>> I will call the
school board legal budget interview
session to
order at 4:48.
we have two openings on our committee
for our candidates to interview.
mr. Kessler, would you like to introduce the
topic and so forth?
>>
thank you, jared wallin.
mr. Lance submitted his application
for our
open positions
and don't know how familiar we are
with oregon's local budget law, but
we have five citizen
members that work with their school
board who was elect to that large
and the five citizen members
by
the school board. Our purpose this evening
is to
interview you and consider
you as a candidate for this position and
at the top
of the notes, there is more information
about the role of the committee.
it's not a
policy-setting committee, but a physical
planning committee
. It does have some
important tasks that are part of it
in preparation and ultimate adoption
of
a budget under local budget law.
one is
tax rate that is approved by the legal
budget committee
the school board while it may modify
other elements
of a budget approved by the legal
budget committee, they
cannot increase
a tax rate
by the legal budget committee without
that going back to the legal budget
committee
for approval.
the approval of the legal budget committee
is a step precedent before the full
school board acting in that capacity.
before
the school board itself can hold a
hearing and ultimately
the budget. We appreciate your interest
and I
will turn it back to chair wallin.
>> that's
good.
what we have
is some questions for you, then we
go around and each one of
us will ask questions and we will
start over here with
director bills.
>> good afternoon.
how are
you?
>> fine. >> interesting dynamic
seeing you here.
>> we
have a history.
>>
so, the first question is, please
begin
by sharing who you are, why this
is important to you and why you are
interested in serving on the district's
budget
committee.
>> first thing, thank you
for inviting me in to this process. I'm
philip arzt and I'm retired. I was
a healthcare and finance
administrator, as I like to say. I
worked in hospitals and physicians practices.
I did a lot of budgets over the years
and mostly two or three
each year. One of the reasons I'm
interested is
in this
is because I have three grandsons
in your schools.
two at forest hills and one in middle school.
I just love being here. We moved here
about
two years ago to
get closer to the grandkids
. It's just a great place.
I know the schools
and the success of the school is important
and really contributes
to the community
and to the desire of families to move into
lake oswego
and
the value of real estate .
that is why it is important to me,
but it's
mainly our grandkids. Why do
I want to do it?
I have been looking around
and retirement leads to boredom sometimes.
I've been looking around for
things and this seems to be something
I had experienced before
and I can probably help and would
like to contribute
. The other reason is
my brain just needs a little bit more
exercise. This would be a good process.
>>
it is a lot of
reading, so
that may fill
it and we know that you already put
it on paper here, but tell us a little
bit about
what skills, abilities and expertise
you bring to the legal budget committee.
I think you told
us a little bit already.
>> yes, my
finance background is
very helpful in this process, but
I also
was on a school budget committee
and a much different kind of school district.
and, on a school board. I have been
through this
process a number of times. I'm kind
of familiar
with the laws and stuff.
when I was on this , it was just
the beginning . It was right
in measure five and 50 were passed
and when it went into effects to change
everything. I'm kind of familiar with
all
that. I've been through the process
and I know how that could go.
the other thing I want to
mention is what I did in my application.
I tend to be more of a listener
than a speaker, so that can help keep
the meetings shorter.
I looked at this process
and you have already been through
it a little bit, but it's a lot like
it
could be a kill the messenger kind
of process. I haven't seen many of
your board meetings
and stuff, but that could be tough.
I
know I've been through it it and
my experience was he
you just have to let everyone's viewpoint
go, whether they were nicely set or very
stridently said. It had to happen.
you have to hopefully
get in the end that everyone felt
at least they were heard, but you
still have
to make the decision in the end. That's
the process.
>> well,
measure the or
five and .
>> it's
got more complicated.
>> prior to
our interview, you reviewed our strategic plan
. Are there questions or observations
you have in relation to
the plan and its goals?
>>
I have to admit that a lot of it was
over my head and I'm not familiar
with a lot of the terms and acronyms.
I didn't come up with questions as
much
as worries. It is a very good plan
and I think I got the gist of it,
but one of
my worries was how this whole budget
revision and reduction process, what
are
the priorities and strategies to that process?
my
other worry is
,
what are those priorities and
strategies given the executive orders
that had been
signed and
the threaten
elimination of the department of education.
we have a daughter who works at the
va and
it's just crazy. It's crazy.
that's what
I've got.
>> thank you for sharing that.
the past three years had
unprecedented challenges creating
operating conditions unlike any experience
in
modern times.
without unduly focusing on those conditions,
what are one or two things that we
are doing well and what are one or
two things that we can
improve on?
>> I hate to bring up
my grandkids again, but they are
doing well, so that's good. I
think the way you handled the initial announcement
of the budget shortfall of getting
it
out there,
I heard about it and it got me interested.
I think that was a
good thing. The frequently asked questions
were very informative .
I appreciate that.
another thing you did well was in those
frequently asked questions with the
graduation rates that
you quoted, they were great.
the improvement on 85%
was 32% over 10 years.
that's amazing. Those are some
of the ideas. I have one more
that I was asking my landlady what
they thought
that was something
going well and they mentioned
that the learning
interventions that they have experienced
went well and the
small group learning.
now,
could improve on. My grandson
said meals could improve
. He
said there should be a little more
variety and it's not really what
he likes. The other thing is probably
nonparent community members.
it's hard
to hear or know about the school district
and I don't have any ideas
of how to fix it.
I think the blame lies within the
nonparent members that have
to get contacted and involved.
>> that is
a difficult one. That's true.
do you have any final questions or
comments?
>> I have one other thing.
I don't speak much, so it probably
won't be 10 minutes.
when I was going through researching
and thinking about this process, I
initially thought
that it would have been nice
to keep some of those financial reserves
over
prior years for this point in time
and that it should be part of
the process developing the budget
this year.
then I realized
that's not the challenge.
it is balancing human resources with
financial reserves
and the ending fund balance
. You know what it is, but you don't
know
the value .
of what the
human resources are. You can't
measure it and you don't know it until
it's gone. That's
what I see.
that's all.
>> thank you
very much. What
is the timeline for announcements?
>>
our board is conducting the interviews
this evening, then
they will be taking action
on at currently scheduled for march
10th meeting and would move that
up or delete it, but currently we
are
shooting for march 10 , that after
the board takes action, then we notify
the candidates as to
what the decision was
, then there is an on
boarding process that we start shortly
after for the two candidates.
>> we have
four candidates. If you are not chosen,
we love your expertise and would love
to keep your brain active at some
capacity if this doesn't.
>> no problem.
>> thank you so much.
>>
I didn't have the chance to change
into my
professional attire .
>> welcome. Would
you like to give an intro?
>>
yes, lucas, thank you very much for
your interest in our legal budget committee
and we have two positions that
are open and we have
four candidates for this evening's
activities to
conduct interviews of those four candidates and
how familiar you are
with oregon's local budget law, but
our legal budget committee is comprised
of five citizen
members and five citizen members
are reported by the board and they
serve alongside
our elected board members and 10
of them together comprise our legal
budget committee , so
the legal budget committee is a
financial advisory committee of the
school board
. It's not a policy-setting body.
it is still the domain of the
school board, but certainly decisions
that are made
as to what priorities
--the legal
budget committee also
serves a very important role under
local budget
and tax rate or tax levy once approved
by the
legal budget committee, the school
board has
some authority afterwards to change elements
of the budget that has been approved
by the legal budget committee, but
they cannot increase
a tax rate or tax levy. That always
has to go back to the
full legal budget committee for any increase
and property taxes.
the little
--the citizen members
perspective are more varied
than what we do every day and hopefully
also serve as information sharers
out in the community.
that is the role of the legal budget
committee.
>> makes sense.
from the
soccer thing, I'm the coach on the field.
I'm just joking.
thank you for that. I appreciate the explanation.
my first time trying to get a volunteer
position
like this, so I appreciate the context
and background.
>> we sent you a questionnaire, so
we will
just go around and ask questions.
>> sounds good.
>> could
you please begin by sharing who you are,
why lake oswego schools are important
to you and why you are interested
in serving on the
budget committee.
>> sure.
lucas sommer, I'm born and raised
in oregon
and in newburgh, actually. Both of my
parents were teachers and ended up
getting
into the administration, so my mom
was super
intendant and my father was a buzz
about true wood and wilson high school,
so I guess it runs in
the family. On a
personal level , I pursued a career
more in entrepreneurship and small business
and I have done
variety of professional projects
and a bunch of different arenas.
I think that experience
is practical in regards
to budgets
and being fiscally responsible and
being able to produce the goals of
any organization .
I think my interest in getting involved
here
stems from having two kids that goes
to lake oswego
schools. They are in
forest hills . I
have been coaching for a couple of
years and volunteering the time with
the youngsters . I have good relationships
with a lot of
the parents and the same group
skin coming back and signing up. I feel
plugged into the community
and my office is walking distance
away in town
at the first edition
. My wife brings the kids over
and walks over to school every single day.
want to help improve it the best way
I can and
as I get a
little bit older , things like this
become a little bit more rewarding
and get back a little bit
and see what other aspects I
could have an ever so slightly
influence on to improve services and benefit.
>>
thank you.
why don't you tell us about the skills
and
abilities and expertise you bring
to the legal budget committee?
>>
I would say
--let me try to summarize it. I've
always been the
small business entrepreneur guy and
I've never gone
and taken a normal job.
this will be my first interview of
any kind and probably a decade.
I have always been out there
in the wild having
to create my own budget for
sales and budget on people,
taxes and everyone
--running a small business. A
have
seen so many problems and challenges
in the private sector and
I'm not employee number 700 on
a team of thousands to where
the decisions that I make have tangible
impacts on the people that work there
and the customers relying on us to
deliver products
and services , so I think I have a
wide variety
of skills. That is just in
regards to operating something from
a cfo level standpoint and
I need more technical
perspective.
there is nothing
in excel I can do. I'm a wizard at
that point. I have a
lot of experience in business intelligence,
data visualizations,
deeply integrated with ai and the tools
that have come up rather recently.
I have probably done 50
tax returns professional and corporate
for myself over the years.
sometimes clients have hired me to
do financial modeling
and forecasting to cast things out
in the future
. Dynamic
models for if we change, what's impact
on why?
just
kind of speaking in generalities,
but in terms of technical proficiency
and the ability to use
software tools to contemplate financial
decisions I'm very well suited to
do that.
I think I have lived in a world where
I have
to take into consideration the various
stakeholders and
stakeholders attached to a particular decision
or budget to
balance all of those.
hopefully that answers that question.
>> prior to your interview,
we gave
to our strategic plan and in relation
to the strategic plan and
its goals?
>> I checked out the pdf
and read everything
on the accordion sections there.
I wouldn't say I have any questions,
but some of them, there is a distinction
and
I'm always solving for, what is the
kpi and how you measure some of those
great for some
of those goals , I
think one of the stated goals was
grade level proficiency
or something like that.
I can conceive how to measure that
and some of
the other ones are a little bit softer
metrics. My question is,
is there some sort of dashboard for
lack of a
better word or quarterly review where
we are measuring those goals
and
I think my first question about how
we are measuring,
there are four goals there and
all of those.
>>
it is something that we review
on a regular basis these
items that we've progressed.
the dashboard is something that has
come up is
an idea.
>> I don't understand fully the inner workings
and referencing
the school board is actually doing,
so to me unlike, where do those goals
come from? What can the
committee do and my potential role to
implement or have any impact on those?
on one hand, you see the budget
and you can make some recommendations, but
you mentioned the policy itself, so
how would the person in my role see
those goals and use that to inform any sort
of recommendations and what would
be the best methodology for
doing that?
>> it's a hard question to answer.
there are two different bodies and
you are advising on the budget and
providing a citizens perspective.
in terms of committees
that implement our strategic plan
, the superintendent appoints a lot
of those for the
most part
and they are a little bit perpendicular
to that, but I do think
where we choose to spend the money
does determine how we will
achieve goals.
>> okay. Makes sense.
>> I think I recall in our legal budget
first meeting where we kind of have
a review of the goals
and how we are doing .
>> sounds good.
>>
I have the final question.
the past three years had unprecedented challenges
creating operating conditions unlike
any experienced in modern times
without unduly focusing on
these conditions. What are one or
two things we
are doing well and what are one or
two that we
can improve on?
>> when I first saw that question,
my initial response is, I didn't even
notice but it's also around here.
we are killing it. I love lake
oswego. I think that would be
my response is one
or two things you are doing well is
like, I can just compare
to my experience.
newburgh versus lake oswego.
going with lake oswego all
day. To me, it feels like a fantasy
little area
of a lot of things are pretty
idealistic here , so I would give
some credit or kudos
to you guys that despite the challenges
, it has been great.
the kids are happy and there are all
types of programming and things they
are able
to do. I haven't heard any
negative comments from them and
my wife does a lot of afterschool
type things and more engaged with
the
other moms , but I haven't heard one complaint.
lake oswego is the place to be
. When we moved out here my wife is like,
I was living in
for the for a while and she said,
if we come back it's lake oswego only.
she said, look at the schools. I'm
like, all right.
good job. That would
be it.
