June 27, 2022 Work Session Meeting Minutes

• MINUTES OF THE SCHOOL BOARD OF DISTRICT NO. 40, 
  YAMHILL COUNTY, McMINNVILLE, OREGON

  The Board of Directors of the McMinnville School District and the McMinnville City Council moved into a Work Session via zoom and in person June 27, 2022, Chair Carson Benner and Mayor Remy Drabkin called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.  

  BOARD MEMBERS: 
  Chair Carson Benner 
  Mr. Gerardo Partida 
  Ms. Janis Braich 
  Ms. Abbie Warmbier 
  Dr. Paul Haddeland  
  Mr. Jason Bizon 

  BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:
  Larry Vollmer

  CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS:
  Mayor Remy Drabkin
  Adam Garvin
  Zack Geary
  Sal Peralta
  Chris Chenoweth
  Kellie Menke (via Zoom)

  ADMINISTRATION:
  Debbie Brockett, Superintendent
  Cherice Bowden, Board Secretary
  Jeff Towery, City Manager
  Claudia Cisnerso, City Recorder

  AUDIENCE:  
  Steffanie Frost, Samantha Nelson, Kourtney Ferrua, Brian Crain, and Susan Muir.

  Press:
  Starla Pointer

  The Board of Directors, City Council members and Directors introduced themselves and stated what their roles were.  Starla Pointer was also introduced.

  Chair Carson Benner thanked everyone for being at the meeting.  He stated that the original idea of the meeting was to sort out what things we are doing for kids and the City has things they are doing for their constituents, which sometimes is for kids and they overlap.  He wants to figure out where there are overlaps and see if there are ways to improve. 

• Property and Facilities
  Brian Crain gave a presentation on property maps provided by Flo Analytics.  The map showed property and homes owned by the District as well as McMinnville schools.  We have a future high school site on Hill Road and Wallace, just down the road on Hill Road is a future elementary school site and a future middle school  site just north of Grandhaven elementary school.

  Adam Garvin asked what triggers the development of the schools.  Brain Crain stated  our enrollment and our capacity to have students in current buildings; if we max out every school building then we would need to look at building an elementary, middle and high school.   

  Mayor Remy Drabkin asked about the current use of the residential properties. If they are all mostly single family residential and who manages the properties. 

  Brian Crain stated they are currently being rented and managed by Sean Windermere.

  Chair Carson Benner asked about the two options for the activity center.  

  Zack Geary stated with the new facilities they are looking at ways they could commingle some uses and services they have at their facilities; like the aquatic center and the community center.  The recommendation from the community was to build a new facility at a new location.  The two locations the committee recommended were next to Albertsons, the other site is over by McMinnville Water and Light.

  Adam Garvin asked if we intended to hold on to the property on 19th street long term. 

  Brian Crain stated we are looking at a short term use as an outdoor learning lab for our fire emergency services pathway.  

  Mayor Remy Drabkin asked what are the issues we face with our facilities and undeveloped properties.  Where are there opportunities for partnerships because something is not working well?  

  Brain Crain stated we are going to be farming two of the three future school sites.  The one closest to the cottonwood is the elementary school site; the farmer is not interested in farming because it is surrounded by residential on three sides.  So this property right now we are trying to keep it mowed and level; this would have the greatest area of possibility in terms of work we could do there.

  Zack Geary said we have land holdings for each of the expansions for an elementary, middle and high school and asked what is the period of time you look at and forecast out to make those decisions at each level. 

  Chair Carson Benner stated it is driven by the bond schedule.  The bond schedule also ties in with our maintenance schedule, by the time the next bond is due we need to do maintenance on these facilities.  If we do not  need another high school by the time the next bond comes around that would be getting attention. 

  Superintendent Brockett stated we look out three to five years with bond plans.  At that time we would have to have a discussion and look at our flo analytics to make sure nothing has changed with enrollment and then start to have conversations.

  A brief discussion was done on the McMinnville Parks and Rec/McMinnville School District Facility usage.   Susan Muri stated we have a really good working relationship through these shared usage agreements and she looks forward to working with us as partners as we go forward into new building as well.

• Programming and Space Usage
  Kourtney Ferrua stated we are planning a robust summer program.  She spoke about funding for the program.  We have about half of the funding but we are planning a credit recovery at the high. The K-8 plan is to allow teachers and staff to take a bit of a break and then we will offer a robust summer school.  It will begin at the end of July until the first week of August.  The elementary plan is a half day plan where we will give them breakfast and lunch, they will go through a rotation of experiences that include academics and also enrichment.  She explained which CTE pathways are available for students.

  Brian Crain explained our partnership with Evergreen and Campfire.  Campfire is being run at Newby Elementary school.  At Evergreen Space Museum we have robotics clubs.  Over the summer the third through eighth graders are doing a week long aviation camp and a week long space camp.

  Kourtney Ferrua stated those dollars really help support students who have had to participate in special education and have had an impact with the pandemic.  Our Special Ed team has been working closely with those families to ensure their individual educational plan goals are met.  We also have Title III funds which are targeted for EL and migrant children who are going to a STEM camp.

  Susan Muir stated they have been experiencing some of the same problems.  They have been working the last few years to try and reduce barriers to participation in their programs.   They have a van coming that can be a mobile rec station.  They are currently going around the city and to different apartment complexes and parks.  They have over 150 free programs for McMinnville families over the next two months, including reading programs, concerts, movies, and preschool playdates.

  Adam Garvin asked if the fire pathway was a new pathway or if it has been around for a while.  

  Kourtney Ferrua stated it is pretty established and very popular, she shared all of the pathways offered in McMinnville School District.  

  Adam Garvin asked when they finish or graduate and they take those pathways do they leave with any certifications or do they have a leg up on other students?

