Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Board of Directors School District No

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 4J, LANE COUNTY, OREGON December 7, 2005 Meeting Convened The Board of Directors of School District No. 4J, Lane County, Eugene, Oregon, held a regular meeting on December 7, 2005, at 7 p.m., at the Education Center, 200 North Monroe Street, Eugene, Oregon. Notice of the meeting was mailed to the media and posted in Education Center on December 2, 2005, and published in The Register-Guard on December 5, 2005. ROLL CALL BOARD MEMBERS: Beth Gerot, Chair Tom Herrmann, Vice-Chair Eric Forrest Charles Martinez, Jr. Craig Smith Virginia Thompson STAFF: Barbara Bellamy, Director, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Ted Heid, Director of Labor Relations Tom Henry, Deputy Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer Hillary Kittleson, Director of Financial Services Susan Fahey, Operations and Reporting Manager Caroline Passerotti, Financial Analyst STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Katie Parker, Churchill High School Jordan Ries, North Eugene High School MEDIA: Anne Williams, The Register-Guard KEZI News CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND FLAG SALUTE Board Chair Beth Gerot called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. and led the salute to the flag. She noted that Board Member Anette Spickard and Superintendent George Russell would not be present at the meeting. Deputy Superintendent Tom Henry would be filling in for Superintendent Russell. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS AND SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT Mr. Henry introduced the following guests who would be speaking to the first item of information of the agenda: Mike Garling, temporary principal at Edgewood/Evergreen School, Marily Walker, a teacher at Evergreen, Julie Hulme, a teacher at Edgewood, Laura Blake Jones, a parent at Evergreen, and Kris Shaughnessy, a parent at Edgewood. Minutes – Board of Directors – December 7, 2005 1 Mr. Henry pointed out that there was information in the red folders that the board members would need for the meeting: policy statements, data about free and reduced lunch, and minutes from the March 9 board meeting, an article on small schools, and information on the district’s hazardous weather procedures. COMMENTS BY STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Katie Parker said that the students at Churchill High School were very busy right before the holiday season. She said that on December 8, all of the students would be participating in a Positive Behavior Class because the school had been having some problems with fighting and bad language. She said that some of the problems stemmed from the fact that the senior parking lot had been discontinued this year. She said that the senior lot was being reinstated. Ms. Parker reported the following items: the basketball team was off to a good start; the Mr. Lancer fund raiser had begun; the student executive leadership held its holiday party and the boys beat the girls at every game that was played. Jordan Ries, North Eugene High School, said that Kay Graham, an assistant principal at North, had given each student leader at an ASB Leadership meeting the following framed quote: “A leader challenges the process, inspires the vision, enables others to act, models the way, and encourages the heart.” He said that the student leaders would be focusing on that quote for the year. Mr. Ries said that Project Give to raise money and to collect canned food for the North Eugene/Santa Clara area was underway. He said that on December 15 Grocery Outlet was having a three minute “all you can grab shop-a-thon” for the project. He said that the food boxes would be distributed throughout the community on December 16 and 17. Board Member Virginia Thompson read a report sent to her from Sarah Adler at South Eugene High School. Ms. Adler said that she would not be able to attend the board meeting as she would be attending a Hospice training that was only given on December 7 for teens. Ms. Adler said that the South ASB had been organizing its budget for the last week and was learning a lot about allocating funds and parliamentary laws. ITEMS RAISED BY THE AUDIENCE Jim Seaberry, 3294 Stark Street, read a statement prepared by John Dodson about the covenant on the property on which the Santa Clara School was located. Mr. Dodson warned the board that continuing on its present course would lead to more lawyers fees and would lead to the decision about the covenant being made by the courts. He said that the lawyers were charged with protecting the tax payers of School District 4J even from a board that chose not to choose a path. Mr. Seaberry left a drawing with the board showing his opinions on the issue. COMMENTS BY EMPLOYEE GROUPS Merri Steele, Vice-President of the Eugene Education Association (EEA), informed the board that she and Paul Duchin, President of the EEA, had attended the National Urban Education Association