Gordon Clay
Brookings, Oregon

Governor Kate Brown's office encourages Oregon schools to quote "find out what's0 wrong." unquote The truth can be denied but not avoided. I hope you will take the information I provided last month seriously. Here is an exact transcript of my words to refresh your memory. I've also included a clarity of a the filing of a Bully complaint, uh, for, uh the correct Policy and the use and the total length of time the OAR grants for om policies. Would you please pass this down please. Thank you.

As requested last month, it's well past the time to let the public know where the district and board stands on bullying and especially on the 7 points of conciliation.

It's also time to look at the Healthy Teen data that I presented last month as just possibly telling the truth from the students' perspective, especially with all of the issues I understand from the families I know that are happening.

Two of those families told me that they had told, that they had been told a week or two before the last board meeting that a student had taken a gun on campus. That follows what the Curry County 11th graders said they did last year in the Healthy Teen survey (2% took said they took a gun on school property compared to 1.4% state average and 13% took another weapon on school grounds vs 7.6% state average.) That's our seniors today.

At our schools, uh, Oregon Safe Schools board meeting last night we talked about the direction the state is going in and it isn't good.

So where to start? Start the building, start with the building, district and board goals. (Show) I went through the 14 pages of these goals, and I found some very good ideas there. However, there was not one single mention of providing a safe environment for students. Nor one single word dealing the chronic absenteeism, both major impacts on Brookings' students' ability to learn.

Some ideas from other schools, Oregon schools:

Making bully prevention a top priority in everything they do and have multiple events every month addressing different bully issues.

Providing a lot of information on the district's web sites about bullying, learning the signs and what to do. One of our past Deans of Students transfered to Hillsboro, I believe, and that district has five pages on its web site about bully and all kinds of ideas in Hillsboro.

Run extensive training programs for administrators, teachers, students and parents around bullying, sexual abuse, dangers of sexting, etc. The Brookings Police Department is still willing to provide a workshop on the later.

Provide programs as recommended by ODE to replace ineffective tolerence, zero tolerance and mediation programs.

What you as individual board members can do is:

Be enthusiastic to hear the out.. the community at all times. It will probably take up more time, of your time in the long run if their comments are ignored.

Listen carefully to what citizens have to say and follow board policy to answer questions at the present, at the meeting and if not possible, follow-up to answers uh as soon as possible.

Respond to emails and letters directed to board and district personj...personnel that is, uh, after it's received. If it requests an answer, follow-up as soon as possible.

And the list goes on.

Your job as school board members, as I see it, is to support and empower students to learn and perserve... pursue their interests in a safe environment. They're asking for your help. Doesn't it make sense that you spend money up front to make it so our students feel safer to learn after uh before we lose more students whose families decide to move out of the district or a students who decides they can't take it any more.

The district is about to complete the second year of Bruins Pride. The 6th, 8th and 11th graders just finished filling out the Oregon Student Wellness survey. My hope is that the results of the survey will be made public to parents and the community and that they show significant improvement in our students experience.

Additional suggestions:

Install video surveillance outside the quad in front of the cafeteria where so much bullying goes on.

Cut the consumption of sugar drinks like G2 and Propel by installing water tanks that provide students the ability to fill their own water bottles for free like Gold Beach and Crescent City do.

Go see Michael Moore's latest movie "Where to invade next" (http://bit.ly/1STiDT0)

And check out David Denby's new book "Lit Up." (Show) especially if your teaching English. Thank-you

What the minutes say

Gordon Clay spoke on the policy timeline regarding bullying. Gordon reviewed some of the healthy teen’s survey data. Gordon mentioned that while the district and board goals had some good ideas they did not address a safe environment for students or chronic absenteeism. Gordon Clay gave some ideas that other schools are using.