March 28, 2022 Work Session Minutes

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

The Board of Directors of the McMinnville School District met in Work Session on March 28,
2022 virtually via zoom and in person. Chairperson Carson Benner called the meeting to
order at 7:30 p.m.

Roll call indicated the following:

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

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

ADMINISTRATION:
Debbie Brockett, Superintendent
Cherice Bowden, Board Secretary

AUDIENCE: Samantha Nelson, Kourtney Ferrua, Steffanie Frost, Brian Crain, Kevin Carroll, Luke
Neff, and Benjamin Maloney.

• Budget Committee Applicant Interview:
  The Board interviewed applicant Mr. Andrew (Andy) Davies for the Budget Committee.  Chair Carson Benner asked Mr. Davies to briefly introduce himself.

  Mr. Davies and his wife have lived in McMinnville for 7 years. They feel really good about McMinnville. He is looking to give
  back to the community. He states that the Budget Committee is something that is within his wheelhouse of skills that he can bring to the table.

  Chair Carson Benner informed Mr. Davies that from here we would confer and then vote to appoint at the next Board Business meeting.

• Flo Analytics Report:
  Mr. Benjamin Maloney presented to the Board information on the student enrollment
  assessment and demographic, land use analysis, and enrollment forecasts.

• Mid-Year School Improvement Progress:
  Kourtney Ferrua presented to the Board the mid-year progress report. iReady math was
  given in the fall and again at the end of January. We added math interventionists; TOSA’s in
  the middle schools and classified staff to work alongside them. Purchased additional
  intervention curriculum, moved to a block schedule. Students grew from fall to winter.

  Dr. Paul Haddeland asked Ms. Ferrua if this was attributed to the block schedule. Ms. Ferrua
  answered, yes, they middle school colleagues feel that the block schedule is a game changer
  in having enough time to not only go over new content, but also identify holes and coach
  students to get them up to speed. They are able to do a lot more differentiation within the
  period.

  Kourtney Ferrua presented to the Board the ELA report. We have reading interventionists and
  classified staff at the elementary, master schedule that allows for 30 minutes of grade level
  acceleration and reading every day. Purchased additional intervention curriculum for the
  middle school. We added an intervention teacher to support the whole system, and
  purchased additional curriculum that will help with differentiation. Students showed growth in
  middle school; in elementary we have a strong growth in tier I and tier III.

  Gerardo Partida asked how many new teachers do we have. We have 70 new teachers, and
  10 TOSAs to support the new teachers.

• Dual Language Program:
  The program was supposed to work where 50% of the time students would learn English and
  50% of the time, they would be learning Spanish. In 2012, the District had some concerns.
  One of the things that was noticed is the program was popular with affluent white
  populations. Those students were being served by the program; our Spanish-speaking
  students were not having the same results.

  Abbie Warmbier asked for clarification on what transitional model means in 2013. Ms. Ferrua
  explained it was an alignment of both programs to do the same model, and the transitional
  model meant that students would learn to read in their native language.

  During Covid in 2020-2021, the impacts on the bilingual classrooms were pretty harsh. Trying
  to get curriculum and things that were ready to be used online for comprehensive distance
  learning and finding those materials in high quality bilingual formats was challenging. Staffing
  was an issue; we had a couple of positions during that time and were not able to fill them.

  Janis Braich asked if they are doing a transitional model and there are two classrooms total.
  Ms. Ferrua answered that Columbus does not have first grade dual language, right now,
  because they could not find a teacher. What we are seeing there are really talented bilingual
  teachers that are trying to make it work.

  The plan is to discontinue the current model of dual language at Newby ES and Columbus ES.
  We want to renew our commitment to strong instructional practices and inclusion and
  differentiated classrooms district wide. We are going to continue to recruit and hire bilingual
  staff. We are going to focus on professional development, focused on EL learners for all staff;
  we want to create that inclusive school community that values multilingualism at all of our
  buildings, and we’re continuing our equity work we’re providing.

• Subcommittee Reports:
  Subcommittee reports were given by the board:

  ● Fiscal Subcommittee: Discussed the RFP we received for a new audit, and enrollment.
  ● Instructional Improvement Subcommittee: Kourtney Ferrua presented the meeting
  details with a slide presentation.
  ● Policy Subcommittee: Discussed 2nd and 1st readings.
  ● Long Range Planning Subcommittee: No meeting was held due to spring break.
  The next meeting will be this Thursday, March 31, 2022.

• Directors Comments:
  Jason Bizon did not have a comment.

  Gerardo Partida stated great work Kourtney, and his dream is to not see any red.

  Larry Vollmer stated that he is excited about the Budget Committee applicant. He thinks he
  will be a great member.

  Janis Braich stated that she likes Benjamin’s optimism with our numbers in the future, but she
  feels a little pessimistic about student growth. It is not good news for the budget. We have to
  learn to do more with less.

  Abbie Warmbier stated it is great news to see the growth out of the red and into the green.
  She hopes we can continue to do those same interventions for years to come.

  Dr. Paul Haddeland stated he thinks structural changes to grow kids, like the ESSER funds that we
  are putting to good use; we need to figure out a way to keep that going when we do not have
  it. He congratulated the educators, he was very pleased.

  Chair Carson Benner stated that four months ago if you had said we could do this, we would
  have rolled our eyes. He wants to make sure the teachers are hearing how impressed they
  are.

• Upcoming meeting dates:
  ● Board Business meeting – April 11, 2022 and May 9, 2022
  ● Work Session meeting – April 25, 2022 and May 23, 2022

  The Session adjourned at 9:12 p.m.