conference in Kentucky. She said that the EEA had received one of about 25 grants given at the conference. The grant was for the seminar series offered by the EEA and the district giving teachers opportunities to receive instruction from local universities on a variety Minutes – Board of Directors – December 7, 2005 2 of topics. She said that the grant was to put the information on-line to make the process more accessible to many people. Ms. Steele said that the conference also provided information on other grants, the No Child Left Behind Act and upcoming concerns regarding the act, work load, and a variety of other topics. Ms. Steele said that the staff was looking forward to the break. ITEMS FOR INFORMATION Receive a Report on the Consolidation of Evergreen and Edgewood Elementary Schools Barbara Bellamy, Director, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations, gave a brief introduction. She acknowledged the hard work that had already been done toward combining Edgewood and Evergreen Elementary School and creating an educational program that would begin in the 2006-07 school year. She said that the board would have to approve the consolidation of the two schools sometime before June 1, so that the district could inform the Oregon Department of Education for reporting and data tracking purposes. Members of the Edgewood/Evergreen Partnership Committee distributed copies of their presentation to the board. Ms. Hulme began the report by saying that the staff and site councils of Edgewood Elementary School and Evergreen Alternative Elementary School agreed to work together to create a single new school. She thanked the 4J staff and board for its support and help in this process by providing extended relief time, additional staffing, and for inviting a very talented facilitator, Betsy Shepard, to help them through the process. Ms. Walker gave a brief historical perspective saying that declining enrollment, budgetary constraints and reduced staffing had affected both schools, which were located in the same school building. She said that the site councils and staff saw an opportunity to create a stronger, more robust learning experience and school by joining together in a new partnership to create a new neighborhood school incorporating the best of both schools. She said that the Edgewood/Evergreen Partnership Committee was then created and had been meeting since spring of 2005 to define the new school’s focus and develop the educational program. The school will have one budget, staff and site council. The school name has yet to be determined. Ms. Jones reviewed the membership of the Partnership Committee and Ms. Shaughnessy reviewed the task forces created to craft proposals for class configuration, the identity of the new school, and public relations. Ms. Shaughnessy said that the staffs and parents entered into the partnership with the best of intentions and good will and that even though the work had been very hard at some time, the people involved had increased their regard for one another. Ms. Jones said that the process had been very productive and the people involved had been very engaged, creative, resourceful, and good to each other. Ms. Shaughnessy said that the biggest stumbling block was resources and the number of FTE to be able to offer the kind of curriculum they would like. She said that she did not think that the greater community understood the lack of resources for public schools. Ms. Jones said that the theme of the new school would be “Community” which would incorporate community circles comprised of K-5 students working together over time with a staff Minutes – Board of Directors – December 7, 2005 3 member on selected projects that would build a sense of community both within the school as well as within a larger scope of community. She listed some of the possible networking opportunities which were provided in the handout. Ms. Jones concluded by noting the following building blocks on which the staff had agreed: • K-5 Community circles • Spanish instruction for a minimum of twice a week • Primary (K-2) and Intermediate (3-5) teams • Skill grouping for 3-5th grade math • Primary Back-to-Back (specialist time: small group reading time) • Dedicated time for choice/interest groups • “Looping” philosophy would be considered • Primary team would decide on math regrouping and grade configurations • Half-time kindergarten with a wraparound program option Ms. Gerot thanked the committee for its work and for the collaborative nature of its work. Board Member Craig Smith asked how the reconfiguration might affect enrollment. One of the committee members said that the committee thought that it would revitalize the school by pooling resources, having a clearer focus, and building on the best of both programs. Board Member Virginia Thompson commented that this process would provide a lot of learning for the district. She thought that it would be wise to watch the process closely in order to benefit from that learning opportunity.

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