The Bend-La Pine School Board elected its leadership and spent six hours Monday discussing goals for the next two years. The topics included advocating more effectively to the state Legislature regarding state testing and receiving more representative input from the Bend and La Pine communities.

The casual meeting, which took place at a housing development’s clubhouse in southeast Bend, began with the unanimous re-election of Andy High as chairman, his second year at the position. The board then unanimously selected Carrie Douglass as vice chairwoman. Douglass joined the board in February 2017 following Nori Juba’s resignation.

The board then brainstormed ideas for a draft for its work plan, which is a two-year list of goals and guidelines. The previous work plan was approved in December 2016.

One main goal was advocating to the state Legislature more effectively, particularly to use ACT test scores to measure student achievement rather than the scores from the Smarter Balanced state tests, of which many of the district’s high school students opt out.

Other goals included promoting student achievement, reaffirming the board’s governance model and receiving more input from parents, students and staff regarding district decisions.

Many board members stated that they worried the only voices in the community that they heard were those who complain at board meetings or through email, which they said wasn’t a representative voice. Board member Cheri Helt pointed out that “the people we want to engage most are the busiest people.” Some potential solutions included focus groups, online surveys, public coffee shop meetings and having a student voice regularly report to the school board.

In regard to promoting student achievement, the board members couldn’t come to a consensus, but there were desires to hear more success stories and give schools the autonomy to try programs that work for their specific demographics.

The board agreed that the primary goal in lobbying the Legislature was having the Legislature accept its ACT testing data, which the district has paid for every student to take for the past 10 years, according to Helt. The board also discussed bringing in experts to help make communication with Salem lawmakers more effective. Superintendent Shay Mikalson also reminded the board that the joint interim committee on student success — a group of state legislators focused on improving education throughout Oregon — was visiting Redmond on Sept. 13.

A concrete work plan, created using ideas from Monday’s retreat, will likely be presented to the board at the Aug. 14 board meeting, Mikalson said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7854;

jhogan@bendbulletin.com