March 31, 2025 Joint Work Session Meeting Minutes

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

The Joint Work Session was held March 31, 2025, both in person and via Zoom at the
McMinnville School District Office, 800 NE Lafayette Ave., McMinnville, OR 97128 

The link was https://msd40.zoom.us/j/97721628814

Provisional Minutes-Not Board Approved

At 6:00 p.m. the Board of Directors of McMinnville School District and City Council opened the joint work session meeting. The meeting was called to order by Chair Jason Bizon at 6:00 p.m.    Mayor Kim Morris noted for the record that although a City Council quorum is not present this evening, this Work Session is an information sharing opportunity and no actions or recommendation will be taken; nor do we plan on having these items come before the Council for future consideration or action.  At 6:31 p.m. the meeting was called to order by Mayor Kim Morris.

Roll call indicated the following:

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:
None

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:
Council President Sal Peralta
Councilor Jessica Payne
Councilor Scott Cunningham

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

AUDIENCE:
Steffanie Frost, Kourtney Ferrua, Hiran Amarasinghe, Brian Crain and Martha Biggs.  See attached.

• Chair Jason Bizon asked everyone to introduce themselves – state how long they have been on the board and anything else that they would like to share. 

  Director Christine Bader said, “ I was appointed on September 9th, which was my twins’ 12th birthday. They are in 7th grade at Duniway and I also, in my spare time, coach the high school girls Rugby Club”. 

  Director Doris Towery said, “Thank you all for being here. I have been on the school board, I am in my second year. We have 2 kids that are Mac High grads. They did middle school, one middle school and the other high school here.  We had the great pleasure of being involved with the track team as well as speech and debate and the theater club”. 

  Councilor Zack Geary said, ”I have been on council for 6 years now and I am a Bulldog, Dragon, Grizzly, and I like it. My son Hiram is currently a Bulldog. I think he’ll graduate”. 

  Vice-Chair Abbie Warmbier said, “I have lived in McMinnville about 11 years. I have been on the board for 4, I have 2 kids that are Ravens, if you can figure out what that is”. 

  Mayor Kim Morris said, “I’ve been the Mayor for about two and a half months, and I grew up in McMinnville, graduated from McMinnville High School. I’m an interior designer, and I am looking forward to my first joint meeting with the School District”. 

  Chair Jason Bizon said, “My wife and I are both Mac High class of 1994.  We just graduated a senior last year and currently have a junior. I run a large wholesale nursery operation around Yamhill County and beyond”. 

  Director Lu Ann Anderson said, “Hello, everybody! This is my second year being on the McMinnville School District Board. I have served previously on the Yamhill Carlton School District Board for 8 years before we moved to McMinnville in 2002. I also was a former employee for the district, so I have a lot of passion and joy being able to serve in this capacity. Welcome to everybody”. 

  Councilor Dan Tucholsky said, “I was on the planning commission for the City of McMinnville for 4 years. This is the first term for the City Council, which began in January.  I’ve been a reserve police officer for the City of McMinnville now for 8 years as well and I work in the engineering dental equipment in Newberg. I worked there for almost 20 years. I have two Bulldogs, Dragons, Grizzlies and they’re both freshmen and juniors now. I love the school district. I think people are doing a great job, so thank you”. 

  Director Larry Vollmer said, “I have been on the McMinnville School Board now for 19 years. We have a 22 year old MHS graduate who was K-12 here in the district.  We have lived in Mac since 2005 and in Yamhill County since ‘95. 

  Director Partida said, “I have been on the School Board for around 6 years. I moved to McMinnville in 2005. I don’t know if you guys remember the huge ice storm in 2006, you would think you would go back, when you think about it, I’m still here.  I have three kids, they graduated from the high school; two of them are already on their own, and I have my youngest one who started at OSU last year, so I am almost done”. 

  Councilor Chris Chenoweth said, “I moved to McMinnville in 7th grade, went to what was then the McMinnville Middle School, McMinnville Junior High, and graduated class in ‘88. I’m a City Councilor, been a City Council for 4 years. Just started my second term, and I’m a small business owner here in McMinnville”.

  Emergency Management – Opportunities for Cooperation and Collaboration:
  Director Brian Crain, Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Jacobs and Safety Manager Martha Biggs presented an overview of the Emergency Management Plan.  They shared the purpose, agenda, joint objectives, current projects, Emergency Management Program structure, planning process, some identified threats, timeline and support. 

  Director Brian Crain said, “I want to thank you for this opportunity here tonight to present to you about the way that we’re working together to make sure that the community is safe here in McMinnville. Our purpose today is to discuss the plans, the organizing we’re doing, the progress we’ve made in working together to make sure that all of our students and our community members. Our parents and our staff are safe here in McMinnville.  Two big organizations, and I think there’s a lot of overlap in a lot of ways that you’ll see that we’re collaborating and making sure that we’re going to make sure that we’re all safe in the future.

