We’re back with the second episode of the 2024-2025 school year! This time, we’re delving into the important work of the Lake Oswego School Board. Join us as we chat with Board Chair John Wallin and student board representative Drishti Singh for a look at the roles and responsibilities of our board members.
Curious about what motivates someone to serve on the school board? Want to know how decisions that impact our schools are made? We cover it all—from the board’s current priorities to the real-life stories behind the dedication and drive to serve our students and community.
Tune in to stay informed and get engaged with the issues that shape our schools.
Dr. Jennifer Schiele, Superintendent, LOSD
Mary Kay Larson, Executive Director of Communications, LOSD
John Wallin, Chair, Lake Oswego School Board
Drishti Singh, Student Representative, Lake Oswego School Board
MICHELLE ODELL:: [00:00:00] Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego. A podcast providing educational insights for an engaged community. Lake Oswego School District Superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Schiele, will discuss what's important to our learning community. She'll be joined by experts examining various topics, answering important questions, and sharing upcoming events and activities you won't want to miss.
And now, it's your host. Lake Oswego School District Executive Director of Communications, Mary Kay Larson.
MARY KAY LARSON:: Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego. I'm Mary Kay Larson, your host, here with our Superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Schiele. Today we are recording on August 19th in preparation for our new season. This episode will publish as our second show of the 24 25 school year.
Today we're delving into the work of our Lake Oswego School Board, here with Board Chair John Wallen and Student Board Rep Drishti [00:01:00] Singh. Director Wallen has served on our school board for 10 years. When he's not volunteering countless hours to our learning community, John works in managing technical writing team.
He cherishes time with his children, all who graduated from Lake Oswego High School, and his wife, a teacher in a neighboring school district. Student board rep Drishti Singh is a junior at Lake Ridge High School. dedicated to academics and extracurriculars. She's also her own podcast host for the show.
Let's go LO and serves on the city's youth leadership council. Serving on our school board is essential for elevating student voices in our learning community. Jen,
DR JENNIFER SCHIELE:: let's take it away. Welcome, Director Wallin and Representative Singh. You are champions for our students and perfect reps to be here today on our podcast.
John, it was your idea for us to start this podcast, so it's exciting to have you experience it firsthand. And Drishti, she hosts her own podcast, as Mary Kay said, so she may be doing a [00:02:00] little critiquing of my work today, so I'm going to try to do really, really well. So welcome again, and we're going to start with Director Wallin.
John, can you describe the role and responsibilities of the Lake Oswego School Board?
JOHN WALLIN:: It's so great to be here, you know, I, you know, I did hear about this, the idea of doing a school district podcast at a national school board conference, I brought it back to you. And of course, the original idea was that I was going to host it.
So, you know, but I think you've actually done a lot better than I would have. So this is great. But the real role and responsibilities of the Lake Oswego School Board. We kind of have three things, setting policies for the district, managing the budget and hiring and evaluating a superintendent. You're our only employee and you're sort of the rare employee that has five different bosses, which, which is I'm sure challenging at times, but you know, if you think about a school board is, is is basically a board of directors as you might have for a public corporation and people can [00:03:00] sort of visualize that.
Our job is we hire the best CEO who's going to manage the district for us manage our job and that you, you handle and you do a great job handling the day to day activities of the district. And we're responsible to our shareholders, we're the voters and the parents and students of our school district.
And that's who we report to. We've entrusted the district to you and we've been very pleased.
Speaker 3: Thank you. So when looking back and when you first ran for school board, what inspired you to want to be on the school board? A lot of people would question that, like, you know, why would someone want to be on the school board?
And then like, what do you find the most rewarding about this job?
Speaker 4: There were a few other sitting school board members who approached me. I served on the school's foundation board. So I was very involved in that aspect of raising money. Talking to other parents about the district and what was going on there.
We had just hired a new superintendent, not you, before you, a couple of superintendents before you. And she was coming from out of the district. And I, as Mary Kay mentioned at [00:04:00] the top, have three kids in the district that all started in kindergarten. So I was pretty familiar with the district and kind of the.
I guess the ethos of Lake Oswego and the value of education and the importance of it, I thought I could bring something of that to the superintendent and just set the table for her and what the district wanted. But it is, I think it's been very rewarding just seeing how things have changed in the district for the better.
