good point. So this isn't the only things we're working on. These are the highest priorities that we're committing to giving presentations on. Because as I just mentioned, we are actually doing the enrollment survey. That's something I want to do. And we're actually doing it with CAUSE because we know that we're going to get better results by actually speaking with people as opposed to sending them a survey that they probably will not even fill out or ignore because it's a survey from an organization they chose not to be a part of. Mm-hmm. I know what I would do if I were a parent, for instance.

1:15:58 And we're getting some really good information. So I appreciate that. As far as the one thing I would say is some of these things, like even land use, there are so many regulations and things that we have to consider before even selling off public assets that it's that in and of itself is going to take time just to do that. And I understand your approach, and I just want to make sure that in our quest for efficiency, we don't unintentionally create more problems for the board or a process where someone can sue the board or say that you didn't get enough public comment and things like that. That's one of the things that I'm finding from my time in Oregon is there are a lot of processes in

1:16:43 checkbox we have to make sure we accommodate in the interest of real full transparency and public disclosure. And the specific thing on what are we doing with district assets, we have to be very careful because then we can create conflicts of interest unintentionally by saying, "Hey, we're looking to sell this off," and then anybody who's put input on it then is no longer eligible to really, I think, purchase that. Because then it looks like they've done it in such a way to favor themselves. So it's one of those things that as I'm researching, I think what I want to do is find out what are the things we can do, and maybe even as part of this process, Bob, or Director Brew, is to say, "I'd like to see if we could do it in this amount of

1:17:30 time as we get feedback." Right? There's certain things I would love to say, "Boom, we can do this," and I would actually like to do it that way. But when we have something like the public school district and we have a number of stakeholders, we have to make sure we're not unintentionally creating other problems to solve the problem that's targeted for us. You do know that I was the budget manager of the City of Springfield- I do ... and for the Secretary of State. Yeah. And it sounded like I was giving you a very bureaucratic answer- Yeah ... as I was saying it. I appreciate that. Yeah. And as I said before, this would be advisory to the board. They would not have any ability to make any action, and they can make recommendations which the board can-

1:18:16 Well, and maybe it would help, is we want to try to create within that, and you can see on the timeline, we're trying to say, "Here are some of the issues that the board members have brought up." Like, how can we tackle this? So I don't think it's as explicit here, but that would be one of the things, Director Brew, talking about how can we maximize and even say it would be ideal if we could do it in time for our budget process. And that's something we can bring up and see how doable it is. My problem is, is that I don't know all the intricacies of the laws for something like that, and it would take some research on my part as well. So for my part, I appreciate what Bob's trying to accomplish, but I know I would

1:19:02 want to know as part of that if we're talking about disposition of vacant properties is what's happening with our non-vacant properties as well. Right. And what's the plan for that? To me, that's part and parcel of, excuse the pun, working through that. And I think I brought up before that if we want to pursue looking at specifically those vacant properties, to me it makes sense to hire a consultant to do that and not necessarily a panel of the public. It would be to hire a consultant and get them to independently evaluate that. And that's something Mr. Yancey and I have talked about for some of that, is that we need to do, because that's a complex, and we frankly don't have the expertise in-house

1:19:50 to lead that. And so some of this we are going to hire a consultant. And his preparation for this is I've authorized us to update our enrollment trend data. We signed a contract with the same organization that we've worked with before to refresh where we are so that when we go into these meetings, we will be prepared and it'll be purposeful. Right? We have to understand, to that question that you just raised, Director Cole, it's going to be really helpful to see where the trends are and to update it based on the latest enrollment, so that we can have better forecasting. So we are taking some of the steps, and

1:20:36 I think what can happen is after we look at the roadmap and have some meetings and some outcomes, this is something that would make sense for me to add in board communication on, like, "Here's what we've done with this priority, here's what we've done with this priority," to give the board a little bit of confidence that we're actually not just talking about it, but we're taking action. And this is you just stamping and making sure we're not getting ahead of our skis with the actions that we're thinking we should take. Amber, any thoughts? I just have a clarifying question. So the starting date, early November, mid-November, and

1:21:21 then the committee disbanding on April 14th. Is that a correct reading of the skit? No, not necessarily. That's just the date for the sixth committee meeting. So what would happen after that? Well, we don't know. I don't want to get too far ahead because we haven't even gotten the charge yet. And this is just a straw man, it could be that we need to have a second one in February or a second one in March or whatever. I think the first and most important thing is getting with you guys on a charge for the committee. And again, Director Brew, that's where you would have some input on, like, "This is what we really wanted to focus on," right?