I didn't notice that there was a problem.
>> fantastic. Do you have any final
questions or
comments?
>> I don't think so.
I think you guys have choices and
decisions to make .
to me, I'm very transparent. I'm like
the entrepreneur
technical software approach
. Those of the people that I deal
with and work
with, so the perspective from those
folks
is important to
you guys, then maybe I would be a
good fit for that, but if not that's
all right. There's tons of other
perspectives out there. To me, that's
the lien I
live in and I'm pretty
unbiased and a notch not afraid to
share my
opinion on things but just trying to
get my foot in the door and be more
active
and continue
to invest in a place where I know
my kids will be
going to school and make it better
if I can.
>>
we have two positions for applicants
, but as you noted there are
other committees. If this doesn't
happen, we hope
that you will consider other things,
as well.
>> I'll be
back in the hot seat soon enough.
>> this is the hottest seed of all.
>> great. Okay. That's it?
thanks, guys. All right.
see you.
>> mr. Warner. >> how
is everybody? Thanks for having me.
>> absolutely.
we are interviewing for the
legal budget committee commissions and
are financed superintendent will give
you a little overview
.
>> thank you very much for your
interest in this position
and I don't know how familiar you are
with oregon local budget statute
, so it prescribes that government
agencies have to
have a legal budget committee , which
is comprised of five citizen members
that are appointed by the school board
that together with the five elected
board members comprise
our legal budget committee and
the legal budget committee
is somewhat of a financial advisory committee
and the ultimate adoption of a
budget for the school district.
while it's not a policy-setting body,
there is work that we have to
run by the legal budget committee
and it has to
be approved by the school board and significantly
a tax rate or tax levy that
is approved by the legal budget committee
and the school board has broad authority
to change others of the budget, they
can't increase a tax levy
without it going back to the legal
budget committee.
it serves an important role in that regard.
I think esther wallin noted with
two positions and four
candidates, so it is to
have you answer some questions and
provide our school board with a little
bit more knowledge about your interest in
what this committee has outlined
in those detailed questions. Are sounds good.
>> we did give questions, so I will
go around and we will ask the questions
. We
will start. Director bills
.
>> how are you?
doing well. Thank you. Begin by
sharing who you are, why you are interested
in success
in lake oswego schools and why
you are interested in the budget committee.
>> my name is russ warner and
I have been a resident
for 9.5 years and my family moved
from central washington.
we have been very active in sports
and coaching. I am on the board right
now and my
wife is the soccer club team manager.
I have two sons, a seventh grader
and a sophomore
and my coaching days are gone, so
I
have extra time on my hands and they
have more than I
do and
that journey of my life is kind of
over. The executive of my company is
on the
school board and has been on there
for 16 years and has been nudging
me for probably three or four to try
to get
more involved in the schools
and it just so happened a month and
a half ago I saw
these two open positions and I was
like, I do this every day. Maybe give
it
a shot. My experience and skills
, I have a
construction background in my current
role is
going into the next?, but other than
that I learned from
being on the board is that the main
thing is like being
an advocate for whatever board you
are on
and being able
to speak to the community on what's
going on and the reason why stuff
happens and why
the budget money is said here.
so much to be able to explain to people
why we are making decisions
and to be able to represent the board
and support them.
>>
we always appreciate the communications
. Going on
to number two, what skills, abilities
and expertise would you bring?
>>
a current job, I'm a corporate real
estate facility manager, which is
former --
started as a teachers credit union.
we have been the
fastest growing financial institution
in the u.s. For the last three years
and had 45 locations
with massive growth and donated to
tons of charities and we start at
the foundation
, which we are going into our
second year and we haven't decided
how to distribute those
funds, whether it is scholarships
and going back to our sports programs or
stuff like that.
I have a
say in some of that and this goes
hand-in-hand in seeing what's going
on for budget
issues and stuff like that. Before that,
I was
vice president at the institute
in yakima
, washington.
it's been going on 15 years of experience
in this.
I guess that's it for that one.
>>
great. Hopefully you had a chance
to review the strategic plan and
any questions or observations related
to the strategic plan and its goals?
>> I went through the plan
and I guess the one question I had
as
far as priority three,
sustainability. Have you talked about
and esd programs? It seems like you
are doing
a ton of work and faculty
is doing a ton of work as far as sustainability.
my organization, we started the
program going on two years and it's
basically taking all of that stuff
that you have
done in the program to be able to
explain it to the public.
we are doing all of this hard work
and cutting
costs. Not to put you on the seat
or anything.
>> we love
acronyms.
>> environmental social governance.
we will roll ours out to
the public probably this summer ,
but you don't realize all of
the small things you do really add
up and paint the picture
to the public, because it's a really
good thing to do.
>> I
don't think I can speak to any of that.
our focus has been how we have been doing
a lot
of construction
with focus and sustainability in terms
of energy usage and energy conservation.
>> that's a pretty good
picture to paint, too , when it's
all said and done.
>> I don't know if there are any others?
it's definitely a priority in hours.
>> I have the last question.
the past three years have unprecedented challenges
creating
operating conditions unlike any
experienced in modern times
. Without unduly focusing on those
conditions, what are one or two things
we are
doing well and what are one or two
that we can improve on?
>> obviously, you are doing many things
well and
this is the reason why this is the
most sought after school district
for kids being
raised in the state. My wife
says that schools in sports
are a big priority for us and she
google searched and found a
place in lake oswego. The reputation
is very well
and amongst her peers and graduation
rates are through the charts.
that's one thing that stood out to
me and my kids going
through that rough time, too, I think
you
guys are far ahead of everybody else.
I take my hats off to and support the
decisions you make.
there is no road map for what
we went through and it's a tough time
for a lot of people and parents. Like
I said, I really
--you have done a great job since
I've
lived here and I think it would be
a good advocate to support
you guys in budgeting and stuff like that.
my experience goes hand-in-hand and
I have been in construction my whole
professional career
, so I think I would be a good fit
and I'm here to support you
guys.
>> awesome. >> did you
have any other questions or comments?
>> I don't have much and I did some
research over the last couple
of days. I was really trying to come
up with some questions
and everything looks pretty clearly
laid out and it
looks great.
there is a lot of you and you did
a great job
on that. Like I said, I'm trying to
find
some questions that I couldn't really
think of much.
>> great.
well,
we have four people
for two positions. Obviously, two people
we are not going to select, but we
have a lot of committees and
other opportunities, so if you are
not chosen, hope you will
consider volunteering. The timeline for
--.
>> currently,
we have actions for the evening
of march 10th for the board to make
a
selection of candidates
and assuming we stay on that timeline
, my office
will be notifying all four
after work to let them know what the
next
steps are and for the two candidates chosen
, we
offer in on boarding session to
help familiarize themselves with the
budget and how
it's laid out. Under organ local
budget law , a fair amount of that
is
heavily prescriptive and there are
a lot of things
that we layout and process as we follow
to
keep us in alignment with the organ
local budget .
>> sounds good. Thank
you
for having me.
I have lightning when I go to
my office. Hundreds of pounds of printers
in the
parking lots. I
don't know if I will walk up to phrasing rain
or snow.
thank you, everyone.
>> thank you
.
>> hi. >>
welcome. We are interviewing
for two legal budget committee positions
and
we have our finance superintendent
who will give an overview of the process.
>> thank you.
alison heath, thank you for being here
this evening
and to be in the hot seat.
I don't know how familiar you
are with the oregon local budget law
and would be really worried
--it provides
policies , practices and
schedules of how
we undertake the adoption of the school
district budget
and that process includes
a citizen
or legal budget committee, which has
five citizen members appointed by
the
school board and
they serve alongside the five elected
board members
and it's a financial advisory committee
and it's
not a policy-setting committee, but certainly
there are policy implications in terms
of how
we prioritize our spending
and the school
board has broad ranges
of discretion to change a budget
that has been approved by legal budget committee
and no
--oregon
public agencies increase a tax
rate or tax levy set by the legal
budget committee , which would
require a
referral if there was subsequent action
taken to increase
the property tax levy or rate .
we usually accomplish our
process in three meetings every spring
and there is an on boarding process
that takes place for new members
and it's a lot of data that gets assimilated
for a short period of time. Thank
you for your interest.
>> thank you.
>> we did
send you some questions and we will
go around and ask each one of the
questions
and hear your answers.
>> thank you.
I see you have given responses in
your application, but just for
the record ,
please begin by sharing who you are
and why the success of the lake oswego
school district
is important to you
and why you are interested
in serving on the budget committee.
>> absolutely.
I'm alison heath, resident for
lake oswego for the past 18 years
and I raised our two daughters here
. Both
are at high .
background,
I'm an educator of 25 years and 20
years in the classroom. 13
of those and previously
seven years at hillsboro
that have been an instructional coach
and serve
our district as an instructional
support and I support all areas of
k-12 health
, social science, secondary tag, travel
history and
shared history . I recently completed
my initial
principles license
, so I have a wealth of background
in all areas of education. I
know a bit about how budget committees work.
we just cut, unfortunately.
we had to
increase the final number, but upwards
of 10 million last year
and where cutting another 5.5 right
now, so the academic return on investment
process is something we know very well
that's part of the reason why we saw
this advertised.
I just thought, I've been through
that. It's a painful process, but
a process where you can
relieve you for permission and values
from your district when
you make careful choices with your funds.
part of me wanting to be here
is to share my experience both as
a parent or community member or
educator. Also,
mains fixes
my expenses of going through this
and having gone through it
again. What it looks like when you are
building principal trying to write
your budget. When you are a teacher
of trying to figure out how many kids
will
be in front of you next year.
how we will shift funds from one
to another.
we have to cut staff when you have
to cut budget. There's no way
around it.
>> what skills
or expertise would you bring to the
legal budget committee?
>> skills,
okay. I have been
through budget processes multiple
times and I know the inside
and out. I know them as a staff member
and as
a parent.
skills and expertise
, years of experience going through
this process
, academic return on investment
is the process that we use
and assuming pete
uses it, as well. That is one of
my questions . How do you determine
and where do
you get funding? I would be curious
to know more
about that. I'm good
with budgeting.
I am a very good
communicator when it comes down to
it. Thank you.
>> we sent
you a link to our strategic plan and
I'm sure you are familiar with those
in
general. Did you have any questions
or observations related to that?
>>
just thinking about balance.
I'm a parent of
students and special ed students.
when I think about balance and the
goal of making sure that all students
are
growing my question is, how are using
processes like
academic internal investment to
ensure that while you are looking
at cuts that you are making sure that
the students
most impacted are also getting what
they are needing, so looking at your
strategic plan is
very well written and not that dissimilar
from ours.
how do you enact that?
>> one of the things we do other school
board is hardly the superintendent
and director --superintendent of tenets
that understands the relationship
and importance
of these things. We get regular updates
on board meetings .
that is one thing
or a couple of things that really
helps us make the decisions.
I don't know if anyone
else has anything else they want to
add on the topic?
>> I
have the final question. The past
three years
have unprecedented challenges creating
operating conditions unlike any experienced
in
modern times without unduly focusing
on
those conditions,
what are one or two things we are
doing well and
one or two that we can improve upon?
>> from a parent perspective, especially
a parent of a special ed student,
the complete wraparound services is
something that I thought was excellent
with
this district in terms of the process
, data gathering process , ability
counseling staff and to
the teachers you have that are amazing.
something that I felt
very sincerely is that
warm hand off of,
we know your child is struggling and
here we will wrap
around them 100% and my child has
been very successful with that.
>>
anything we can improve upon?
>> you know,
I really need to kick the tires a
little bit more and looked under
the hood to say that. I get
to go to our school board meetings
quickly and I have presented them
all
the time. I have not yet been to one
of yours, so I'm
really curious to see. It looks quite
a bit different than ours.
just really curious to see
the process that has gone on so far
and I've heard some things about
notifications that have gone out to
certain teachers and am curious
about what has happened thus far in
the process and where you are and
when you
bring in the legal budget committee.
what is already decided
and what is the role
of the budget committee and finalizing
the decisions as constituents that
we are?
>> were there any other questions
or comments?
>> no.
>> as we said, we have two
open positions and four people
. Of course, you bring a lot of
great skills and we
have a lot of other committees and
advisory skill? Groups.
you are welcome to apply
for those. I said this to somebody else
earlier, but this is the hardest
interview process. We hope you will
consider that and
our timeline.
>> presently,
we have been scheduled
for action for the
two candidates scheduled
for march 10th of the meeting and
we stay on that schedule
and we would notify candidates afterward
and for the two candidates collected, there is
an on boarding process
and we have our first formal meeting
, which is an orientation meeting
that takes place in late april
and the actual legal budget committees
with consideration to both budgets
that will start
in early or mid may.