Seeing how we've been able to reach out, I think, to more students, more parents. The district has changed and grown. It's gotten more diverse. I think that's been something that's been just a major change since I've been here for, you know, 20 plus years, just the evolution technologically as well. You know, I can remember my kindergartner back in 2001, you know.
Not to age myself too much, but would come home with this this Friday folder with multicolored packets of you know, information, you know, when you spend your Friday afternoon sorting them and recycling and now everything is a lot more technology, a lot more going on which is, is everything's [00:05:00] changing a lot.
And we've just been able to stay on top of it and I've been really happy to be a part of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're happy that you're here, John. So the board makes a ton of decisions, usually critical decisions that affect our district's policies. Can you talk us a little bit through that, how that works?
Speaker 4: I'd say the major thing that I think about for that is It, the process is sometimes really slow.
I think when people looking from the outside, they want to see something go through right away. They want it to happen, but we need to spend time on it. I mean we need to deliberate as a board and an important note for a school board is a public body. Everything we do, everything we do is deliberating in public.
So we're never like behind closed doors talking about, well, let's do this and let's change it. What if we did? It's all in public and it's also involves, you know, as I mentioned, our stakeholders, our parents. Our students, we need to hear from them and what do they want? And so we need to present our present, the ideas, present the changes, talk about them in public, invite people to come in, give testimony and just go out and informally going out for [00:06:00] coffee, going to schools, going to open houses, this hearing, what people have to say and what they think about things.
So with a lot of input, a lot of slow progress, but you know, things, You know, as I mentioned, so much has changed when I, if I look back, if I could just look back again, you know, and not change just for change's sake, but changes for improvement and I would say slow and careful and very thoughtful.
Speaker 3: That's good.
I think being thoughtful about decision making is key. Can you share an example of a recent policy decision that significantly impacted our district?
Speaker 4: The one that comes to mind is when we're talking about, you know, I know we're, we're a few weeks behind, people are hearing this, but we're recently making a change to our cell phone policy for students in schools, talking a lot about technology here, but cell phones in schools have become just ubiquitous really.
Kids bring them all the time. Parents, teachers, everyone has this element. It's an important, it's a huge critical communication tool, but it's also, there's some [00:07:00] negative aspects of it that I think everyone's, everyone's aware of. Just the Health consequences, mental health consequences of social media being present all the time on not just students, but everyone, again, it's, that's a benefit, but there's just so much that makes it difficult.
And it's very distracting for the learning environment. So we've tried a lot of things over the years of you can't use them during class. You have to put them away. But what we're debating now and the policy that we're going to come forward with, we're sort of at this point. We're refining kind of the final details, but we're going to say, turn it off at the beginning of the day, turn it on when you're done with school.
That's going to, that's going to change that we're going to have to manage. And we know that we're going to learn a little bit as we roll this out over the next few months, we're going to tweak it and make it work for everyone. But I think everyone's going to ultimately agree. This is something that improves the learning environment, makes students be able to focus on education as well as.
Keep, keep their mental health at the forefront so that they are, they're not distracted by these things and they're not, [00:08:00] and they're talking to each other. I mean, there's a lot of school districts that have tried this and the big change that you see is you in a cell phone school, you got kids, it's quiet at lunch.
They're all, kids are all looking at their phones. When you take them out, kids are talking to each other again. They're having personal interactions and we, that's where we want to get back to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's, that's exactly what we want to get back to. And when you talk about everyone would agree, I, I always, that always worries me.
It's never all everyone. But how does the board engage with the community to gather input and feedback for, for this particular policy, but any of our policies?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right. Not everyone will agree. There's always, I think that's one of the major things I've learned. Not everyone agrees. But you're right.
But but yes how do we ensure, again, it's this whole process, this transparent process, doing things in public, talking about it publicly, seeking input, finding new ways to get input from people and listening. I mean, that's just such a huge part of it. A lot of times what I've noticed in my time is we'll start talking [00:09:00] about something and someone will get upset because maybe they don't agree or there's something they think we haven't thought of and they will point it out to us or they'll be worried that we've already gone all the way down the the road with that a decision.
And As I said before, it's a slow process. It's very deliberative. We want to make sure we get everyone's input.