1:22:07 And then, getting some feedback from the board on who we should ask in addition to some of the names that we're thinking of. And then we're going to get going and see where it takes us. The reason I ask the question is I would like us to seriously consider a different structure. Usually, sites and facilities committees are of a limited duration, and I think the time might be now to maybe look at another possibility or opportunity. For one, if we're really going to ask our legislators for more money, maybe we need to have real-time information. So I would suggest maybe a structure that looks more like a

1:22:53 budget committee, which is ongoing, and people serve terms so that the information we have is living information. So it always comes to us with the latest information that we can therefore advocate for funding. The other thing is some of these are really long-term issues. The maintenance of our building is not going to go away, but I would say that we probably don't have a really clear idea of things that'll occur in the future, the structural beams were a case in point. We didn't know that that was coming down. So maybe having a committee that is there, like our budget committee. And I also, Bob, I share your concern.

1:23:40 If in our exit surveys we determine that affordable housing is a reason behind families exiting the district, maybe that's something that we need to have that conversation sooner rather than later. Now, I don't know enough about it to know whether the structure of a sites and facilities committee will accommodate that, or it's a separate standalone, as you call it, a blue ribbon committee. But I do feel that perhaps the time has passed for us to be speculating on land. Meaning that we need to have a serious conversation about it and intentionally make a decision around what we want to do, and that could be a variety of things. I don't know if the consulting is the best way to approach that or a committee.

1:24:27 But sometimes I would like a more shared urgency around these things so that they don't get swallowed up in the bureaucracy, and we can actually move forward getting this information. So that's sort of my two cents. I think one of it is when we go to Salem, if we're going to say, well, most other states, let's use Rockingham as an example, they have a maintenance budget that is exclusively that. So if we don't have real numbers and it's just sort of an aspiration, I think it's hard to convince legislators in this competing environment for funding to make our point. And I think that's in a lot of

1:25:15 things within a district, but I think it specifically relates to sites and facilities. Thank you. I have a couple of thoughts on that. It's going to be helpful to know whether, because what you're talking about is a board committee. My suggestion would be to start with the superintendents' committee, and if it makes sense to easily transition it to a board committee. And then we also want to make sure that we have a team. What I'm looking for is some direction, and then letting us as a team, me as the superintendent who has to execute on this, do my job and present to you reports, and trust in the process. And if I'm not doing my job correctly, to give feedback or ultimately to find somebody who

1:26:01 you think can do it better. But I want to make sure that what I'm looking for here is some broad direction, and I appreciate the sense of urgency. So that's going to help me in formulating where we want to go. But the actual how we get there, that really is for myself and the staff to To execute on, and then you guys can evaluate and judge us on that. And that's why I like this process because I'm getting real-time feedback on what seems to be working for you and what is not. I think some of the things that you're advocating for would be more of an ad hoc committee, right? So that's- Mm-hmm ... a temporary committee designed to solve a certain problem. It's just that the one thing we have to be careful of is somebody

1:26:48 has to run these things, and it takes staff commitment, and we're trying to make sure we're minimizing staff so that we can focus more on school site. So, that's why it might seem like it's taking a long time because, A, we don't have the expertise necessarily on staff to handle some of these things. I know of stories of land disposal, but I've never actually done it myself, right? And I'd want to make sure that I'm doing it the right way because this is something that could cost the district more money than it could give us- Mm-hmm ... if we do it wrong or incorrectly. And we have to make sure that we actually have the people who can lead it because it takes people who can organize, set the agendas, and all that work. So, that's why we have

1:27:34 to have these prioritization conversations because for everything we do, that means we're probably putting on the back burner something else that has equal urgency as well. And so, that's just my response to your questions and comments. I think they're important, and I'm just going to need some feedback on do you want me to... Because establishing a board committee is very different than establishing a superintendent's advisory committee. So can I ask a clarification on that? So our equity committee, is that a board committee? That's a superintendent committee, right? That's an advisory committee. It was a board committee. But then, in order to do the work more effectively, it was determined to move to a superintendent's. That's the research I've done.