>> fantastic. I have been pulling numbers
from the at a glance report cards
for the past seven years for my own
district
budgeting process and I have been
doing some comparisons across districts
in the metro area and this is just
a little ,
how are we doing
all across the metro area in terms
of student change, percentage
change of administrators
and teachers in our districts and
also the staff.
staffing ratio comparison is kind
of interesting when you look at
this, so I was just pulling it
from my boss last night.
>> thank you very much.
>> good to meet you all. >> nice to
meet you.
>> we have
completed our interviews. The next step
would be
consider the candidates
and I will speak to director
.
provide her
feedback and send
cranston's topic of choices and I
would suggest you rank them one and
two .
is there anything else?
legal budget committee
at 5:43.
>> for our captioner, we will begin
the regular board meeting
at 6:00.
>>
call the school board into session
at
6:00 p.m. Let's see here.
we will begin with
welcome and comments from staff
, learning in lake oswego, world
language.
>> we have three students
here today and
we have from
middle school and alice from
hi. They will talk about their expense
with world language and learning.
>> thank you
for having me here today. Over the
past six years, I
have had --I love learning
language and learning spanish at palisades.
this year, we have been doing
each session
. During language, we do english spanish
english spanish, so we can
work on both languages and get the
techniques done. We have been doing
a lot of writing
. For example, a
couple of months ago, we wrote a short story
and our teacher led us through each
step and checked
the draft and give us tips that were
helpful when doing it and
we wrote in english, so we could's practice
, then we wrote in spanish,
so we could also do that. And to
get better. Also,
another thing that I like doing was
last
year in fourth grade, we would read
a story, then we would sometimes do
a project after reread
the story, so it was more fun and
we did things like that once
we at it at a play in groups
after we read the story
and we presented to the whole class
and I like doing that a lot.
one more thing that I liked doing
was at the end of the day, we
had something called reading groups.
we would
get in groups based on the level of
reading in spanish and we read
a book , then we
answer questions about it and discuss it
in the group. At the
end, we present and make
a presentation using a video
or poster or something like that,
then we
get to the class and I like doing
that personally, so that it
motivates me to want to learn
that stuff. I have had a really good
experience at palisades. Thanks
for listening.
>>
[ applause ]
>> thank you so much for having me.
I joined the spanish community
this
year as an eighth grader and I tested
in the emergent last year through
taking the test where my average score
was a
4. After half a year,
and bumped my average score to a 6.5
,
which means I can receive my seal
of biliteracy this year ,
which marks me as officially bilingual.
it
has allowed me to make so many connections
through my friends.
it seemed daunting at first to join
a community where
so many kids have been together since
kindergarten or even earlier learning
a language,
but this year I have
been able to make so many friends
through the community,
which has been incredibly positive
for me seeing as I only came to this
district
last year .
it has allowed me to make a lot of
connections and engage in activities
outside
of school. My entire team
from this year was formed by children
from spanish immersion in my grade
. We do a lot of things in spanish
immersion and
my favorite is
spanish immersion social studies,
because it takes a class that I normally
wouldn't find challenging and
adds an extra layer to
where I can learn a new language and
engage with peers in
that language. We write essays and
learn about
social studies, which allows me
to stay on track with other friends
who aren't in spanish
immersion throughout the curriculum
,
but also challenged me and teach me
a new language. Thank you.
>> thank you
all so much for having me, as well.
I am currently in ap spanish. This
is
my fifth year and
I think spanish is so valuable
and I think it's even
more valuable to me and I'm very interested
in international relations
and I think now more than ever ensuring
that students
have access to his
incredibly important and I think learning
spanish allows that
to happen.
we learn spanish through a lens of
cultural learning first where
we engage with cultural material
and perspectives that are different
from ours,
which can seem so far away from us.
for example, to
recognize black history month
experience in latin america, which
has been so valuable to me
and it is something
that I can recognize would not have
learned otherwise if it weren't for
that class.
we are also vulnerable and it's something
we are learning for the first time
. You develop the
skills and a new language altogether,
so we have to recognize that we not
going to do
it perfectly.
taking through every single one of
those
classes and I develop first and foremost
in my spanish classes.
>> you are also
very well spoken and it's clear that
you are spending a lot of time communicating
so well in
english and I'm sure in spanish, as well.
>> any of you intend
on pursuing language in college?
>> I want to keep doing it and
learn more
and go to places and speak a lot of spanish.
>> I would love to continue spanish in
college, especially since by the end
of
high school I will have enough credits
to minor in spanish at a college I
choose
to go to because of the
amount of classes I will be able to take
starting with spanish four
next year and ap spanish
. I think that allows me
to create a broader idea for what
I will
do in college.
>> very similar experience. I had
an opportunity to gain so many credits
by take spanish classes from spanish
three to ap spanish
. I take it would be a great opportunity to
continue my learning and not
lose all of this work I put in.
>>
good luck to all of
you. You are very impressive.
>> [ applause ]
>> we will now
move on . Before I go on, I do want
to
note that director
and will move on to comments.
we do have some comments.
we have some
--I will just read off the names for
the individuals
who have written testimony.
there are a number of people who submitted
testimony in support of music or performing
arts programs.
apologies if I miss pronounce
her name.
and hadley, emily child,
elaine, brookline ,
ted cranes, sarah,
sarah lindley
and kiersten.
three people submitted testimony regarding it.
>> we have now some people
for in person testimony
. I will call you out
and we will start with henry.
>>
hello. My name is henry. I am a junior
at lake oswego high school and I'm
here
to talk about the impact that the
lohs program has had on me throughout
my high school experience.
I joined last year when I was a sophomore.
I did it anyway and
I was placed in what our school calls
laker choir,
which is our beginning choir.
I knew no one going into and have
no idea what to expect. Little did
I
know that it would be the best choice
in my life and one
of my favorite classes that I will
ever take. While it was difficult,
having fewer in music was a great entry
to me and
talked about ground zero.
I probably would have dropped
the class.
that would impact my life so significantly.
I met some of my
favorite people and best friends from
choir that I otherwise would have
never met.
from all of that preparation, I was able
to join a cappella and I was just
in passion for music there was
and
I didn't know people were so into
music
like that. That year, we went on to play
in
the a cappella set and it
was just beautiful.
that would have
been something possible without having
each and every one of us going through
different stages.
on top of being a cappella, I was
a
department assistant for this year's
choir and it was a
--crazy to see the spark
in young people and the passion that
they
get for music . It would be devastating
to see that be
taken away. Overall,
a family and a place to feel and it
gets school
and where I found where I was
.
>> [ applause ]
>> hello.
I'm a soft bar here
at lohs and I'm here to express my
concern
affecting our choir programs but as
a student involved in different choir
classes,
I have experienced the value and importance
of our program.
not just for me, but the countless
students who participate
every year. When I
first started, I was someone who primarily
focused on ap classes with rigorous classwork
as that is what what the culture
told us to do. I
believe that electorates were fillers
and something that
was extra and didn't matter in the
long run. As I pushed
myself academically,
I realized that hard classes and burying
myself in books did it mean
that I would have a productive future
if I didn't have something I loved
in
my schedule and pushed me to keep
going every day
being both my motivation and balance
for my life at lohs. The way we should
view classes
is not just another elective with
a certain number of students signed
up for each
class, but a program that helps build student
skills and confidence. Each level
introducing
kids to music leading them for
intermediate choir all the way to
a cappella
experiencing the most dynamic and asked
advanced pieces. A select group of
students who have
a profound passion for this beautiful program.
although it's
a group of smaller numbers, we shouldn't
view it as a burst, but
as skill. It is almost as if telling
a child
with no football experience jumped
straight into the nfl.
it is unrealistic and unfair.
the different classes providing valuable
opportunities to grow, it can lead
to some
feeling disengaged or bored and others overwhelmed.
beyond skill building, peer support
a tightknit
community that is diverse and rare
too many electives here.
we have artist to athletes to mathematicians
and scientists and a community that rings
communities together based on different
interest instead of pushing
them away to one hobby and academic
interest classes
clashes with
another. I urge you to consider these
cuts as
more
than just a class, but a home for
me and my peers. Thank you for your
time and consideration.
>> I'm a senior at
lohs and I have been in choir
for all four
years. It is a unique environment
and always has been.
my days are filled
with tense classes and impending doom
for the next test I take and preparing
for the next
challenge ready to rear its ugly head.
within the difficult and trying environment
is
a rare bubble of choir. I savable,
because it feels like I have walked
into a
different world.
our teacher has taken this
room into a safe
and engaging space to create beautiful
music. Some say best in
the state.
it is clear how much he puts to not
only the
musical side of the program, but the
community. Through my four years in
choir,
I have been a member of three, but
the one I would like to focus on
as some have focused on was choir
and a group of
all ages. This is a
small class and for
a freshman like me back in 2021 out
of covid,
I wouldn't have been ready for anything else.
it was
very scary to walk back into a choir room
and I had no idea what to expect.
this
was not imperative for my
growth as a singer, but interesting to
the
community of lohs and meeting amazing
people. I find
myself grateful for this 12 person
group and it was inspiring to watch
our improvement and growth. I have completely
bonded with success and truly believe
that every woman she spent with the
class of any size
is important not just our a cappella
choir. Without
smaller classes
, connection, learning and growth
is lost. The things we learn
translates directly to things that
succeed in
the larger mixed voice choirs.
increasing success over the last three years.
I understand
results-based analysis and sing success
over the past
few years, I
needed to understand that this was
not random or lucky, but a long-term
vision and
goal behind community building, understanding
and connection between every single
student of
our program that led to the
second-place finish out of 2024 osa competition.
impressive growth within myself
and choir and a koran
social level. There is something
beautiful happening every single day
and hour
and we would be wrecking
the safe space for so many valuable
citizens, students and pioneers of
our community.
thank you.
>> my name is dylan and I'm a junior at
lake oswego high school and I have
been in choir since my
freshman year at lohs. I did it all
throughout middle school and
understand how much it would grow
until I got to the choir.
I joined our choir freshman year
and lasted me
throughout choir and I wouldn't think
our lives have
been met or intertwined if
it wasn't for the class. Travel choir
was eye-opening to me when I was able to
sit at
our first concert and watch perform
. I remember they had a piece. I don't
remember what it was called,
but they are all in bright colors
and seeing these older groups such
as
a cappella was so inspiring and made
me know that I wanted
to stay and work my way up to the
most advanced choir
. This year is my junior year and
I'm part of
an a cappella, which I'm infinitely
grateful for.
my sophomore year, emitted into choir,
which was one of the best things that
could've happened. I
spent a lot of time working on
learning music
theory, rhythms and sight reading
that helped me prepare and audition
and make my way into
a cappella . Each year, my experience
has been
unique and helped me grow in its own
individual way. Freshman year, I was
soft-spoken and
was not able to try out
for a solo without breaking down from
anxiety and I wasn't able to talk
in class.
I would never have been here and I
owe that to choir.
by the end of my sophomore year, I
tried out for solos
and I was in a small group that performed
at our end of your concert as
part of our one of our mash ups, which
was a fun song
to sing.
I learned skills from that small and
supportive choir and I don't remember
how small,
but smaller than a cappella this year
and both experiences have
helped me grow an insane amount.
I believe that choir is not only there
to teach someone there music
theory, rhythm or sight reading. It
is able to
help social skills immensely and I
can't help but feel that this is my
favorite place
at school and one of the places that
feels most like home even though it's
at school, which I don't look forward
to most days.
I know d.a. For travel choir and watch
the young and small choir
improve on music makes me realize
how important that your was. That
is the importance
of different levels of choir depending
on readiness and skill
set. There is a place for everyone
in choir
. I
am forever grateful for the memories
I made throughout the years, including
my trips, retreats and every
concert that has been special and
inspirational. Each year has been
an experience I will never
forget. I hope in a few minutes that
you are able to see how much
the choir can impact one student and
how much it has the potential to
impact others.
>> [ applause ]
>> hello.
it's a little more nerve-racking right here.
my name is claire and I'm a senior at
lohs. I have done choir
all four years and before middle school,
too.
I have
been part of four requires pretty
trouble, bel canto, a cappella and
I guess this year I'm doing dollies,
which is a four person quartet
of girls
and windjammers.
like my other classmates,
I want to let you
know how crucial it is for the success
in the whole program. Choir is a
collaborative thing
and it's a lot about trust and trusting
yourself and
others and feeling comfortable making
mistakes and learning from those mistakes.
the smaller tightknit
groups, it's easier
to get to know people. She gets to
know you and without
the bonds created in those early classes,
it's
so crucial to the success of a cappella.
it's not even funny.
next weekend, I
think you forgot to set the timer
by the way. I'll
keep it short. Next weekend
, the windjammers
will be splitting up and going
to all mea district
competition and
I will let you know that I'm not worried about
our success at all.