Speaker 3: One example of that recently is, I know that as a board you, you get to listen a lot. People are always giving your testimony. But we did have a kind of an open forum house where board members could dialogue back and forth with some members.
And I think that's, that's really shows our school boards, not only ability, but Their interest in making sure that they're talking with the public. So I think that's fantastic. Not all school boards do that I think that's something that we should really applaud our school board for Switching a little bit to budget now because you had mentioned that being one of the other things that school board does What are the primary considerations when establishing and overseeing the district budget?
Speaker 4: Again, this is the case where we have entrusted you to, to hire a great staff, maintain a [00:10:00] great staff. The Stuart Kessler, our assistant superintendent of business services is essentially our CFO. If we think about the business model that I was alluding to earlier, and we receive our money from the state on a two year budget cycle, that's where the vast majority of our, well, practically all of our money comes from is from the state and from the property tax revenue.
We have to balance our budget and we have to make sure that we're focusing on Student achievement, student health, student safety. These are all our primary considerations, and there's so many parts of that. As I mentioned, mental health student nutrition, all these things that are a key part of that.
Curriculum. Purchasing curriculum and finding ways that teachers are able to differentiate this the curriculum for, for all the students to reach everyone and, you know, again, our goal is to have every student achieve, reach their maximum potential. So that's really the focus of our budget more than anything else.
Speaker 3: And in not only in our budget. One of the guiding principles that we have as a school district is our strategic plan. Can you discuss the [00:11:00] priorities in that strategic plan and how the board monitors progress towards those goals?
Speaker 4: We have four currently in our current strategic plan, there's four pillars of it.
Achieve equitable academic outcomes, teaching practice sustainability, promote health and resiliency, and creating a culture of belonging. And these are all things that we Everything that I think I've talked about so far has been focused around those pillars and we talk about them pretty much at all our meetings.
Everything that we do goes through that, through that framework. Again, equitable academic outcomes. We want to make sure every student gets what they need to be their best. Health and resiliency, I've talked a lot about that. I think that's always been, I think for a long time that was not something that you focused on.
And I'm really glad that, that we are. And again, mental health, physical health, nutrition, all these things are such a key part of making sure that students are ready to learn and able to learn. Sustainability, that's just a key part of the world we live in currently. That goes from every aspect of our, of our curriculum.
And we're thinking about that all the time. How do we build sustainably? How do we [00:12:00] manage our resources carefully? Our bond program is going on. We're putting in a lot of new buildings, making sure that we're using Energy to keep our students healthy and safe, but also, you know, keeping our, our planet safe and healthy and culture of belonging.
I think that's just another key one. We want every student to come to school, ready to learn, happy to learn, glad to be there. Students come from so many different backgrounds and so many different family situations, and we want to be the welcoming place for them, for them to learn.
Speaker 3: That's a great transition to the next question I have for you, which is how does the school board advocate for our students with the legislature?
Speaker 4: For one thing, I think we've been fortunate over the years that many of our parents have actually been. In the legislature, we've had state representatives state senators who are not only parents in our districts, but also have school board experience. Current Senate president Rob Wagner was on the school board.
I tell him all the time that, you know, I swore him in for his first role. So, you know, he owes a lot to me and he owes them Lake Oswego school district, of course, [00:13:00] but, you know, so we're able to talk to them directly and he has come to our meeting and talked about his legislative priorities. So that part of it is.
And, but also I would also say that our, our school board members themselves have been really involved with the legislature and also with other school boards as a single school board. You know, we have, you know, 7, 000 students or so. We're not the biggest fish, but you know, we want to, we want to be involved.
So we have to work together with other school boards. Liz Hartman on our school board. She's our longest tenured school board member. She was on the Oregon school boards association legislative committee for many years, a lot of work lobbying the legislature to improve state funding. Kirsten aired on our school board.
She's now she has, she's taken up that mantle and, and she has also been working closely with the OSBA Oregon school board legislative committee, Neelam Gupta. She's also on our school board is she's the chair of the OSBA color caucus. She meets again with board members across the state [00:14:00] to advocate and come up with the, the common needs of school boards and and Brian Bills as well.
He's been working with other districts on technology issues. Artificial intelligence. He had a great, had a presentation over the summer board conference just to talk to other school districts about artificial intelligence is here. How does that affect our teachers? How does that affect our students? How do we live with it?