1:28:19 And so would what I propose be any different than that? Why would it need to be a board committee? Well, what I'm proposing is the opposite of that. Let's start with the superintendent's, and then let's see how the meetings go. And at any point, we could make that a standing committee- Okay ... kind of like the budget committee. Is what I'm suggesting. Yeah. So the opposite of what- I think that's fine. Okay. Good. I mean, yeah. I think the difference is going to be whether it's public notice and it's got to be publicly, we have to do all of this where we're posting it and videoing it and all of that. The difference is if the superintendent committee, we don't have to do that. So the difference is for a board committee, we would have to do all that. It's much more intensive and- A little more work

1:29:04 ... a little more work. Yeah. So I'm okay with the superintendent's committee. And it seems like there'll be a board member. He's asking for a board member to participate or attend. And we could certainly ask, it seems to me when there's committee meetings, that the agendas could go to the board, the meeting minutes when they're- Yes ... done could just go to the board for information so we know what's going on and what's being discussed. And maybe even there's a check-in in January or late January or something about progress, a board presentation. Yeah. I think that this is the work the committee's done. I think that's a good thing to add. Well, just for clarification, I was not proposing a board committee.

1:29:51 Oh, no. Just an ongoing- Yeah ... committee. And however that looks, and we can start in one form and then change. Right. But I do think the need for ongoing information and a living document is important, and perhaps the idea around an ad hoc specifically focused on one thing would be a better avenue to go. Yeah, and I think the thing with the ad hoc, we also have to make sure that we're not burning out committee members as well. So I don't know if that ad hoc is maybe we have a couple of committee members and then have some other people working on an ad hoc, or whether that's an ad hoc of the superintendent facilities advisory committee.

1:30:36 Just two things. One, Jonathan, just to speak to your real-time data and about going back to the legislature, I'll remind you that they did fund an analysis that they did hire consultants to go out to every facility, every K12 facility throughout the state. And we have a report that for every facility that looks at the age of the facility, how long before we're going to need to replace it, what do they think is maintenance costs. So the legislature did fund that. They have that data. We have it for all of our schools as well. So there's a lot of work we can lean into and utilize. So I just want to make sure that's out there. I guess a question for you, Shawn, are you looking for recommendations now for who would be on that committee? We'll do that-

1:31:22 If you don't have objections to the timeline, you can see that we're going to looking at the 13th to start doing that, at the charge and looking at recommendations. So yeah, between now and yes. So I guess the answer to your question, instead of me saying what I just said, is yes, we would love some recommendations. Okay. So I brought this up before. I'd like to make sure that Team Springfield is represented. I think there's a lot of expertise that we can utilize both from Milam Lane and Sub and the city in particular, because I think they're going to have their own engineering staff. They're going to know where developments are going on and that kind of thing that we could really leverage that expertise, I think. And I've already let the Team Springfield members know that

1:32:07 this is something that the board is working on. And the last thing I would say to the capital improvement plan is that that kind of aging out of the facilities and at least calling out in the capital improvement plan At least an inspection based on year of age of major systems would be something that I've done in the past that I would want to see in this capital improvement plan. So it's almost a living document that's ongoing, so that we're in like, we put a new HVAC. The usable life is between 25 and 30 years. On 25 years, we are actually putting in for that school, check their HVAC system. Yeah. I would envision that, once a year or every two years, you're updating that plan to see what-

1:32:52 Yeah. It's- Yeah. It's a living document. Absolutely. Yes. And I want to underscore again, I agree that work from the state, from ODE, was really important first step. But I'd like to get to the point to where maybe the state is not only identifying the problem, but maybe helping. And this is something that I think really impacts small districts, but it impacts all districts, and if they could come up with a separate fund. If I have a leaky faucet, and I know it, but I have no money to fix it, then I'm in trouble. And maybe we can get some help there, and other states have done that. So taking a look at that, I think- Yeah. All these things are symbiotic- Yeah ... into one another. I will say, looking for the state to fund that,