  Kourtney Ferrua stated our goal with our CTE programs is to have them career ready to meet the standard of what the industry standard may be.

  Adam Garvin asked where do you see the contract with CampFire going past the three year mark?  Will you start over with a fresh RFP?.

  Kourtney Ferrua stated we are looking forward to the expansion of CampFire into all of our buildings.

  Superintendent Brockett stated for continuing with CampFire, we are going to have a really strong conversation with CampFire because of the cost.  It is preventing many of our most needy families from accessing the after school care they need.  We would love to expand as long as it is available to all students and not just to those that can afford the high cost of after school care.  

  Susan Muir stated they have a hard time finding families and filling slots for after school programs, even if they were free.  She shared that all of the principals may have been notified that the CampFire program received a grant and is fully funded and free for all families.

  Superintendent Brockett stated that we have hired a Student and Family Engagement person David Cano.  He will be reaching out to our needy families, go to them; meet them; reach out to them and offer support.  We will make sure David works closely with CampFire. If we have unfilled slots at CampFire we need to get filled, we can use him at a high level and have him reach out to those families 

  Kourtney Ferrua shared information about our Pre-K program.  We have 160 available slots and we currently have 99 students enrolled.  For kindergarten we only have 170 enrolled for the fall.  This is not unique to McMinnville.  It could be families are keeping kids home and kind of unschooling or not engaging in formal education; we really hope they will come back to us.

  Kellie Menke asked if you think the issue is transportation for Pre-K.

  Kourtney Ferrua stated it could be.  In the school district we have a partnership with First Student who provides our buses; they are unable to transport four year old’s because of the requirement for a five point harness, so we do not provide transportation currently for Pre-K programs.

  Mayor Remy Drabkin asked if you could take some of the money from the CampFire grant and use it for advertisement.

  Susan Muir stated they are doing quite a bit of marketing and advertising both for employees and for students.  The school district has sent out as much information as they can and has been embedded and connected with some of those nonprofits in town then they could.

  Janis Braich asked about advertising through the summer fun program.  Is there a possibility of us getting the work out through that about Pre-K and  kindergarten enrollment?

  Susan Muir stated they would love to have any school district staff member come to the summer fun event and distribute information or be a connection to the community and they would be able to have flyers.

  Abbie Warmbier stated that she thinks the bigger issue is that Pre-K is a half day program.  If we could have a partnership where daycares can pick up the kids for the other half of the day; that two and a half hours we have right now is just not possible for working families who are probably the ones that need it the most.  We want to provide the services to as many kids a possible; that is why we have the morning and afternoon.  If there were childcare facilities or a transportation company that was able to provide that service, she thinks that would reduce the barrier a lot.

• Future Ballot Measure
  Samantha Nelson presented a brief presentation to the Board and the City of McMinnville of where we are in our bond debt service.  Our general obligation bonds we have currently are the  21a, 21b, B series 2013 and series 2016.  The first two are scheduled to retire in 2028, those are the ones we have planned and those are the ones we would go out and do a renewal.  These bonds fund most of our facility improvements and our overall maintenance.  Our longest and largest bond is due to retire in 2038.

  Chair Carson Benner stated our next bond effort would be in 2028. Thinking about this discussion is the City has the same chart and we want to avoid going to voters at the same time. If there is a way we can strategically avoid those sort of doubling up at an election is to all of our advantage.  Ideally we could get the City’s version of this and blend them together. We are both looking for the same thing, let’s stagger it and get ahead of it.

  Janis Braich stated we want to remember, if the bond is dropping in 2028 we want to start the process in 2025.  It takes a year to look at long range facilities, then it takes another year to decide and then it takes a year to go out to plan for the bond.

   Chair Carson Benner shared slides of MAC Town 2032 and our long range focus. He spoke about affordable housing.  He said, when we hire super talented teachers who are eager to work, they can not find a place to live. This is really troubling and the same  holds true for the City.  We have more control over the outcome and some of these the City has more control.  If we are able to get together again and have a little more time to talk about it to get to a point where when we hire teachers they can afford to buy a house in McMinnville.  

  Dr. Paul Haddeland stated affordable housing is one of the reasons we are losing students.  Families cannot afford to move to McMinnville.  He thinks it is an issue for our enrollment as well.

  Sal Peralta stated this is a regional issue, the housing prices in McMinnville are fairly constant with housing prices as parts of the region.  It’s a function of people moving into the state with land laws that do not facilitate growth.  He doesn’t think the City or the School District will be able to address it in a ten year timeframe.  He thinks housing affordability is going to get worse in our community before it gets better.  They have taken steps as a city to do the planning that’s needed to bring in new housing inventory, but we are years away from that happening.  

  Superintendent Brockett stated there are school districts that have bought not boxable but those types of homes and placed them on their open lots to offer housing for some of their teachers.  This affects our Classified staff at a higher rate and we need to look at all staff.

• Adam Garvin said thank you for getting together.  He appreciated the meeting and is looking forward to having more.  

  Zack Geary thinks the meeting went great.  He is willing to meet monthly or quarterly more regularly and talk about stuff or meet every six months or once per year to get the group together.  He thinks nothing but good stuff can come of it.

  Superintendent Brockett thanked the Council.  They have brought her into many meetings and they started monthly meetings way back when they reached out to her and started having conversations.  She said, If we can find ways to include and bring you in, she would find space on her calendar and she knows her Directors would as well.  Any way we can get to continue these conversations we welcome them and we hope they can continue.

  Jeff Towery said he appreciates the time and energy that both the elected officials and key staff put into this.  He thinks it is a great opportunity and he and Superintendent Brockett will get together to plan a more rigorous approach to scheduling meetings.

  The session adjourned at 7:32 p.m.