We can't ignore it. We need to figure out how it's it. It can work so well for so many, for so many students and help them and help teachers create differentiated learning opportunities. He's been involved in that. So yeah, our, our school and we, our school board, all our school board members have attended national school board conferences, again, advocating across not only the state, but across the nation.
So we're pretty involved. We're very lucky. We have really engaged. Parents engage school board members and we're out there.
Speaker 3: I agree. Very active school board members. And that's great because it only benefits our students. So thank you to all of our school board members. Now John, when you're thinking about the future, like [00:15:00] what makes a good school board member and then what advice would you have if someone is sitting there listening right now and saying, you know what, I think I'd like to be a school board member.
What advice would you give them? I
Speaker 4: hope that people are considering it. But we we do have a school board election will be coming up in May of 2025. So if it's something that you're interested in, I would definitely say, you know, talk to you, talk to our superintendent, talk to administrators, talk to board members.
What is the job like? It is a very rewarding. It's a challenging job. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of reading, there's a lot of research, there's a lot of listening. Listening is kind of the key. I would say that's the key quality you need to have. You need to listen. Yeah. I mentioned things take a while.
Be patient. You have to have tough skin because you do get some, you know, you can get some kind of rude emails sometimes. It's challenging. You have to be willing to be wrong, I would say. You have to be willing to change your mind and listen to what other people are saying. And maybe most important of all is, you know, don't have an agenda, you know, don't be, don't be someone that thinks I'm going to change everything.
I'm [00:16:00] going to get on the school board and change everything. I didn't have an agenda when I came on, but I, you know, there was something, I, I, one thing I felt passionately about, which was, again, we talked, we talked a lot about technology. I thought technology, we need to do more with technology. We need to get more involved in that.
And then. But as you go in and you listen and you, you hear what, what people are saying and, and what are, what are the challenges, what are the opportunities? I changed my mind a lot on a lot of things. So I think it's just really important to be thoughtful. Most important. I think if you want to, if you want to do it, talk to other board members and find out what it's like.
And again, especially talk to our superintendent.
Speaker 3: I love that. Come talk to me if you're interested. So, in closing, how can the community stay informed on the work that the board is currently doing? What advice do you tell people if they want to know what's going on in the school board?
Speaker 4: There's this amazing podcast I've heard about that they should listen to.
I, I, you know, it's come to our meetings, talk to school board members, find ways to get information. There's, there's so many ways people get information these days. Find out what works for you. Read [00:17:00] all of Mary Kay's emails.
Speaker 3: We think everyone should read all those newsletters and all those emails. Cause we spend a lot of time putting them together.
Speaker 4: You know, and there's, they're really good. I read them every week as Mary Kay mentioned at the top, but my kids were all graduated, but I learned so much just reading them. And there's a lot of great information in there. Come to things, come to events, come to the high school musicals. I mean, if you, even if you just have a kindergartner, come and see what your kid is going to be like, what your kid is going to grow into, you know If you are a new parent, it's hard to picture it.
I can remember, you know, as a new kindergarten parent, it's just really hard to imagine that your child will someday be walking across the stage of graduation. And I, I'd say get involved and at all levels early on.
Speaker 3: Great advice. And it does happen very fast. Kids grow up very, very quickly. So thanks so much for being here today, John.
I just love talking to you and I'm so glad you got to be on the podcast after a full year of watching it happen. And again, thank you for the great idea of starting it.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Jen.
Speaker 3: All [00:18:00] right, now let's hear from Drishti. Thanks again for being here. I'm so excited. I, I met you a few years ago when you were on my superintendent council and I think that you're a perfect person for a student rep.
Can you tell our listeners what are the roles and responsibilities of a student rep on the school board?
DRISHTI SINGH:: The role of the school board itself is to help the students get the best education they can. And as a student representative, I'm kind of able to bridge the gap between the adults on the board and all the students in our district.
So, I'm able to bring a younger perspective into some of the discussions and It's just important for us as student representatives to keep up with what's happening, what the board is discussing, and like what's going on in our schools so that we're able to best represent all the student voices, and we provide the student voice that isn't, isn't heard.
on the board without us. And I think it's easier for the board to make decisions when we're there. Absolutely. It's
Speaker 3: great to have everything we do centered [00:19:00] around students. So when you're sitting right there, it's easier for us to remember that. So what inspired you to become a student rep? Like what was like, okay, I
Speaker 5: want to apply for this job.