I think we will do really well, because
I know my classmates
so well and we have worked together
since freshman year
and I trust them to do well. They
make me feel comfortable to bring
my best
every day. I
have been with them since freshman
year, so it's an easy place
to succeed
and at the competition, she will be
connecting us and it's all on
our own. It is this foundation that
we have been
building since freshman year and it's
so important, because
we wouldn't be building
these communities or relationships
with each other and wouldn't be trusting
ourselves to come in together
or to sing well together.
every piece of the choir program is
important and I learned so much from
my time
in the trouble choir and bel canto.
I've made some
friends and creating the success in
a cappella and I don't think we
would be as successful as a choir
without these younger choirs.
thank you so much for listening to
us
today. We really appreciate it.
>> [ applause ]
>> now, for something completely different,
we have kelsey.
>> there are two of us and you can
boot me if you want
to, but --okay. Good.
go.
>>
my name is kelsey and I'm a parent
of three boys
entering the lake oswego school district
and
I'm very excited to be here .
I'm here to talk about the bond measure
and
the goal for me is to get it passed.
the first issue I see is
that your website indicates
very low approval for the past funds
in the first phase has 59%
and phase two indicated 54%
and phase three ,
I think you'll have a razor thin margin
on
this one.
one, because of the post-pandemic
world that changes in the
federal of what's going on at the
federal level. Of course, inflation
and
tax coming.
we also have a boater issue and challenge.
the south side of the lake has had
their schools improve and we
have that are likely maybe not voting
for it
, so
we really have to get the community
to rally together, which brings me
to the second
issue, which is the fact that there
is a choice between updating school
versus lake grove
with the cost of lake grove being
40 million more in bond funding,
which is not
financially responsible from my perspective
and I know a lot of voters are voting
no based
on that . Your job is elected board
officials is
to be funding of the money
to ensure that these schools get filled.
these schools are in different
desperate need of upgrades. This is
not a turf war and I'm not here to
argue
neighborhoods, but just numbers on paper
and this board is making
a bad decision
to update
and unsympathetic to the parents.
I am.
I think it's when the
school was shut down.
I'm here today to talk about the tax
of that assessment.
>> a chair
of the neighborhood association and
did a presentation and we had
several people
bring up things from the community
that were not
board members. One of those that you
mean to say that we
could have --it could be
$40 million less
if we didn't do lake grove and we
just did
the repair, so
I asked tony for some information
and exact numbers
and he was
not able to get back to me.
I
am very community oriented and I am
chair of the watershed council
and on the park board and
I want the bond measure to pass,
but will we get comments from people,
$40 million more and if you translate
that
into tax return
property tax,
then it will be like $250 for the
500 thousand dollar home
evaluation, so
if it's $1 million,
it will be the $500
multiply that times 10 years as someone
--forest hills will want to pay
$5000 to fix
lake grove.
that is a question to be asked and thank.
>>
if you stick around, we will have
a resolution
on it.
>> okay. Sounds good. >>
that is all of our comments from our
patrons, so we will move to the
consent agenda .
>> I would like to
make a motion to approve the consent
agenda
as presented.
>>
is there a second?
>> thank you, bills.
all in favor?
the agenda is approved.
now, we move on to
item 5.0 ,, from student representatives
.
march is
women's history month and a time to celebrate
multiple contributions and enduring
legacy in our schools and beyond.
tonight's resolution reflects our
commitment to acknowledging the valuable
impact of achievements and
supporting uplift
. Did you have something you
wanted to say, as well?
>>
I invited two students from lake ridge
high school. Lexi
is a philanthropy director and
is a leader of
our period club, so I invited them
to read the resolution with us and
share about some
of their activities.
>> thank you
for having us.
>> would you like us to
--. Of course. My
name is kim and I'm a senior at lakeridge
high school. My club
--
basically our mission is to combat against
menstrual property
and promote
menstrual equity.
also, destigmatize
periods in our local and
global community.
basically, the way that we do that
is
we do . Are product drives
, as well as period
kit making parties.
in portland. We are also a chapter
of
the period organization which is in port
land. And
actually tomorrow we are having a
guest
speaker event during lunch. So we
are going to have two representatives
come and
speak about
how to get
more involved in menstrual advocacy
in oregon.
>>
and sorry. My name is lexi. I
am a junior. Me and my best friend
are directors at lake ridge. We
are in charge of everything at
lake ridge including gold week
and pink week
that highlights breast cancer awareness
and pediatric awareness. We planned
the
week for that. Our main job is
blood drives. We host them with red
cross. We
have one march 5th if you want to
donate blood. It is at the lds church. That
is our
big
thing. I am part of abc,
asb, obviously and alongside that
I am active in sports and very active
with trying to
get people to come to sports, I feel
that is
a very big thing in
our community. Not enough support
for
women's sports. I am
passionate about people to support
women athletes, cross-country and
swim that are my favorite sports.
>>
we
do have a resolution. I think we will
just go around and
read it and
maybe you can each read different
paragraphs and go around.
>> okay. Want
to start?
>> yep. >> where as the
advocacy
efforts of the national women's history project
led to an annual observants
of women's history month. Which highlights
the contributions
of women to events in history and
contemporary society and celebrated
during march in the united
states.
>> where as women of
every background have historic contributions
to growth and strength
of our society in recorded and unrecorded
ways
>>
where as despite the contributions
the role of women in
history has been overlooked in teaching,
labor, business and other
sectors
>> where as the 2025 theme
for the national
women's history month is
moving forward together, women educating
and inspiring generations which highlights
the essential role of women
in education and mentorship
and how they inspire future generations
to inspire future change.
>>
where as women have been leaders in
not
only securing their own rights of
suffrage and exactly
opportunity but also in the
movement, emancipation movement, disabilities
movement and the modern
civil rights movement.
>> where as
for
generations women resolved conflicts
in their
homes,
schools, communities and they rejected violence
as counterproductive and want to establish
respect, justice and
reduce conflict as the surest way
to peace
>> where
as this year
we have seen magnified strength and brilliance
that
women have made and the way discrimination
is part
of all women's lives. So
many women, nurses,
aids, cleaners, grocery workers, doctors,
agriculture workers, teachers,
classified staff and more where on
the frontlines getting us through
multiple crisis.
>> where as additional
education is needed to
increase the knowledge of all citizens relative
to contributions
of women and girls to
development of education and the larger society.
>> now, therefore, be it resolve. Lake
oswego school district will celebrate
month of march as women's history
month
and encourage our public
schools to infuse instructional learning activities
to incorporate the contributions
of women throughout the school year.
>>
all right. Thank you very much. [ applause ]
.
>> I will
move to adopt women's history month
resolution.
>> I will second. >>
thank you. All right, all in
favor. And women's history month resolution
is adopted. Thank you very
much. Other comments?
>> I wanted
to start off by saying I
was not able to find any representatives
for the resolution. But I want to
say the culture of feminism and women's rights
is very, very present at lake oswego
high school. I never had a
history class where we
did not talk
about susan b. Anthony, tubman, wells, parks, all
of the key figures in the movement
that
developed suffrage to what it is today. There
is
a general culture of respect and acknowledge
for women's
rights throughout history
throughout the school. In terms of
students forecasting has
been the big thing going on. Forecasting
classes next year. Kids are scrambling
to see what classes
they can get who
signs up first, winner-takes-all. Second
semester is going strong and
the most significant thing going
on currently is tomorrow we
are hosting an assembly
for our late teacher mario perry. I
personally had him
two years as my history teacher. I
loved the man. He was
loved by everybody at the school. We
all keep him
in our hearts and our prayers. And
on
march 2nd at 2:00 in the auditorium
there will be a memorial
service for him as well.
>> okay. >>
to
like kind of fall after what john
said. I also like agree with, like, the culture
around women
and supporting them it is very strong
at our
high school. I really love that. Secondly,
something that I have been hearing
a lot
of along with forecasting is concerns
with what
classes aren't going to be available
to take next
year. People are worried about their teachers
and like who they
will not be able to see and take classes
from. So,
I know that is a big concern and everyone
has been talking about it and they
don't exactly know what is happening. I
don't either. There
is just a lot of talk about that and
people are worried about certain classes that
are more,
like, like the choir student said,
the smaller class sizes that
are typically smaller and advanced. It
takes a longer time
to get to those class es. I
know people are worried about classes
like that and those teachers as
well.
>> okay, we will go
on now to our board
business. We have another
resolution. It is classified school employees week
resolution. Classified appreciation week is next
week.
>> I was looking around for
you
>>
it is a packed room.
>>
I appreciate you.
>>
thank you. Thank you. Yes. As we approach
classified appreciation
week. An opportunity to come together and
honor
the incredible contributions of
our classified employees and
their unwavering dedication and hard
work. Creating a inclusive
and supportive community for all of us. It
is with
deep gratitude I am inviting the board
to join
me in reading
the resolution in their honor. So
we will
begin.
>> where as the education of youth
is
essential to the
future of our community, state, country and
world and classified employees of
the backbone of our public education
system.
>>
and, where they
work directly with students, educators, parents,
volunteers, business partners
and community members and.
>> classified
employees report the smooth operation
of offices, safety and maintenance
of buildings
and property and
the safe transportation, healthy nutrition
and direct construction of
students and.
>> where as our
community depends and
trusts classified employees to serve
students and.
>> I do
not have access to the document.
[ laughter ]
>> where as classified
employees with their
diverse talents and true
dedication nurture students throughout their school
years
>> and therefore,
the end rules, the lake
oswego school board directors proclaims
march 3rd
to 7th, 2025,
to be classified school employee week and.
>>
further resolve that
the
lake oswego school board of directors
encourages
everyone to join in recognizing the dedication
and
hard work of these
individuals.
>> all right. Again. Thank
you for representing. Thank you very much. Thank you. [ applause ]
[ applause ]
>> thank
you.
>>> we will
now move on to -- oh, sorry,
motion to approve the resolution.
>>
I move to
adopt the classified school employees week resolution.
that mr.
bills.
>> second. >> all in
favor. And that motion and resolution is
approved
and adopted.
>>> I am 6.2. Superintendent's
update.
>> members of
the board. I am
going to start with
what we were talking about. I can
completely understand it is scary
for
students and for staff to not know
what is going on. I
can say that we started
our reduction enforce notices to our employees
in the district. That is
going to continue over the
next three weeks along with transfers. So,
sometimes
they, we base all of
our reductions on seniority and so
sometimes a school has a lot
of
new people to their
team, they might lose too many so
they will transfer them to
another school to get it covered t.
is
confusing and it takes a long time
to get through
it. We want individual conversations with
every person that is affected
and make sure that they understand
their recall rights. What
happens when you are reduction enforced
there
are for 27 months you can get
your job back if someone retires,
leaves, moves, we want to
make sure we can explain everything
to everyone. Those things will be
more public I think in the next few
weeks. Obviously we want to have the conversations
with the people being affected first. I would
also want to stay I am still
very worried about the state's budget
and what is going to happen with
that there are a lot of unknowns
with the federal government and budgets
that people count on if
we don't have it any more can effect
us in education. I
am worried about that. John wallin
and I will
meet with senator. We were invited
to come
down and discuss our particular situation here
in lake oswego with him. I am
looking forward to that. I also want
to thank the
whole community who written letters
to our legislatures and talked about
additional funding
for not only education but special education. Keep
those letters coming in. I think
they make a big difference and I
appreciate it. Then I want to
go
to charter schools house bill 3024. Requires
me
twice a year to talk about students
going to charter schools in
you have over
3% of your student population and trying
to go
to charter school you can deny them
access. We do not
have that. We have about 80 students
it is a
little over 1% of our population. Does
not really
effect us. And remember the numbers
are only
good as people reporting
to us. It may be off, either way.
>>> we have this
weekend we had a ton of
weekend events. Really fun ones,
actually. The black student
union festival on saturday and then
western heritage on sunday. Both of
the events were so fun. I really
enjoy today and so did skat. Sometimes
he
gets to go to things and he does
not know. He loves
these ones. Food, booze, music,
guest speakers. It was
really, really well done. The black
student unions, snell, who you
all know, did a great job planning
that
event. It was in, she worked with
the --we
had other students there from another
school and different adults. So that was
fun
to have a
lot of people there. It was
great. Then they had traditional
indian dancing, irish dancing. Lots
of food. It
was just, there were kids everywhere. It
was downpouring outside and all of
these
people having a blast. Fun. Great
job to everyone
who helped plan all of those. Performing
arts
we do
have a musical coming up february 28th-marchth
8. They are fantastic. Please
go to them. I think you are
going --march 8th. They are fantastic. I
think
you are going to
love it. Another february 27th, 28 and
two shows
on march 1st. If you are looking for
something to
do, be amazed by our
student performers. A lot of them
are in choir and use
those skills to
perform and to entertain the community. Construction. A
ton of construction
going on all of the time. The first
one I want to talk about,
lorac. It is
not done yet but getting near
completion.
it is not done yet. The
pools are filled with water and that
is a
really good sign. Everything is getting
last minute
finishes and they are starting up the
heating systems, the
plumbing, all of the things they
need to check to make
sure and then the review. They need
to make sure they are safe. That is
where we are at right now. It
is going to be soon. We will keep
you
posted. There will
be a
ribbon cutting at some point. We are
all excited. Lake oswego
middle school is going
as plan. It is ahead of school. If
you just look
at it, you definitely can see there
is a building
there from country club. The two story
class room structure topping out. And
they
have done so much with concrete
and masonry and it
is coming along which is so exciting. Hvac
upgrades. We
are trying to get all of it for
the equipment
right now for the air-conditioning. So,
we are anticipating that summer insulation
to
make sure those
things will get cleaned before school
starting. And hardware and
part of our ongoing safety and security
is assessing
all of the door hardware. Some of
the doors in
the older buildings they have different hardware
to make it
hard to lock them from the inside. We are
replacing those. And, right now
they are doing a complete assessment
of all in the district.