1:33:37 that's us, right? Yeah. We are the ones that provide the funding for the state to provide, to do what we're going to do. Whatever we do, we're paying us individually. We're all paying for the education and the facilities through bond measures or however that's done. So- Yeah ... yeah, I- But you're not saying don't ask, right? Or are you saying don't ask because there's competing demands for the funds? That is not what I'm saying. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just saying if they don't know the extent of the problem, then they... What's that thing? If you don't ask, the answer's no. They should know. They paid for all those reports. They have the same data we do, but they have it for all 197 districts or whatever, plus... Yeah. So I'm sure they're aware of the problem and the scope.

1:34:22 I'll ask some of our legislators if they've read the report yet. But- And that's something we ask for that. And this is for another time, but the state did give us the authorization to enact a construction excise tax to be used for capital maintenance. And so you might get the attitude that we've gave you the tool to do it on your own, so another day. Well, and I think you suggested that take a more detailed look at that- Mm-hmm ... as we get into the budget, and would that sort of also pair with Director Brandt's interest in a levy, in a option levy? Mm-hmm. Okay. I think you have to distinguish Director Brandt's was specific to

1:35:10 operation would be more personnel related, which is different than a capital- Okay ... funding levy. They're two different purposes. Yeah. Completely different buckets. They're both funding mechanisms that can take pressure- Yeah ... off the general fund. Yeah. And require approval from the Springfield residents. Mm-hmm. Okay, well, that's all I have for that section. Those are the updates. Okay. Well, thank you, board. Thank you- Did have a quick comment on that if- Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. Sorry, I was waiting for that other discussion. But, I had an opportunity to go out to visit the SBS Farm location in Flamingo Avenue this morning. And one thing that, which was fantastic by the way. Fully love hearing and being able to see, walk those facilities.

1:35:57 There was a comment made that there was concern about things they were trying to do to help develop and work through that property, and some of the things they're looking to have done was maybe being put on hold because the board was looking at possible land sales and other things. And I just wanted to clarify, and maybe this is more for the fellow board members as well, but I don't think our intent when we're discussing land sales or development opportunities is meant for anything that is actively in use within the district or a benefit to the district. That we were strictly looking at things that were completely idle, right, and just sitting on the asset list unproductively. And maybe that is- Right. And- Right. Yeah. And specifically, that piece of property, we had a proposal that we're looking at with Willamalane to

1:36:45 actually expand on it currently. So that would not be one that I think we're considering sale at this time. So thank you for that. Yeah. And- Very nice ... I was mostly just trying to make sure that we could express that there's no ambiguity about where the board sits on something like that is. My idea was that we were only ever interested in what opportunities may lay in things that were completely dormant. So that was- ... all my input on that was. I guess I would say that we shouldn't limit ourselves. We should be looking at every piece of property. We haven't done anything, we haven't committed to anything yet, but I think it's incumbent on the board to be looking at what we have and the utilization of all the properties we have.

1:37:30 So yeah, I wouldn't say anything is off the table. Yeah. I think even in the last meeting where Willamalane presented, they said, "We are not doing anything on the property that would preclude it being used for... We're not doing any permanent changes to the property that would preclude it being available in the future." So. My understanding is that all of the properties that don't have school buildings of some type on them were bought with the intention of putting actual schools on them. So, in lieu of putting a school there, we partnered and lease plan to the Food for Lane County. We have our own district property now.

1:38:15 We have the proposal from Willamalane. So again, I think going in with an open attitude, we're certainly going to take into consideration what is currently there and the value it creates for our district. So, that wraps up the discussion items A, and again, thank you to everyone for the conversation. Next up is discussion item 5B, the SAC, SEA, and OSEA, the update on not public comment, but room in the board meeting. So... Right. So, this was a follow-up to priorities. This is something the board wanted me to explore.

