Why I'm a Candidate
To serve our community in the oversight of the Vancouver Public Schools (VPS) District Administration in their goal-setting, management and spending.
To serve parents by being available to learn their hopes, plans, and concerns and integrate them into VPS Board actions.
To serve our students in their goals to develop competence, responsibility and compassion to become better members of our community.
To serve the VPS teachers and staff in their goals to develop skills and knowledge in our students.
To serve the VPS Board of Directors in considering pertinent questions about measurable goals that help us achieve our potential.
Strengths of the Current Board
The Board meetings provide a forum to showcase the significant accomplishments of School District students and employees. Sincere and timely recognition is a good start for each meeting.
Preparation for Board meetings is done well with detailed presentations from the District Leadership Team at “committee of the whole” meetings. All Board members have shown engagement and dedication to this process.
The Board reviews and approves the contracts and expenditures of the District in a timely manner.
Questions for the Board
During my past employment, one of my co-workers explained that he wanted me on his staff because I asked good questions. This is a skill that I offer to our Board and our voters. When you consider these questions, please keep our VPS Mission in mind; they are meant to probe how well we are performing our Mission.
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How can we support students and teachers to increase the percentage of students who meet grade level standards as they advance through the K-12 grades? More context
The Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's 2021-2022 Report Card shows steady student achievement towards grade level standards for English and language arts for students in Vancouver Public Schools. We appear to match the State average in this measurement, even though we start with a lower percentage of students meeting the goals when they begin instruction at VPS. The report card for the Olympia School District implies that we can do better. The following table shows the percentage of students meeting SBA and WCAS grade level standards for English and language arts.
| Grade Level | VPS | WA State | Olympia SD |
| 3rd | 41% | 47% | 47% |
| 4th | 43% | 49% | 54% |
| 5th | 42% | 52% | 55% |
| 6th | 35% | 44% | 55% |
| 7th | 43% | 51% | 61% |
| 8th | 40% | 49% | 63% |
| 10th | 53% | 62% | 75% |
The assessment of our students achievement of grade level standards for science shows a similar trend: 5th grade: 44% (WA - 50%), 8th grade: 35% (WA - 40%), 11th grade 40% (WA - 39%). However, the assessment of the percentage of students achieving grade level standards in math shows a clear opportunity for improvement. The report card data for the State shows that our performance is typical; we start with fewer students meeting the grade level goals, our students do not fall further behind the State average during their K-12 education. However, we lose most of our performance against the standard during elementary school and we have a low skill level. The Olympia School District is a clear outlier in the grade level achievement for students in Washington. The following table shows percentage of students meeting SBA and WCAS grade level standards for math.
| Grade Level | VPS | WA State | Olympia SD |
| 3rd | 42% | 49% | 51% |
| 4th | 38% | 46% | 50% |
| 5th | 29% | 38% | 40% |
| 6th | 22% | 34% | 45% |
| 7th | 27% | 35% | 51% |
| 8th | 24% | 32% | 46% |
| 10th | 26% | 31% | 47% |
We have an opportunity to learn.
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What short-term programs would enable us help our students return to their pre-pandemic performance relative to grade level standards? More context
There have been reports from many states that student performance relative to grade level standards for English and language arts, math, and science have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. It appears that all of our efforts at VPS have been focussed on re-opening and returning to normal teaching practices. Have we supported any home based curriculum additions or tutoring programs to close any or all of these assessment gaps?
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How do we measure our students progress towards being responsible citizens? What should our goals be for this metric? More context
Our VPS mission statement guides us to “engage and empower each student to develop the knowledge and essential skills to become a competent, responsible and compassionate citizen.” The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Report Card gives us several measures for academic competence. The surveys associated with tracking our implementation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy give us metrics to infer compassion. What measures should we use for the third characteristic that we want our students to develop: responsibility?
We could use the OSPI Report Card Student Discipline Rate as a metric to assess responsibility. However, discipline rate is problematic because many believe that it has biases in measurement and it may be hard to inspire people to avoid irresponsibility. If we are going to choose a set of ethics to measure how responsible our students are becoming, it will need to be chosen in light of the different cultures represented by our students and their families.
I believe that community input may be our best path forward.
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Our State Report Card appears to assess student competence in great detail with a significant percentage of our annual instructional time. Is this the best method to develop student skills? More context
It would be great if the State mandated academic assessments that included all of the knowledge and demonstrated all of the essential skills that each student should acquire. If this were true, our teachers could align the curriculum to the test and the test itself would reinforce student learning. Any additional “teaching to the test” would benefit the students and enhance all of our schools reputations. Sadly, I have never met a professional teacher who believes the State assessments come close to this ideal.
Should we define a limited time spent on preparing for testing for the district and focus on other forms of instruction?
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Assuming that resiliency is a skill, how do we measure and improve our students acquisition of it? More context
Our enrollment decreased by 1500 students as a result of the pandemic and a drop in the number of students in elementary classes relative to graduating classes. This 5% drop in the number of students will result in a significant drop in State funding for our district (this is the main source of VPS funding). Several of our neighboring districts have chosen to reduce funding for athletics in order to meet the decreasing budget.
Athletic programs strive to instill resilience in their participants through their focus on development of teamwork skills. Academic programs seem less structured to develop resilience; the teamwork mechanism to support individuals in their encounters with change and obstacles is not as obvious in a classroom.
Can we do more to develop resilience in those who have not yet developed the knowledge and skills that their classmates currently have?
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How do we enable each student to achieve their potential as rapidly as possible?
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Do we prioritize students achieving excellent skills in addition to the basic education that the State supports?
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How frequently should the Board review policies?
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Given that the public comments at Board meetings are often petitions for actions that are not on our standard agenda how should elected School Board Directors respond to citizen concerns? More context
State law requires Board meetings to include public comment in order to facilitate communication between Board members and their constituents. The Board is at liberty to choose when to take comments in order to conduct efficient meetings. The Board has taken action regarding some comments on items that are not on the meeting agenda (a citizen comment regarding the Pledge of Allegiance in the January Board Meeting was resolved outside of the meeting).
The Board meetings normal cadence is: Opening, Superintendent’s report, public comments, approval of minutes, action items (votes on the consent agenda, specific agenda items, policies, etc.), director’s reports, and finally adjournment. It is rare for comments to address any of the issues on the agenda of the meeting in which they are presented. We could prioritize any comments relating to the agenda items.
I believe that Board members should be accessible and responsive to the voters. If this can occur in the efficient public meetings, I think that would be a good return to form for our governance. There should be avenues to achieve this through our meeting process.
Larry Roe for Vancouver Public Schools