>> and
then our new pool filled pool over
here, we
do have a design to convert the pool
into multiuse space. We are
really excited about that. It is intended
to
decommission a pool, fill it in. Install
a gym floor
over the main section of it. We will
need to get lighting upgrades and
interior finishes that just to
make it into a space that we can
use. And, we also will
have some repairs to
the exterior and painting. It is going
to be a
larger project. We think we can get
it in
a way we can
use it. Sooner than later.
>> science
classrooms. We have round
two at both of our high schools
preparing for this summer and the
contractor is
on board which makes it
easier than last year. We
are excited about that executed efficiently. And
then
at the middle school we had the garden
nearly
complete. Whether it is finished they will have
a green lows
and a learning garden as well. That
is going to
be very exciting. Kindergarten. At
there
time, 248 kindergartners enrolled
for next year. Actually we were up
a little bit from the year
before. But now we are down. Anybody
knows
any
5-year-olds out there get
them enrolled. 59t-k.,
you have first registered for kindergarten transition. 11th
through the 14th. A small
program that allows them to see who
they will be around and see the building
I think that
is nice
for the transition into
school. Then lastly we had sro's role
in immigration
enforcement. I want to make sure I
let everybody know that
I discussed it with the police chief
and he noted
to me that state law forbids sros
any of the officers to help with or
assist with federal agencies in the enforcement
of
immigration law. That is the
only reason they would be there. To
make
sure everybody feels better about
that. Sro on campus does not
mean they help ice and take a student
out of our building. That
would not happen. That is all.
>>
yes.
>> would you
remind me how
we are funding the conversion of the
pool? What
size gym are
we talking about? Full size
gym.
>> it should be. Basketball court. You
can
put tables in there. It is a big space
you can use
it any way you want to. I would say
big
use would be as a gym.
>>
and how, money?
>> it is funding. >>
is
it part?
>> it is
part of a
bond that happened already. We are
using the
floor from lj. Recycled the floor
to use
it over here.
>> that
is great.
>> yes. >>
it is
sustainable.
>> any other questions
for dr. Schiele?
>>
a lot going on.
>>
can
we
get lake oswego middle school done
--
>> I think
the
pool will
be next couple months.
>> let's
bring mr.
vandenberg up for the bond development committee
recommendation.
>> hi. >> I will
put this on the list, too. Furniture.
chair wallin, members of the board
thank
you for having me here tonight. I
am here with members
of our bond development committee
that I will have come
up shortly after I
give a little context. They
worked thoughtfully to put together
these
recommendations over the last year,
probably more in some cases. You
know, we have been having these
discussions for a very long
time. So, to start about a decade
ago we set
out
to put together a chairfully planned
3-phase program
to improve
all of our schools. To create sustainable
and inspiring spaces
that support our students as a source
of pride for
our entire community. In the beginning
we were looking at
our buildings and we knew we had a
lot to
do. The buildings had not been touched
for a very long
time. We set out to make these improvements
and replace one of our schools. That
school was lake ridge middle school. As
we
get into our second phase we
are now looking at our
third phase. When completed will touch
every school
bringing improvements, we are
tackling the highest priority projects,
protecting our investment, where necessary, replacing
outdated buildings that are
beyond repair with modern designs
that
meet the needs of our future generations. So,
one of the things
that we have been talking about and
we heard a lot
about is why are we looking at a
bond program when we have these
budget challenges. It is a fair
question. The reason is clear. Bond
funding
legally restricts us to capitol improvements. These
are replacing all of the broken
things in our buildings. Replacing
facilities and infrastructure needs. They
can not be
used for salaries, utilities or other operating
expenses. However,
in covering some
of the larger expenses we
do
help operating funds
for things like technology and infrastructure, major
repairs. Relieves pressure on the operating
budget. For example, you
think about last year's ice
storm. We closed a school
for several weeks. We had to relocate
kids, operating budgets were effected in
doing so. Protecting our
schools where we have these more frequent
weather events is
important for us as we move
forward. We don't
do this alone. Along the
way we have our citizen
oversight committees, bond development
helps
us, long-range facility planning, all
community-lead groups help us at
every step of the way. As we get
into our programs we have
oversight both from community as
well as staff as well
as outside consultants. We
have frequent audits that occur. So
we are, we have
a strong commitment to our fiscal responsibility. As
we
are guided by the school board
and dedicated citizen committees these
groups are deeply engaged ensuring
every step along the
way aligns with our shared vision. So,
let's talk
about what we accomplished so far. Phase
one is nearly complete. We just talked
about the last project,
the pool. It is coming in. We are
going
to be swimming
any day now. But, our flag
ship project, rebuilt lake ridge
middle school. You recall they
had structural issues. Project was
very
successful. Replaced
broken systems throughout the
district. These
include mechanical systems, plumbing
systems, internet, technology, electricity. We
add invasion spaces at our elementary
schools as
well as our middle schools and stem
and cte classrooms at our
high schools. We enhanced safety and
security, provided
seismic resiliency to all of
our schools as
well as additional infrastructure. Phase
two, come
is in progress, we completed
river grove elementary school that
opened this
year. To thunderous applause to the neighbors
that do not have to experience
the construction anymore but also the
students able
to go into their new beautiful elementary
school,
our first elementary school that has been
completely
replaced
in quite a long time. Right
now we are building lake oswego middle
school. We
completed our first two phases
of palisades world language
school. Complete renovation of the building. As
we
proceed we will be
adding ongoing accessibility to our playgrounds,
enhancing garden spaces, upgrading
our science classroom in phase one
it
has occurred and
ongoing safety and security for
structure updates. Where are we
in this phase three? We met with
long-range facility planning that
starts the basis of
what we have done and looking out
what we need to
do looking out to the next five, 10,
15 years. That work was started
in november of '23. Concluded a year
later
in september '24. At which time the
school adopts the long
range plan
and a bond development committee
is formed. Our bond development committee has been
at work for
about a year and completed their recommendations.
so, our next step is to have
me invite a
few of our members up. Courtney,
andrew
will join me.
>> thank you for the
opportunity to present to you
our recommendations to the 2025 bond. The
bond represents the
final phase of the three-part plan
and fulfills our commitment to build functioning
schools to enable our
students to graduate
and be career and college ready. The
bond set to expire this
year the new measure will replace them
and there will be
no tax increase. I hope that is a
selling
point and we will now walk you through the
four categories
that will complies
the 2025 bond proposal. We
start off with
category one that is essential work. We
must
complete priority
one and two repairs. The report out
lines itemized list of the projects. Based
on an update to the facilities condition
conducted at the beginning
of this process. The bond will allow
losd to complete the
needed large-scale replacements to
address safety hazards, accessibility
issues and
to fix failing infrastructure
in our schools. This includes items
such as finished
roofs, siding, floor coverings, hvac
systems. With these repairs in place
the school
buildings will be able to function
and help us educate future generations
for decades to come. It
is is also our responsibility to do
everything
that we can to keep kids safe
in case of emergencies. So, this
bond will make our schools safer by
updating
out dated fire alarms
at every school. Strengthening security
through the insulation of camera,
door hardware, and secure
glass. Then I
will move
on to category two.
>> category two. We
propose
this, replacing our two oldest elementary
schools. These new buildings
like our new junior high and river
grove will support best practices
and education. They will include break
out spaces for small group work, updated
gym and music spaces and invasion
labs. As we
have done with the other new
buildings and the updates we made
to
our current buildings
we will incorporate sustainable energy-efficient
design that will realize
cost saving over time with
lower energy bills and repair costs. We,
again, with our new buildings will
meade immediately occupancy standards
for seismic safety to keep
our students safe
in the event of a catastrophic seismic
event
and a place for community to
gather during an event or emergency. And
relief to
the surrounding neighborhoods improving
parking lots, and traffic
flow,
part of the plan as well.
>> we
also need to address
the capacity needs for
our current programs. There are three
kind of big parts that we
are going to look at. The
first is the career
and technical education and stem places
they need
to be expanded and repurposes to
provide our students with the essential experiences
for career and college that we have
heard so much
about throughout all of our many meetings. It
is essential for everybody to have
something
that they can take with
them. Similarly the community transition
program needs a permanent home that
is close to work opportunities and
public transportation so
they can continue to develop the
life skills and experience necessary for
their future success. And
then finally, we
will need additional classrooms at palisades
elementary that was built in
1959 to
meet
the needs of the current spanish,
mandrian classes
needed
to support a full functioning
elementary school.
>> now we
go to category
four, consolidating district services. Our
central office and facilities warehouse
are in poor condition and not
equipped to house district wide
services. The administration building
in particular was
bluntly assessed as a high need structure
in critical
condition. Currently we are using
the operating budget to rent
out space. To address this we propose repurposing
uplands to have all in one district-owned
property. Doing
so will not only
create greater efficiencies it will save
the district money in the long-term.
>>
I just want
to add one other point to
that. 10 years ago, 15 years ago,
I don't know,
wherever I first started
this many, many years ago. Updating
this
building and administrative services
has been on the radar of
the long-range bond committees
from the beginning. I think
we prioritized the education buildings,
of course we did as
we continue to do. These offices house
people
and infrastructure that are
critical to the successful functioning
of our
district. Combining all in one building will
enable our
administrators to serve our
students more effectively than they
do already. So, I just
want to say that. It has
been on the radar for awhile. And
needs to be done in this bond.
>>
our final slides of
this. In one pie chart slows the proposed
allocation of
the bond funding across all of these priorities
and
on behalf of the bond development
committee I respectfully ask you consider these
recommendations when crafting the bond
measure to present to the
lake oswego voters in november of
2025 and we thank
you for your support for
this process. I thank you for the
support for this
process that you provided for the
last 10 years and
we are happy to answer questions.
>>
I want to thank you
in particular for all of your work.
>>
thank you.
>> and all
of the bonds you have been a critical part
of it. All
of you, thank you for serving
and
providing such great recommend ations. It
is challenging and I think you
crafted a package that,
you know, for my perspective
does not increase our taxes for
our taxpayers, it is
efficient as mr. Vandenberg pointed
out. We
heard about budget issues with our
operating budget
but this is a separate issue. However,
if we do not
address the things
that you are talking about with the
bond we will have to use
our general fund budget to pay for
these things. These
are things that are critical to do
and
can only be done in a
bond. Thank you.
>> I wanted to
ask andrew
and erin. You have been through
a lot. After going through the
process did you get what you
expected?
>> yeah, I think that
it has been new, like a fully new experience
for myself, I was
on the long range facilities planning. And
now the bond
development. It has
been a really interesting experience
to go through all of the steps
and looking at not only what
we want for neighborhood schools but
what all of the schools need
and what we really need to do to kind
of serve the district as a
whole. And, I know that there has
a
lot of feelings about who, you know, should
be getting
what or what is
the most important piece but
really I am impressed with how the
board and other members
have been open to constructive dialogue. Not
everyone agreed all of the time but
we really were
able to come to a
good conclusion to get what we could,
you know, to
the best of the ability as we did have
a certain amount
of funds to really make sure that
every student is going to be served
in an efficient way and I think the district
will be in
a great place after
this gets passed and the
work continues.
>> I have really valued
this board throughout the whole process. That
was the first thing that brought
me into all of this. The meetings you
all
had. The open house that you had,
the information
that you shared it was really valuable
in
informing my thoughts about this coming
into
the bond committee. And the bond
committee process being as open
as transparent and communicative
as
well. I email a lot. Appreciate you. And,
it is
really helpful to have people
from across different
parts of our community,
different geographic areas, different
interest areas it puts a human face
on all of this. As we move into the
next phase to continue to
put a human face on all of the
interests will
be incredibly important as well as
compromise. I
think for me as
a palisades parent it was good to
see commitments made
there
and commitments kept. That was important. And to
see the stem projects, those have
been great. And
it has been good for us. I think our
recommendations
are going to be helpful for you
in deciding what the final project looks like. Of
course
that is still down the road. Good
luck to
you as you get us to
the next stage.