1:39:01 I worked with the other local school districts in Lane County that do presentations, and my recommendation, if the board wants to pursue this, is to have a rotation of the three groups once a month between SEA, OSEA, and SAC, to do a presentation to the board around five or so minutes, and then that allows for two-way conversation. To have them, they are always allowed to speak public comments. So that just doesn't preclude that or limit that. It just enables, it gives you guys a process to ask questions where you would not have that ability in public comments. And I did run this by SEA and told them

1:39:49 that this is what we're doing. We still need to talk to OSEA and SAC about this. But I think this is the most effective way to get to what I believe the board wants as far as a two-way dialogue. We have to be very careful. There are some guardrails from what I've learned from other districts, is making sure everybody's on the same page of what can be in presentations and what can't be, and also be very careful around negotiation time. Thank you. And so this is a straw man. Board members? When it comes to the staff that's with our students every day, it's important to me to hear from them, hear how

1:40:35 they're doing. And I'm more in favor of them showing to every regular session. And they're still available to do that through public comments or to be a part of presentations. Like for instance, for the staff survey, we're doing that in conjunction with them. To me, it's just the narrow question of how do you get feedback? The board seems to want to be able to have feedback from the employee groups. And this is the best way to do that in a sustainable way. Because three presentations all in one month would be an awful lot, and I don't think you can do one for one association that you're not doing for the other association. And your policy really prohibits a two-way dialogue

1:41:21 during public comments. So we would need to change some aspects if that's what the board wants to do. Of policy. So if OSEA or SAC decided, "No, we're good. We don't need to participate." Or they could even the month that they have say, "We don't really have anything for that." That is their option. This isn't a mandatory, it's an offering of. And I guess for me, when the SEA brought this forward initially, my preference would be that they have the opportunity to

1:42:07 present at every regular meeting. I could be wrong, but I think 4J does that. And the reason I use the word presentation is it does denote when we have regular presentations to the board, we have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions. We don't have to get into a big conversation. And I'm fine making room for all three associations because, again, I think they can provide valuable input to the board. They're the ones in the trenches and at the building level. So my preference would be to at least try for the duration of the year to do this, and then if there are impediments or problems or

1:42:54 people not adhering to the guidelines, then we can make adjustments. I would recommend against doing all three every meeting just because our meetings are running long, and we also have lots of things that you want us to cover as part of the priorities. And I'm not sure. And this is just my own personal preference. I think when you have a well-thought-out presentation that people know ahead of time, that we can present to the board and ask questions, you're going to get more thoughtful presentations. I think if you do it every month as a part of an ongoing board agenda, sometimes you struggle with what you're going to talk about. I would like to start with this, my recommendation, because this is

1:43:41 of course, a board decision on how you want your meetings to run. But my recommendation would be to try this to see how it works. And then you can always add too, but with all that you want to do and the length of our meetings already, it would be a lot. But that's just, again, I want to be clear, these are your meetings, and up to the board to decide how they want to run. I guess I'd be supportive of starting with the rotation. Go for three months and see how that works, and then we can revisit it after three months going through each association in turn, and then evaluate it and see what

1:44:27 we want to do. And this would make sure that they're presenting quarterly. Director Brand? I think I'm supportive of the rotation too, simply because of the fact that it may be harder to dial it down once we've started it than it would be to dial it up, right? If we're not getting enough updates, I think we can always update it to be more frequent. But I share Superintendent Stover's concern. The meetings tend to be a little long already, and so adding an additional presentation for each one of the groups may just be a little more. But I think some representation right now is obviously better than the none

1:45:12 dedicated that they currently have. So, I see it as a positive no matter which direction we go. Thank you. So, my feeling is this is an okay place to start. I'm with Director Light in terms of, I feel like if our employees are our most valuable resource, we should give them at least the deference we give to our high school reps. And our high school reps, we have six of them, and they're there every month. My initial feeling, and I'm no fan of long meetings either, but I would tend to want to give

1:45:57 our employee groups the same deference. But, as I say, this is a better start than none. So... And again, I do want to emphasize, and I think they take advantage of this, that the employee groups have the ability to-- this is not limiting them. This is just allowing you to have questions. And I'm sure there are going to be lots of questions at first, and that's why I also think that we have to at least start off with one per meeting, because there's a lot of probably latent questions that weren't done previously. They're kind of below the surface. Well, I'll do my due diligence. My understanding, again, is that 4J does it at every regular meeting.