  Safety Manager Martha Biggs reviewed the objectives.  The first objective is to increase the resiliency and readiness of the City employees as well as the McMinnville School District staff so that we’re able to effectively accomplish emergency responses.  We want to create, test and revise local plans, to activate and mobilize and coordinate with necessary resources to better manage emergency responses. We also are wanting to work with and support our local first and emergency responders as requested. 

  Another objective is to continue to consult and partner and inform the public and other external agencies as appropriate of procedures and plans and training materials, to educate those who may be involved in an affected or affected by an emergency that would happen in our community.  

  Our last objective is to mitigate the effects of any emergencies or disasters, and to identify areas of improvement at all levels of the response and communicate these findings with our partners so that we can make necessary improvements to our responses moving forward.  

  Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Jacobs gave an overview for the Program and identified threats.

  Director Lu Ann Anderson asked, “Is it safe to presume that Mac PD and the Sheriff are also going to be part of these conversations”?  “You are talking about active assailants, terrorism, and those kinds of things.”

  Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Jacobs answered, “yes”.  He explained briefly the emergency management working group.

  Director Lu Ann Anderson said, “I was specifically talking about the City and County Sheriff for involvement.” “So I’m taking it that they will be part of this group”?  Jeff Jacobs answered, “yes”.

  Safety Manager Martha Biggs reviewed the timeline from June 2025 through January 2026.

  Chair Jason Bizon asked, “How is our school resource officer included or involved”?  Director Brian Crain answered. “He will be included in joining us in any place he can with this.”

  Director Brian Crain gave an overview from the presentation on How you can support each other and How you can support.

  Any additional clarifying questions asked by both the School Board and City Council were answered.  See presentation.

  After School Care – Scholarships:
  Superintendent Brockett gave a quick update on the After School Care – Scholarships. She stated that we have worked really hard with the City. Her first meeting she had when she came to McMinnville was to go get the history of KOB from the founder himself to make sure that we understood what KOB was, the purpose behind it and how we have this great joint partnership. When she came in, we were turning over to Campfire. We were in the middle of signing the IGA between the City, Campfire and us to continue to provide the after school funding. We signed that for two years. Last year we asked the City to extend it one more year. We’re trying to figure out the funding for scholarships. The school district funds transportation for students for the after school programming and also provides the facilities for after school programming. It’s always been part of the IGA. What we’ve been unable to do is provide scholarships for students to attend this program.  In January of this year, YMCA took over from Campfire, and they have done an exemplary job at building the program supporting the students, making sure not only do we have good educational opportunities, but a lot of fun play for the students. During the after school programming, we did go down from five schools to three. We bus the students from Willamette over to Buel, and we hold a site there, we bus the students from Grandhaven over to Memorial, we hold a site there and then Newby has their own standalone site. 

  Much of it is dictated by registration. Newby has the highest numbers of registration within and we wanted to make sure we had sites on both sides of the city for the rest of the community. Mayor Morris and she have met and have had conversations about possibilities. Superintendent Brockett said, “What we’re charging for the conversation tonight is, how do we continue this amazing KOB-type vision that was formed so many years ago to provide after school care for our students so that parents could continue to work”?

  Mayor Kim Morris stated, “We met and we talked about ways to fundraise and not us being the fundraiser and not the school district being the fundraiser, but a nonprofit. We need that 3rd party to be part of it, and as a community it would be great for whoever chose to take that on, because you would have families, you would have the school district, and you would have City employees. I know Jeff, all of us that are in leadership have talked about how we would attend a function where the funds would go towards taking care of kids in our community. Number one, I have a passion for kids and kids need to be safe.  We also need to allow our parents to work. It’s hard to pay our taxes, it’s hard to survive on one income. Most families need to work. If they have to come home and take care of their children, then that’s going to reduce the number of families that are working. Our employers in our community also need to be part of this. We’ve already talked with one nonprofit and we have another meeting this week with an additional nonprofit”. 

  Mayor Morris continued, “If there’s anybody out there that is part of a nonprofit that would be willing to be part of this amazing event, they would choose the event and she thinks we could in turn help some with that, but we need that nonprofit to be the vessel that comes through with the funds. You know we have nonprofits that are struggling, they need to have identity, they need an event to get them back on their feet.”  Again, she thinks it’s an opportunity.  She thinks this could be a great solution for them and a good solution for the kids of our community.

  Chair Jason Bizon said, “The YMCA is all over regionally”.  He asked, “Have we talked to them about how other communities do it and if there’s scholarship opportunities”?

  Superintendent Brockett answered, “Yes, it varies through community. YMCA does have some opportunities for fundraising.  They do some of their own fundraising for scholarships and each community varies differently, depending on the area the YMCA is in”.

  The School Board and City Council continued to discuss the After School Care – Scholarship Program and ask clarifying questions.

  Meeting Video

  Chair Jason Bizon adjourned at 8:05 p.m.
  Mayor Kim Morris adjourned at 8:05 p.m.