>> we heard some commentary
this evening I
know I am getting a lot more
feedback. Maybe it is my demographic. But
run
through a little bit
of the reasoning for, we heard from the
group
this evening
for another $45 million school. Just,
run through just a
little bit of the assessment of what the
group came to a
conclusion. On
why rebuilding two elementary schools?
>>
well, I
think, this community really values
its neighborhood schools and
we heard that loud and
clear from every
member of the community. Not just
one particular school. And I think
there is a value there to have kids
walk to school, to have the community, it
is a cohesive thing and we have to
rebuild
this building
that has to
go and where, even if we
moved everybody uplands we would have to
rebuild this building. I am
not sure it is apples to apples.
>>
I will add one thing. From
a building perspective. I don't like
to compare
the buildings necessarily but based on
the age of the
building. Lake grove needs to be demolished. It
will
not last as long
as a school like the uplands facility or
a facility like the
uplands facility. Regardless, lake
grove needs
to be demolished and rebuilt into something. From
my
perspective helped really wrap my
head around why things
need to happen at each
of the sites the way they are. I think
it
is important to keep that in mind
for the two oldest schools
that when you get down into the dirt
you are
getting kind of to the point that
you can not
take it much
further without a complete replacement.
>>
so, for me,
I know that this has been widely
discussed topic about lake grove should
stay where
it is or moved. And I
think that being --I am not only a
lake grove parent but I grew up in
lake
grove. My family lived in lake grove since
the '70s. My
kids will not be there anymore. That
is still an important part of our
community, having that lake grove
elementary school. It
is the, the city was built around
the school. Addition alley, I think
there is no other
place
in the lake grove neighborhood --
additionally,
I think there is no other place in the
lake
grove neighborhood to put it. It is
a gathering
sight. If that building goes there
is nowhere to go. My
hope when the school gets rebuilt
and
it is going to be, no doubt
as amazing as river grove, if there
is
an emergency we can work with the
city and have
it as an available space. Right now
there is
nowhere to go in lake grove. Whether
we had the ice storm people had
to figure out
how to get from lake
grove to downtown lake oswego for
a
warming center. That is not just something people
can do. Lake grove is a walkable area that
really if that is an available space
it is easy
for everyone to get to. And, you
know, over by lake ridge, city hall
has, you know, for downtown lake oswego. I
just think
that not only is it important for the
community as a learning institution
and neighborhood school that the city was
built
around I think it is a huge community
asset. And I
think that it is just really important
that we maintain neighborhood schools and
have
that for the community as a
whole.
>> I was on
the committee, too. Something that
was helpful
for us in
our conversations as well was the
community polling that we did. And
I think we talked about it in
our last meeting
with you. What consistently polled
the lowest. No offense to you
guys, but it is
the admin building. So, if you are
to knockdown
an elementary school and you
want to rally a community around
a vote, a bond, it is kind of, you know,
rebuild from the
ground up an elementary school, a community
center,
an emergency hub, all of this
stuff or rebuild from the ground up similar
who knows apples
to apples money. A
brand-new shiny admin building. I
don't
know. Having those, we have the upland building
for something, I agree that it seems
like a
no-brainer to put all of those things
in all
one building but that is another
discussion. The polling, the open
house information. We
took all of that stuff into account. We
had a lot of good conversations around
it.
>> yes. >>
one final
point
I was going to say -- [inaudible] one
of
the things we looked
at was geographic spread. The area
of
highest need
it is the lake ridge community. So,
removing --
>> I
should note, too, how we discussed
all of this. We
are one part
in a longer broader process. And,
as tony mentioned the schools were
determined to
be presented to the
committee as in need of replacement. So,
you can see this, when you approach
the matter of do we replace these
facilities that was taken as
a give in for this committee. Our
recommendation
is based on the assumption that
both of these will be replaced.
>>
thank you very much. And
I want to say that, you know,
it is
a very large piece of property. And
there is
potential use for some
of the other piece of property. And,
you know,
I really appreciated tony
how you opened the presentation with contectualizing
it
is a process and
the making for decades. And
so that was really helpful and, and
you know,
I really, really
appreciate all of your work. Coming
together, making, you know,
having these conversations. And, you
know, I am excited
then to look to
the future
of getting the bond passed.
>>
during the bond process or the bond
committee process, tony, we moved
from a
$220 million bond
figure to a $235 million bond figure. For
those that did not
track it weekly as we did, can you
talk
a little bit
about where that extra $15 million
it came from and what valves it
opened up to get programming and projects
into the
bond or into the recommendation?
>>
yes. Stewart would be able to speak to
it more than I could but
as we talked to financial analysts that
we work with and really honed in on
the amount
they were able to provide us with
a
more detailed dollar value that we were
able to achieve. As we achieve that
knowledge of the amount of
that we could get to it really
just kept chipping away at the highest
priority items
that we have
on the evergrowing, never-ending list of
things. Able
to put it together in larger projects. Think
about what they need to
be and how
to achieve those items on
the list and
be sustainable moving forward.
>> yes,
I
mean
having sat in the meetings on the
board, what
I saw with the extra $15 million it
avoided the more difficult choices,
I think, added some
of the finer points.
>> yes >> that
the community was really struggling
with, competing
value demands. So I think we
were fortunate to find
ourselves in that position. In one
sense
doing that hard mental figuring and decision-making
early to then realize wait
we can do more than that.
>> went
a
long way to make the recommendation
capture as much as it does
>>
especially around the large projects.
>>
yes. It
solidified that for us.
>> I have
to follow
up that question with a question. We
are looking at
really uncertain times and, I
know we always talked contingencies of 20%
and I
think we are talking higher contingencies. What
would drop off
of the list if, if it turns out that building
is
going to be a little more unpredictable?
>>
we
are not going to make that happen. Certainly
not going
to make that happen.
>> I applaud
you. What you
did with the last bond was
remarkable. Purchase ahead and kept
things in the budget.
>>
we are not shy about waiting. We canceled
projects and waiting for the following
year. During the
pandemic we weathered the storm. We
went
in with normal contingencies going
into the 2021 program as we
were working through
the 2017 bond program. And
as pandemic hit and
major volatility and materials and equipment,
labor scarcity, we are
able to kind of navigate through it
just
by feeling out the market, you know,
we have some of our friends here from the
county. All of our colleagues around us we
talk. I talk
to all of the other school districts,
we have
a great pool of contractors. We have
great momentum with our bond programs. In
2017 and
I mentioned this before,
where we would get three people
participating, three contractors participating on
a bond. We have about 18 that showed
up to look at our little pool conversion
program
over here. We got
a really good audience. Contractors
around here know
who we are and how we work. I
mentioned it before, we paved the
way for them. No pun intended. Get
the permits and
make it as easy as we can to
be as successful as we want ourselves to
be. It is all translates into competitive
pricing
and better delivery. You can see it
happening across the street right
now. In addition to that, you know, we
look at global trade, things that
are impacting if it
is wars or terrorists or things like that. We
experienced
all of this. It is not necessarily
new. We feel
like we built in the safety valves. And,
if
there is more that can be done we
have a list
of things to do in addition to this
that we will
come back to the school board to permission
on how we want to proceed on some
of those priorities.
>> I have
so say, I have
faith it will
be faithfully executed
>>
I appreciate that we
never talked about having a gym space. The
whole team put together extra
money
and extra resources to add things. I
am confident in you as well.
>> l
I do want to
give opportunity for more opportunities
for
other to comment. We will take this
as an information item
and have it back at our next meeting
and we will
vote on it and then the proses
from there is maybe, I don't
know, maybe you can talk about
the
next, what happens after that?
>> sure.
upon adoption of the board at which
would be you giving the district permission to
move forward and
putting this on
the november 2025 ballot
that would officially kickoff our
two campaigns. The district runs
the education information campaign,
and, our citizen committee organizes
the citizen campaign. And the
way that I describe it as the district
can provide
all of the information and tell you what
is on the
bond, the citizen campaign can ask
you to
say yes to the bond. So, very pleased
to say that we have
our campaign chair in the audience
there. She has volunteered to
lead our effort. I will say it was
a pleasure to ask
her to do this because rarely do you
get to go to someone
and ask them to be the claire and
say I have
a whole team
of people ready to help you. Including
courtney
and miles and erin and andrew. Everyone
who has been part
of the process before really wants to
see this third phase come through.
>>
citizens
are listening and they want
to get involved you will provide
information?
>> absolutely. We will
start the, as soon as people
know exactly what it is they are campaigning
for, they are ready to come over and
get with us
and meet and start
the work. Just from a timing standpoint, people
should think about the remainder
of the school year is getting
organized. It
will be meeting with neighborhood
associations, different groups around
the town to get, you know,
continue with the education. It is
lining up volunteers
and doing the work over the summer and
then
come the fall it is really a
blitz for
the campaign and the marketing.
>>
what
is the percentage you need?
>> 50.01%. I
like to shoot
for
the stars. You know, go for
broke.
>> I
am confident in our community.
>>
me., too.
>> thank you
for your service.
>> thank you. Thank
you.
>>> well, the moment that
we have all been waiting for. 6.4. Clackamas
esd local service plan
presentation.
>> thank
you, chair wallin and members of the
board. Good to
be here with you
this evening. I am the
superintendent for clackamas. There
is our annual meeting to present
to you our plan for providing services
to our local 10 school districts
in our region. Before I tap into that. I
want to introduce a
few people. Board chair, linda brown. I
think you
recognize her. She
has spent time in this building. Do
we
need a new admin building?
>> did
we need
it when she was here?
>> she
was listening it
was a necessity.
>> and rick larson
and
lynn mills
who are with me. Before I jump
into our local service plan that is
included in the
packet. It is this blue piece here. This
is the actual document
that you are taking
action on. Everything else will be
information. Before I jump into that I
want to express a few
thank yous beginning to your
superintendent who is valued member
of our chief
administrators group that meets monthly. And
we share
challenges and address them together
and she makes
valuable contributions to that group. I
am glad she say
part of it. Also
want to call out lakesha washington. She
helped us through a selection process
for a new
a.I. Specialist position funded through
a grant from clackamas regional network. Excited
about that. Excited to share with
you what comes with it as well. In
your local
service plan document if you look
at pages 10 and 11. Inside that
local service plan we call
out several other lake oswego
school district professionals that
meet with their regional
colleagues that are facilitated. We really
appreciate their compliment with
this work with their peers across
the county. Last but
not least I would be remiss not to
recognize you as a school
board. We missed school board appreciation
month last
month. We appreciate the work you
do all year long. We
know it requires a great deal of dedication
and time and we appreciate what you
share and the impact that you
have not just here in
lake oswego but on public
education as a whole. As a gesture
we brought a new packet of our
student artwork from our 2024 regional
art show that is featured in a set
of note cards
we left for you at your desk. I do
want to mention the local service
plan
is required by law. It is developed
annually. We
begin developing
it with our advisory groups. They
provide feedback on emerging
trends and needs
and we adjust the plan annually. It
does
cover or reflect all of our
services inside
there. It reflects a very productive partnership
and all 10 of
the school districts that we serve. It
including resolution services that
are those things that are paid
for and offered by all districts. And
then,
those are in the
areas of special education, technology,
data, teaching, learning,
as well as direct revenue
that can then be back or applied
to esd services of your choice. It
covers
contract and grant services. It is
a
broader category. Those are paid for
by multiple state and federal sources. Or
districts that request them. Those
include areas like early learning,
student
support services, a lot
of special programming, technology, teaching
and learning services. This
has been a
review and approved by the clackamas
chiefs group. Where it
goes first and
then it is approved by the
clackamas board of directors and
brought to here for your review. We
hope you will take
action to approve it. I brought
other items as well that I want to
make
sure I share with you. Fiscal or annual
fiscal report in your packet. There
are copies
of all school districts annual report. But
I do
want to address a few highlights
from lake oswego. It
does represent more than
$5.9 million worth of total services. More
than
$900,000 increase over the previous
year. It
also reflects more than $2.2 million
in revenue funneled directly to you. That
is about 100,000
increase from the previous year. It
reflects
vibrant part tiership
and supporting nurses and
coups lers. Addressing
mental health needs, providing early
mental services and
helping students with very complex
needs. Providing a range
of data
and technology support and improvements
in enhancement of instruction
especially literacy, math, stem and cte. We
hope
the format of that is helpful
to you. And really, it
gives
you better context how they
collaborate with you. We would welcome
your feedback if there is
a way to make the report more useful
for you
in the future. The other document
is the
annual report. Looks like there. All
in. And there
is just information piece for you. It
does cover a roughly one-year period
from
fall of '23 through fall of '24 and
uses data
and story telling to
provide more information about what
exactly clackamas usd does and we hope
also that it
is helpful to you. And if you would
like to see certain issues or information included
in future reports we would love to
hear about
that from you as well. Last
but not least I
snuck in another document. It is this. Seems
like
a timely thing to do. If you attended
our
december breakfast this was
prepared for that event. And on
the backside it includes our 2025
legislative
priorities agreed to by our
school superintendents in this area. And
knowing that you
are all doing your own advocacy work
in the state house these days,
I wanted to make sure you had that available
and
let me know if you want additional
copies of
this, they are available. You can let
dr. Schiele know. With that I
will pause to see if you have
questions.