1:46:44 And since they tape theirs, and I'm a glutton for punishment, I'll take a look at their videos and see if it is really burdensome. And I'll see, Superintendent, I asked her about this specifically. Mm-hmm. It wasn't my understanding that they did it every meeting, but I could have misunderstood. So I'll follow up with her as well. Okay. Thank you. Not a problem. So- It seems like there's a leaning towards trying your plan to start with and maybe take a look at it. Director Cole said take a look at it in three months. Yeah. And we have- Do one rotation. And we have SEA already teed up for a meeting. Okay. Yeah. And this would be at our regular meetings, not at the work sessions? Yeah. We have them teed up for the 13th.

1:47:29 Okay. And I guess maybe you could just reach out to the board after you've talked to the other two associations- Yeah ... on their leanings about how they feel it and- Yeah ... yeah. Yeah. Because again, I did talk with Brandon and Billy. He thought it was a good start. I'm not sure if he shifted his thinking, but he hasn't let me know yet. Okay. Thank you. Good on that. Want to make sure I'm not skipping anything. Calling up the motion- No, we've got my presentation next item. Okay. Yeah. Moving on then to agenda item 6A, the superintendent report. The bullet point is preview action plan phase two. Yeah. And I'm going to go over this really quickly. You have the PowerPoint presentation.

1:48:15 And the reason I'm going to go over this quickly is because I'm going to actually have a report for you. This is me more feeling guilty. When I did my initial plan, I said I would have something for this meeting, the 26th. And my eyes were a little bit bigger than my stomach. I also want to review the data that we have that's on the 30th. And so we're going to try to have a report for you on the 13th that's a little bit more formalized. And I wanted to give you the five big areas that I think we need to explore more. Okay? And so I've just ground the one-year action plan. This would be phase two of the one-year action plan that we're going to approach. And the one thing I think is really important is I want to center around our students, what we're doing. And so there's intentional language in all five of these that

1:49:03 talks about on students or success of students, and I want to call that out specifically. So the five areas that we have that I'm going to investigate further is to what extent do we have a coherent curriculum between schools and across grade levels focused on student success? So not only what are we doing within the schools, within the grade levels, but between the grade levels, and then there's an articulation, and a real coherence to what we're doing. I want to investigate that. I'm going to go into each of these in a little bit more depth. Do our offerings create pathways to future success for our students? Is there a common vision of success for our students that everyone in our community, students, family members, staff, and community

1:49:51 members share? I want to investigate that. To what extent are our support systems aligned to our curriculum efforts and centered around student success? And then finally, how can we strengthen the sense of pride and purpose in the district so that we can all be better together for our students? Okay. Some of the questions I have for a coherent curriculum is the district's work around curriculum is producing results, as we have seen in a number of different areas, but we need to move maybe a little bit faster. Is the work consistent across schools and grade levels? Do our offerings enable a smooth transition between grades? How do our teachers feel about the curriculum?

1:50:38 And- Do we work with the idea of bounded autonomy? And some of the things that we've already talked about in our discussions about our priorities, and hopefully you see some alignment between this and our priorities as well. So those are some of the questions I want to explore. And is there appropriate rigor, and do we equally cover all subjects? And what does it feel like to deliver the curriculum to students? And this is where I'm actually going to do some team teaching with teachers. Okay? Pathways to student success. Some of the questions I'm asking is, does the student experience help them find their purpose, passion, talent, and mission in life? I think that's key. When students graduate, are they prepared to

1:51:23 function in a quickly changing world? We're at the dawn of changes that when we all graduated, we didn't think would happen. And students, it's going to be even faster and quicker, and are we prepared to help our students navigate that? Do students know what they can do aligned with what they would like to do? So are we preparing students to take advantage of that? The research says we need to start in middle school. We need to start career exploration as early as middle school in a really proactive and defined way. And so exploring to what extent we're doing that currently. To what extent does the district guide our students toward future success? So these are questions I'm going to explore and ask as I'm in the second phase of the entry plan.

1:52:09 The other one is, do we have a common vision amongst all of our stakeholders? I think one of the things that's key to success of any school district is that we have a shared vision. And a vision is not something that I recommend to the board or the board even does. It's something that we all find together. If not everybody's looking in the same direction, we can go in any direction. And I think it's really important as part of the board's work and the strategic plan, that there's a common vision that's inclusive of everyone. And so we need to know what do our stakeholders think is best for our students and best for the district? Do our stakeholders feel that their feedback is actually, there's something done with it?