>> and
questions?
>>
I should note --
>> the packages get
better every year. I love the comparisons by
each district. There is really
one of my favorite ones to go through. I
read
them for a few years. Thank
you. Appreciate it. It is nice to
see your
board. This is the most that you
ever brought in. Three of them. That
is
half of the
group, isn't it?
>> yep. >> do you
have, is there anything you
can share with the priorities and
the
status? We received emails now and then but
if
you have anything to say about the
completion
and how things are going?
>> well,
I think it was mentioned earlier
tonight with specifically
with relation to special education
funding. That
bill is moving along.
to raise the
cap of .
>>
moving?
>> removing. >> raising, sorry. Not
removing. Raising. Thank
you.
>>
I heard removing, also.
>> yes. Raising. Raising. So
that is moving forward. Through the
process. I
would say some of our
other issues are still
in the sausage-making process. And
very
much embedded in the overall budget. Which
is what we
are expecting to hear from the
co-chairs the first week of march.
>>
the
revenue update comes this week?
>>
yeah. Yeah. I think the
thing that is looming
over all of that conversation and
certainly in our
weighs and means committee is trying
to anticipate what is happening at
the federal level and how it
will effect the overall-state budget
that trickles down into
our school budgets and our
district budgets.
>> so, do you have
any sense on --
there is a lot of passive revenue
that
we get. Is that
from the state budget throwing to
the school
district to you?
>> this, this
is covering just the state oregon
state school fund. There report. We
have other funds that
we receive some of which
are federal. But, but I would make
clear, though, is that oregon state school
fund,
the state's general fund has a large
amount of federal funds embedded in there. Is
is relying on federal funds. Some
federal
funds.
>> so, if you were projecting which
you
may not
want to project .
>> I don't. >> --
if
you went to washington, d.c. To come
in and talk to the
feds about special education funding and
the mandates that were put
through in the '70s and this does
not sound like this is
going to be a year that, I mean there
has been little hope
but I would say there is a no hope
year
for it.
>> I am
not willing
to say no hope.
>>
okay. Sunday night, I chair
brown was there with me. I don't know
if any of you were there. There
was a town hall
and nearly 2,000 people showed up. There
were
a lot of
stories and questions and angst. The
hope there
is there are rules of law and there
are court challenges to
come of the things and it takes
time
for those things to
actually happen. And, he was encouraging
citizen involvement
and paying attention. But no answers.
>>
I have
no answers. [ laughter ]
>> no answers. This is an action item. >> I will make a motion to approve the clackamas esd local
service plan as presented. >> I will second.
>> thank you for your services.
>> yes. Absolutely. All in favor
of the motion. The motion passes. >> thank you very much.
>> thank you. We will move on item 6.5, educational data dr. Luzaich
and mr. Bailey.
>>
I am
going
to
speak for mr. Bailey today.
>> okay. >>
okay.
>> members of the board
I will go through the
high school graduation data. It is
a little
confusing because of the 2021cohort. It starts
with
freshman. That is why that is there. [low audio ]
>> here are a few
rules. When they come into the school that
is
their school. Unless they transfer
to another public school
or outside of the state
or public school
they are our student. When you look
at drop out
rate that is where it comes from. They
may
go to a different school and we don't
know where they went and
they are still on our books. That
is why it is
important to track them and where
they are going. For obvious reasons.
>>
it
talks about class 2020
our grad
rates over the last few years
--
this last year we had parent
creek. It is a residential
home, they are
rebuilding their site. So they
are using
that space right
now for incarcerated youth they become ours. That
is the
data that you will see here. The next
one. So, we
did have in this
cohort. 26 non-graduates in losd out of the
655 total
student
that is what
we had from the other schools.
33 non-graduates. Out of
64. Hard to compare. We put a different
section
of students there. What is interesting
after this next year, actually, harmony will
come out
of the graduation rate they will be
identified as their
own
district and parrott creek will move
back. So, our
three year
trend data and total
population shows 95% rate. That is
our
grad
rate. If you look
at
lake ridge high school it
is at 95%. So, our
population is increasing and continues to increase. [low audio ]
we
polled asian, black, hispanic,
multi-race. And then the
next group is students, special education
and english learners, of the
13 students 100% of our english learners
graduating. That is fantastic and
our special education rate
continues to go up. I will also say
that we have all of
this data with harmony
and parrott creek.
>> still going
up?
>> still going up. >>
yes. Still going up. I think we talked
a lot
about that over the years. It supports
that we have put
in place for high school and support
centers and not only for students
--all students made a huge
increase in our graduation rates
over the last four years. We have
a lot to be proud
of. There
is obviously still work
to be done.
>>
shifting to elementary as you know. The
diagnostic assessment is something
that
we use. Standards based. It is formative,
gives us an indicator where students
are in their
process. The data that we slowed tonight it
is data we see annually. It does
reflect end of the year
standards.
and
tracking the performance for third
and fourth
grade and work with
the state assessments
for the test. So, the bold is
what we are focusing on and let
you see where they are
in the fall. Talk about the diagnostic to where
the skills are
for the end of the year. Seeing
where they moved them up and so there
is where we are at for the middle
of
the school year, our assessment window closed
on the
31st of january. Whether you start
to look at 75% of
our students who are
already on track to pass end
of the year standards and demonstrate proficiency. We
have a
half year left and based on the momentum
we
would like to see that momentum continue
as we
are going in towards the springtime. So,
we had a 6-7
year investment in literacy. As you
are all
aware
of. We got new curriculum, structured
literacy. A lot
of
professional development and seeing
that momentum continue and
we have a really dedicated group
of teachers and specialists and principals working
together
to help move our
kids through. Then we had a pandemic. So
here
you can see by grade level again
we kind of want to bold those data
points
for this year. You can see also
where we were in the past two
years. Grade level by grade level. As
you know
research indicates the third great
performance is an indicator. I will
look at
that again in math I want you to look
at
the third great group doing well. Yellow
decrease and
the reds decrease more. What we are
seeing is hopefully we are
seeing the
reds turn to yellows and yellows to
turn to green
as we are moving through. Seeing a
nice
jump in kindergarten. Some of the
practices, observations
and
getting feedback it is
incredible in kindergarten. With dr.
schiele and
graduation rates it all
starts in kindergarten. August, 11th
through the 14th. Welcome them in
for that little eight hour program. We
do see
data that we want to improve. So,
if
we look at our student groups
this is our this year's data from
fall to winter
and breaking it down by different student
groups. You can see
that once we have them, they move. Whether
they are ours, and we get them in
the classrooms we are providing the
structure. You will see it trend. Does
not matter, they get
what they need. Does not matter if
they are
a language learner or a student experiencing
a disability or students that
need more. We will find a way to get
it to them
and see that needle move. There is
where you can
really see how the buckets are changing from
red
to yellow and yellow to green. So,
you might even
see in the yellow some of the neighbors look
the
same. When you look at where they
came from
that is where yellows
are former reds and moved into the
green zone. In
math, here are the
scores that you will see. Again, growth
going from
fall to winter. And, notice overall
it
just feels lighter than our scores
in reading. Some of that
comes from the need for
discreet math concepts
that have not been taught yet. Not
exposed to some
of the end of the year content idea. This
is midyear. Should see acceleration
of that.
>> sorry to interrupt. I
want to
make sure it is
clear for common who might be watching. These
numbers when you say are on track
it
is not that they are on track
--let me ask a question. Are they
assessed at end of year standards
at this
point in time? Or is this a
reflection of you are progressing
at the rate we want toy progress?
>>
this is the
end
of the year standards. When you see
63.
how to
work the number sense. That is
coming. And if you come
up short it is not fair
to the study neent thank you.
student. And
63% or on their way to the level at
the end of the year. 63%
are at the academic level grade level
based on end of
the year assessment as of the
day of the assessment?
>> correct. >>
is there a spring
assessment as well?
>> yes, there
is.
>> could
you describe what
is the assessment entail? What is
kind of the --
what does it involve for a
student?
>> online assessment. We
start with
iready back during the pandemic. We
wanted something that
we could measure how students were doing
at home. They were
assessed at home by their parents. The
data is reliable. So, once we got
them,
we set up the schedule
with iready and then local
schools, student specialists and works
in each classroom what
support is needed and put it in
place. There is a protocol for that.
>>
is that
an hour or a day?
>> it
can be somewhere in
45 minute, one period, some students
they may
need more than one. We want to make
sure
we
are trying to
grab it accurate. Iready showing parents
assessing at
home. We want it to be a pie chart. We
want to
know what you can see and then we
can know
what to do from there. In the
end we want everyone 20/20.
>> just
before you move on. The
other thing that comes from this
on one hand these
are impressive numbers, we don't break
out that
green to
the shade or two above. If we have
63% of
students on or above grade level for
the purpose of our
conversation today let's
say a third of those -- [no audio]
>> it folds in
the high-levels of learning and the understanding
and being
able to communicate that and have multiple
representations. Some
of that is a delivery model that is
a little
different for us. There is growing
pains in that and our
teachers are doing well in moving
that forward. Next up is the break
down
by our grade levels. Just want to
highlight
our third grade. These are the same
students who performed at 75% winter
for their reading. You can see that
because some of this
is new material, some
of this is new terminology or
even some standards-based content they
have not been
exposed to yet. We anticipate that
when
they receive that between now and
our spring
assessment the scores will go up. Notice
the
buckets moving from pink
to yellow and
then to green. And, next up is
our break down by student groups. Notice
where
we start and then where we can
do. All groups are moving forward
at a rate that makes
us feel like what we are
doing is effective. So, just so you
know, also, I meet with each principal. We set
goals together. Those goals
are based on metrics tied to the
state assessment in ela and
math. And then we are using these
as some
of our formative indicators on how
they are doing. So,
they set goals for third, fourth and
fifth grade performance
based on their historical performance
and cohort analysis. What can that
group do and we are
doing stretchables. We want goals
to reflect the growth, the academic
achievement we expect from
our district and from the
community and from themselves. So,
they are obtainable
but require a lot of strategy. So,
that is what we meet about regularly. The
last week I did a one-on-one cycle
with each principal. We looked at
the data and
looked back to review their stair
case of the leadership
moves they were going to make in ela
and math. And then, are you actually
doing those and if you are doing
those do you think they are paying
off and do
you see evidence in
this data that reflects that your leadership
actionable steps
are paying off. If not, let's talk
through that. If they are,
what do you do next? The year ain't
over,
right? Let's see what our other colleagues
are
saying and do some reflection on that.
questions?
>> I
have a question. Actually a
couple. For iready, can people, can
students opt out of it the same way
they can for state testing?
>> we
do
have a few that opt out,
their parents opted them out. Typically
it is not as stressful for elementary
students. It becomes part of
the routine of what they are doing. There
is a component of iready, my
path, a personalized instruction. So,
if you used
the apps before there is an
online component to iready that allows
them to
pick up where they
left off the
last master standard. Then, tailors
kind of computer-adaptive way
what instruction they need
next that for
them, they are used to being on their
device a few times a
week. Iready wants 30-45 minutes additional
work that helps
them in math. Then we get
to the diagnostics not as stressful.
>>
another question that I have is
if students are, like, a grade ahead
in math or something like that, do
they take the
test for the level of math they are in
or their
grade of math?
>> it is
also computer adaptive. So it will
give them
more items that they can be successful
at once
they mastered those they will
get more complex. The personalized
instruction that online instructional component, the
mypath will continue to rise up and
it caps out at eighth grade. What
we find
is some of our brightest students
in fifth grade
they hit a ceiling.
>>
okay. Thank you.
>> iready for six
or
seven years.
>> it started in
the pandemic. So '21 would be our
first one.
>>
four or five years then.
>> so prior
to that
how did we get this data and
how quickly could we use
it and know what the fall, winter,
bring folks were doing?
>>
it was much
easier in reading because we had
dibbles. We still have it. That
and iready are on
the approved list for dyslexia screener. We
just now, the data you
are seeing is the iready
data. Math it was much more difficult. It
would be based on the
unit so then
if
the unit assessments yielded students
that didn't, proficiency model
would say we took those kids. Felt
like it was more
at the end of the unit. Here we are
getting
more realtime data how students are performing
within
the unit.
>> so realtime versus delayed are
we talking a month
delayed?
>> yes. It was . >> how much
can you progress in a
month or two or three.
>> it felt
like more to
use kind of
--one that assessment it
was an autopsy than informative.
>>
yes. Checking with
students here that were not getting
those assessments as
quickly for what they were doing. So
we should
be seeing, which
we are seeing, this is pretty phenomenal
data from
just fall to winter. I think. It is
exceptional.
>> I
think the real power is with the individual
student and the
teacher who is looking at the data,
right? The
grade level team that are building
plans
around what the data is suggesting. I like
the secondary
lens. The health of the district. Not
the primary purpose of iready. Iready
is to inform
the teacher what to do next. Layers
and layers of dimension in the platform
that allows a teachtory know
how to group students --teacher to
group students to
tell them what to teach next. It takes
a lot of time to
get to that level. We have teachers
doing
it.
>> does every
district in clackamas county do this?
>>
I
don't think so.
>>
and as our district
embraces a.I. In the
education system the ability to deal
with
that
and those students and the
groups accelerates significantly both in
impact and in reach.
>> and there
are
a lot
of publishers claiming they can do this. Iready
was out early
in a lot of these areas. So when we
adopted them
for math that was an advantage for
us. There are other publishers saying
we can
do it too but does not execute the
same
way. They are in that
same pre-a.I. Space. Things are adapting
to individual
students. Individualization is
where we need to go.
>> do we
still use --does every student have
access to --at
any grade level?
>> not at the elementary
level. We don't want teachers or students
running home to something familiar
whether iready is with the
curriculum that we have for k-5. It
is
a forcing function. [ laughter ]
>>
it seems to be working.
>>
yes. Proud of our teachers and staff.
>>
thank
you.
>> thank
you.
>> it was a great
update. 6.6, amendment to bond sale
resolution, mr. Ketzler.
>>
members of the board. Not
as exciting as your previous agenda
item.
>>
you can do it. [ laughter ]
>>
but it
is an important step in our bond
sale that we will
be having later there
spring for the
remaining of our 2021 bond authorization. We
have an amendment to
the original bond
sale resolution that was passed
in 2022. Under which we
sold the first, $153 million
worth of bonds. And since that
time our
lead bond council
has moved to another firm. This
amendment appoints foster garvey
as our bond council
and specifically calls out the authorization
to participate in the
state
of oregon school bond guarantee program.
we anticipate
we will have to do that. We have a
kickoff
for the bond sale with the
larger team this morning. There is
a possibility we
would not have to
utilize this credit. But in other
other particularly, a
lot of school districts
are seeing downgrades to
their bond ratings. So we believe
we
are immune from those forces. We will
not know for sure
until we
go through the rating process withstandard
later this spring which is one of
the steps in bond
sale process. This is
an action item and we
are looking
for, requesting your
approval for this resolution.
>> you
point out here --it is transparent.
>>
we
do need it
as it relates to
foster garvey. Calling out the
osbg, it, the authority
was implicit in the original
resolution but our financial advisory
and
bond council wanted to be more explicit
in case a question comes up for
the operators or one of the buyers
of one of
our bonds
in I had that
authority to do it.
>> this is the
same person
or group that we
have? When did merser
close?
>> they dissolved
in early 2024. The
son of the
original
founder he retired early
in
2024. Courtney evaluated going and continuing
the
family business and just decided it
was for
her and to clients
she served
to attach
foster garvey. The bigger
bond counsel firm. They are a bigger
firm in seattle and a
good presence here in
portland as well.
>> so can you just walk
through the
process leading up to the bond sale? The
steps
we are going to go through?
>> yes. I
would be happy to. So, the first
thing that we did was we
issued a request for proposals for
underwriters. That was done in january. And,
then, underwriter is the firm that
gets
appointed to market our bonds. And,
and they have
to do a good job marketing. One of
the requirements
is if you don't sell the bonds
then you have to
buy them. So, selection of an under
writer is an important
initial step. You want to get a
team that
is really good at marketing. The exposure
enhancing, you know, the investment
market interest
that drives down our interest rate
costs. We have an interest
in doing to save taxpayer's money
as well
as it can
increase opportunities for premiums
or reduce discounts that might be
in the sale at
any given time. So, we
have that
rfp. We selected piper samuel. The
800 pound gorilla
if it will as it relates to
bond sales for school districts and
not just
in oregon but in the
pacific northwest. And they, they,
I worked with them
at least half
a dozen different
times of debt offerings
that I have been with
them.
and and,
and the time line and, and,
you know who is responsible for what
part or parts of all of the different
steps that are involved with selling
a bond and we went over some of
those details. Confirmed some of the
dates on the
calendar and we are looking to market
this bond for
a sale in early to mid-may? And, one thing
that they are able to bring to the
table they see
who else is out
in the market and anticipate to sell bonds
of
the same time frame and they try to
structure
our timing so we are not
disadvantaged to other sales that
might
be taking place at any particular
time. That
can help
maximize the interest in the bonds. And,
they, they a
long with financial advisory and
financial advisory llc, I think,
they, they kind of cross-checking
each other's work
to make sure
that the district's interests
are held up
pfm works in a fid
fiduciary access
for us. And the sale and they
help assess, you know, if the district
has received fair
value and that we are okay to move forward
with
the closing that would be anticipated
generally within a week to
10 days after the
date of the
sale. Under our current
schedule, we anticipate having this remaining,
the
funds from this remaining in late
may.
>> any questions? This is an
action
item.
>> I will move to approve
the amendment to the bond sale resolution.
>>
I will second that
motion.
>> okay. All in favor
in the motion. And the motion is approved. Thank you
very much.
>>
all right, thank you. All right. Other
business.
>>
I have a question
because we had all of the music testimony commentary
this evening and we are not hearing
from
anyone else,
what does that indicate to us? Is
there, what was
the message that suddenly brought
the musicians here?
>>
it would be rumors.
>>
it is an organized group. Who,
where did that rumor come from? How
do
we take
the anxiety level down? Or are
they duly anxious?
>> well, I can
say like I don't think I heard very straightforward
like what is going to happen. My principal
said something different
than two of my science teachers
for like certain classes and .
>>
no one
knows right now.
>> yeah. So I really,
I have been hearing things from students,
hearing things from teachers, my principal
and everyone is
saying different things about which teachers
are going to not be here and
which classes we are not going to
have. Like I
was saying during my comments. It
is
really confusing.
>> I think that
when someone is talking about
what classes are not going to be here. That
is
impossible to do before we forecast
it. That may be
something that boiled up in
choir. Okay, people, everybody needs
to .
>> and I think what I heard
is --there is some of the classes are
small. So
I think people are putting two and
two together. It is a small class,
they are going
to cut. We have a bunch of
small classes so .
>> I do think that is
something that
people are saying
>> and
we do have some small
classes -- [low audio]
>>
I think that
is worth communication at this point. That
seems
to be a lot of anxiety to
me for something that is not a definite
that
is going to be happening
>> some kids
don't
know that, like smaller
classes and I know especially upperclassman they
want to forecast
for late arrival, early release, free
periods. At least one
of my teachers said try to forecast
for all eight classes
so the classes exist and then it is easier
to drop a class
than it is to add a class, kind
of. So they are telling people, like,
that one teacher is telling
people to forecast
but I don't think everyone knows that.
>>
we don't want people
to forecast the classes they are not going
to take. So, I
think that is a message that needs
to
get out there as well.
>> yes. We
can continue to say that. It does
not help that
30 kids forecast for class a and some are
like
okay, class a, and we put a teacher
there, spend
money on it and 15 kids drop out of the
class. Then I got over
here I have a class that has 40
kids in it, I could of used it here
to make that class more reasonable. Now
I can't because I
put it over here. Even though kids
were not going to take the class
and drop it
>> can
you say class
size alone is not an
indicator for a class to be dropped.
>>
it sounded to me we can not afford
a class with 10 students
>> correct. It looks
like, choir, there is a class
of 60. You know what I
mean? If you have a class that are
60 but
say it is 15 and 60 that actually
is
okay. I am looking at that more
of like the caseload of that teacher. And
if, if people could be, okay,
put you in this class. There are all
of these interesting things to make classes
bigger than they are.
>> same for
math if you have a large math section
and
you have, you still
want to have the advanced math.
>>
right.
>>
we hope to, we can not have all of
the levels of math but, whatever. But
--we
do want to keep as many
advanced math classes. Some
of the classes might
be smaller.
>> I don't . >> I don't
want to drop
any classes.
>> if you are looking
at it. 14 people and you are
quit.
>> there are other groups that will
come in if we
can even
out the anxiety and help
people understand.
>> with the advanced
math classes and
advanced science classes and everything
else
you spoke of, don't you
have connections to
things like portland community
college where students and I
think clackamas college, regular high
school classes
to still be pushing their advancement?
>>
yes.
>> okay. >> they do
but
technically it goes more to
advancements. It is not going to
clackamas community college. Might
be the case for one or two kids we
would not have
a class for one or
two students. Whether you talk about
calc 2
and 1. We do have 90. There are a
lot
of those. Those are not the ones
that you have to worry
about.
>> is it
fair to say today, in late february,
no decisions
have been made on which classes will make
up the curriculum for
next year? And that will
not happen until after
the may
forecasting shake out is completed?
>>
that is true
for electives. So, yes. But
we
have already said, you know, 60
sections of english for example. We
already
said that our class ratios are going
to be 30. So that means we neat six sections
here.
>>
that is because you know every
10th grader is taking english.
>>
yes.
>> right, right, right. >> what
could happen
with that is whether you start looking
at the english teachers who also teach
english electives, that might be
where things get fluctuated. We don't
have
anybody who wants to take yearbook. Let's
just
say there are five kids
>> just hypothetical. >>
just a hypothetical. That is usually
an english teacher that teaches that. Now,
they will not run yearbook. We would
not run
yearbook with five kids, we need to
see if that english teacher teaches another
english
section or a different english elective. This
year
we have a ton of advanced readers,
that
want to take a reading class. That
is where
they have to go. The electives it
depends
what the kids forecast for. For the
most part,
all of our kids take an english,
a math, a science. Sometimes
we have kids
that take two sciences. So it really
depends. Only
thing we have been able
to determine at this point is core. Elementary
that
is all core.
>>
just to clarify
>> forecasting is super important. That
is how
we make our decisions every year.
>>
just to clarify
is that at there moment a promise
I can make to all
of my student that I know came up
here.
>> no promises >> is that something
that
I can tell them, we
don't know electives until forecasting
is concluded?
>> yes. >> and I
just want to echo. For students in
the forecasting period right
now. It is important that as a student
and
parents of a student that student
forecasting you try to take
it as seriously as you possibly can. There
are sometimes a sentiment that oh,
I can not be bothered right
now or I have not looked at the course
catalog
or I had a super official meeting
with my counselor
because I was not prepared to talk
about what I wanted to do
and I will figure it out in the spring
or
over the summer and make adjustments
in the fall. I think
one of the practical realities is
that as we
have pressure to the number of classes
that
we can offer
to the learning community there will necessarily
also be pressure on the flexibility
to
move out of classes, into classes. All
because three of my
best friends are taking there and
now I want to take
this class. That will be harder to
do next year. I
just encourage all students, middle
school and high
school to look at your course catalogs, talk
to
your counselors, talk to your parents,
talk to your older siblings,
get a sense of what the classes are
like and try to go into forecasting
if this is what I get
I will be happy.
>> that is good to
hear. I
think the perspective of quite a few,
especially
the choir kids is not that, oh, well,
there is just not
enough demand for a class it will
not happen. It will be
my third year in a row trying to
take history but never enough kids
that sign up. The perspective
from them is that they see a word
in the lake oswego newspaper like
budget cuts
and think it does not matter if 100
kids forecast for the class budget
cuts means it is gone. That
is what they were more concerned about
today
more than a lack of demand.
>> there
is
clearly passionate interest in our
choir
programs.
>> all of our performing
arts.
>> yes. >> all
of them. It is part of what our district needs
>>
and
the reality of it is,
we are cutting $10 million. Those
two
things are going to be competing realities. We
are not cutting any one thing. It
just means
it will be tighter. You will not have
flexibility to say
I don't want this now I do, we had
the luxury for many years of doing. We
are just
not going to have it now. Take the
forecasting
seriously. We will have classes for
all kids to take that
they want to take and that is what
we are going
to build our staffing around.
>> all
right. It
is an
indicator that everything will be
all right until it
>>
do you send confirming emails after
all of your email? That is a confirming
email dialogue.
>> I will tell them
in whatever level of
confidence you think I should.
>>
I was
just giving you a hard time.
>> forecasting
is really important. I think just
saying that, if
you all want choir, just make sure you
forecast
for it so when we are doing staffing
we can say where it
is going to.
>> all right. >> and
it is important for students
to know there will be other classes
or other
resources available if a class they
really wanted
does not exist. Especially like the
ones we were talking about calc3
or the spanish or
organic chemistry. There will
be other options.
>> all right. >>
I
don't foresee us getting rid of any
one thing like
that. It will be how many kids in
the class.
>>
thank you
for asking the question.
>> yep. >>
any
other other business?
>> all right. If