1:52:54 How can we best get feedback while still staying nimble and efficient? To Director Bruce's point, it's like I was Nostradamus here, some of the comments that we've talked about in our priorities. And how do those outside the district that aren't necessarily affiliated with us see us? That's others that are maybe not choosing, people who no longer have kids in the district. Aligned systems. Here are some of the questions I'm going to ask. Is everyone in our system centered around student success? Is that something we all do? Do our cafeteria workers believe that they contribute to the success of our students? I think it's very important, as one example. Are we efficient and cost-conscious? Investigating that. Do our support systems truly support student

1:53:40 success? Investigating that. Do we share a common purpose and see ourselves dedicated to every student, every day? That's our current mission. Every student, every day. Is that happening? And then finally, this is really a sense of purpose and pride to be better together. There has to be an esprit de corps amongst us. Nobody needs to see the board work as different from the district's work, as different from the school's work. They really should be all one together. And I want to investigate to what extent it's there or it's not there. Do we all value and respect one another? We all have different roles, hopefully aligned to the same purpose, centered around students. What is the alignment that we currently have between the board, district staff, school-based staff, students, and community?

1:54:27 And are we celebrating and pulling for one another? To what extent? Because I think that's really important, too. I think our staff should pull for the success of the board, and the board obviously should pull for the success of the staff. And so that's where I'm going with it. We'll have a plan. And I know that's a lot, but this really isn't comment, this is my plan, and I wanted to give you a preview of it. And if you had some questions about, what do you mean by this? I think would be, that's what I was envisioning. And you will have the full PowerPoint to look at. And again, trying to set you up a little bit better for the 13th as well. So I don't know if I'm prepared to say exactly what will you do for this point. Some of them I know I'm going to work with

1:55:14 teachers and do some team teaching, but some other things I'm still exploring. All right. Comments and questions. Director Cole? Yeah. So what is it? I guess because you're going to follow up on this on the 13th, right? For our next meeting. Right. With the actual plan. With the actual plan. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I said in my initial plan that this was the date I was going to give it, so this is kind of me fudging a little bit. Instead of saying, "Hey, I don't have a plan ready for you yet," which would've been defensible, I think. Saying that I have the concepts of a plan, and maybe even more than that, the outline of a plan. Director Brand?

1:56:00 It's all good. I'm fine with the concepts of the plan and the outline of the plan. Director Brewer, Director Langworthy? I appreciate the questions that you're going to be exploring, and I look forward to seeing the plan. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And I'm not going to commit to a-- It'll be somewhere in February, March. I'm not going to be as specific with the date as when I'll give you a report of that. Bob, anything? Okay, great. Well, thank you. And the one thing I do hope you see some alignment to what we're trying to do across all different levels. That's really important to me, is that there's coherence and alignment in whatever we do. Thank you.

1:56:45 Great. So moving then to 6B, board communication and comments. Guess I don't really have anything. Director Brand? Nothing specific to share at this time, but thank you. No, I think I'll let you guys get off to the airport. Thank you so much for everything that you guys are doing. What a wonderful segue. So I just wanted to mention that I am really looking forward to the trip down to Anaheim. If you checked out the information I sent you,

1:57:30 I think it aligns with a lot of the conversation that we just went through and are having. So- I'm not sure the public knows where you guys are going and why. You're talking to us, but for the people- Yeah ... that are listening at home. Good point. So, Dr. Stover, myself, I believe- Some representatives from Hamlin Middle School. Mm-hmm. And one district staff, Whitney. Brian Whitney. We were invited by Inflection, which is a group dedicated to education issues in Oregon, to explore a community schools model that they're having great success with in California, specifically Anaheim,

1:58:18 which is a school that serves students with high needs, has had real success to the extent that their graduation rate now is at 97%, even though they serve some of the students furthest from opportunity. And they're doing it by involving the community, and it just seemed to fit well with what I hope to accomplish as a superintendent and the way I feel I operate, and also what the board's goals are. And so we took advantage of partnering with Inflection to do this, and it's a very curated visit, and it's an opportunity to learn a lot. And when Dr. Maggart and I were discussing this, we wanted to make sure that the board had a representative too, because this should, if it goes like I hope, and we're excited about it, I think we're planning on giving a report to the board, and that might be one of

1:59:06 the things that we use in creating the district strategic plan as well. So it's always nice to see in- Yeah ... real time how they're making things work, and so looking forward to getting that information. The information I sent you was off of the Inflection website, so it defines it and I just want to remind you that the funding report that they gave was from 2023, and a lot of it was federal. So one of the things that I hope to explore when we're down there is do these funds still exist? Yeah. And then if not, well, then we'll have further conversation. But the one thing I didn't know where this would slot within the earlier

1:59:54 conversation, so last year, of course, we ran into the budget difficulties when we did the mid-year layoffs, and then we further laid off additional people. The staffing thing is always of concern to boards when you go through this situation and the district leadership. But one thing I would like to suggest putting together is a list of the programs and/or the class offerings that we're no longer able to do. And the reason I would like to keep that front and center is because if we have the opportunity to do add backs, that we know what the impact of the decision was and can we then take a look at this overall scope. Or again, is it a clearer

2:00:41 picture for our legislators to understand the impact on students? So I'd like to take a look at that, and of course the time to have the information would be prior to the budget. And then Director Cole and myself and Dr. Stover had the opportunity to go to the Springfield Education Foundation Night of Student Stars. That was really fun. The highlight for me, of course, was one, we raised, was it a hundred- 140 ... $140,000, which is great. Mariachi del Sol from Springfield High School again provided excellent entertainment for us.

2:01:27 And then the most heartwarming thing for me was the teacher, he's a fifth grade teacher at Mount Vernon Elementary, but he came through our school system. He was set on becoming a nurse and then decided he really enjoyed working with students via his experience with Willamalane in our childcare or afterschool program. And with the support of very strategic principals and others in the district, he got his certification. Now he's a first-year teacher in Springfield. I would like to at some point explore can we support that even more? Because I think a lot of our future teachers and folks are already in our buildings, and those are the ones we want to help get to

2:02:15 where they need to be. So it was great. I certainly do, and just as you know this isn't superintendent comments, this is board comments, but I did enjoy meeting with the Teacher Connect program at Springfield High School, and they got to ask me all kinds of questions. So I think we have some of that in place. Well, and I should mention that Brian was there also. Yeah. But I think we all really got a lot out of the event, enjoyed it. Director Cole's wife picked the dessert, which I'm not usually a lemon fan, but it was really delicious, so thank you Uh, Director Brew. Sorry to interrupt your thing, but a request for Dr. Stover. It would be helpful, since we do know we have some

2:03:02 rough estimates of what our enrollment will be next year. I believe this is the second year of our state appropriation, so we know what our state money's going to be. To the extent that we have contracts settled, we know what our expenses are going to be. It would be really nice to know as soon as possible what the projected shortfall is, if any. And if we're still in negotiations, this is what the shortfall would be at a 1%, this would be at a 3% or 5%, whatever it would be. But just the sooner we can get that, the sooner we can think about- Yeah. We're waiting for the November for all the enrollment to settle, but we were planning on getting that to you, and we understand the urgency, and I haven't even seen it yet either, so- Yeah

2:03:48 I'm waiting with as much anticipation as you are. Yeah. Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I agree. If we're five students off, we're five students off. Okay. Thank you. Good point. Our next meeting is November 9th. It's a regular meeting. It's 6:00 PM. I did want to make note of the fact that I was wondering which board members are going up for the OSBA conference. That's going to be November 12th through the 14th. Do we have 100%? Director Brandt, are you able to make the conference? I don't think he's up. He's- Okay. All right. So anyway, that should be good, and as always, it's a great opportunity to touch base with board members from other districts. And then finally, our additional meeting is November 30th.

2:04:36 It'll be a work session at 6:00 PM. Anything else for the good of the order? Thank you so much. Again, I want to thank everybody that was involved in the long process for evaluating the proposals, including Ms. Ladadi, and anybody else, because really, that was a lot of work, and I think we ended up with a good choice. So I look forward to moving forward. So with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.