I've been a part of the district for a very long time. I've been here since kindergarten and I've been able to grow up in the district. I've been able to, you know, experience everything here. I'm very fortunate to have been able to do that. I really love it here. I love all the events that we do. I love the sporting events.
I love going to musicals, plays, everything like that. And really being on the board for me was like, I want everyone to be able to experience something like that. You know, my younger sister, I want her to be able to have a great experience in this district. And I want everyone who comes after her to have a great experience.
So being on the board was definitely a way for me to do that. Also, a couple years ago, I was able to see part of a board meeting that was actually held in my old elementary school. And I was able to see the younger students interacting with the board members and also interacting with the student [00:20:00] representatives that year.
And I was like, I want to do this. This is something that I want to be able to do, like interact with past parts of the district for me that I'm not as close with anymore. and just like give back to that community because I think it would just be really fun.
Speaker 3: That's great. Sounds like you're in it for the right reasons, which I love.
So your term just began, but you've observed several meetings so far. So what are you most looking forward to in this role?
Speaker 5: Honestly, I'm really looking forward to being able to hear things first. Being on the board, I get the, like, direct first perspective. I hear, like, fresh information, and it hasn't gone through anyone else yet.
And so, with that, I'm able to come up with my own opinions, and then I'm best able to talk to other students, because if I hear the information from someone else, sometimes it's a little confused. I like being able to hear stuff from the board and whoever presents to the board. And then being able to communicate that with my peers.
So that they can provide feedback to me and then I'm able to share [00:21:00] that in conversation.
Speaker 3: That makes good sense, too. So how will you ensure that student perspective is considered in all of our decisions?
Speaker 5: I do make sure to speak up when I can during discussion. I also, the school year hasn't started yet, so I haven't been able to directly hear from a lot of students.
But I'm doing what I can, especially with the new cell phone policy. There's been a lot of people coming to me, texting me, just like, if I run into someone, they bring it up in conversation. And I'm making sure to, like, take note of what they're saying, what students are saying so far. And I'm sure there's gonna be a lot more when school starts, but whatever I can hear, I'm making sure to take note of it so that I can bring it up to the board in future discussions.
Because I want to make sure that it's heard. You know, use my role the way it should. So I want to be able to speak up when I can. Yeah. What have you been hearing about cell phones? Well, there's a lot of mixed feelings about this new policy. I know it's not exactly out yet, but it just, the communication has been sent out and I [00:22:00] know a lot of people are feeling.
You know, some people are a little stressed, some people, you know, weren't expecting it at all for the beginning of the school year. So it was shocking. I've just been getting lots of texts, and my, like, my friends are talking to their parents too, and everyone has different feelings about it, but I think it is overall a positive policy.
Speaker 3: It is, it is a hard one, because we all use it so much. So as Joan said, it's a great tool, but when it's distracting you from school work, that's, that could be hard. So you're familiar with the Lake Oswego strategic plan and with the four pillars that Director Whelan talked about. Is there a priority or which one for you is the most meaningful?
Speaker 5: The most meaningful is definitely achieving equitable outcomes. I have always cared a lot about equity. It's been a thing for me all throughout middle school and high school so far. I really think that everyone deserves the best they can so that they can succeed, you know? And I think being close with people who have learning disabilities, that everyone deserves The right [00:23:00] opportunities and the right resources so that they can succeed because that's what school is for is not only just like a basic education, but like becoming more confident in yourself, learning to grow and learning how you do things best by providing that opportunity for every student in our district.
I think that's like the most important thing.
Speaker 3: That is a great answer. Thank you so much for being here on the show today. I really cannot wait to keep working with you this year and I do admire you and so I think your voice is going to be very strong on our school board and I'm excited to hear all the things that you have to
Speaker 2: say.
Thank you both. We covered a wide range of topics about what it means to serve on school board, which is very complex and also so valuable to our learning community. We're really grateful and lucky to have you. Jen, let's switch gears to Where's Jen? For the last two weeks in September, please tell us where you're going to be.
Thanks
Speaker 3: Mary Kay. LOSD, along with the help of Alastair Furman, has invited the FBI to host [00:24:00] two presentations on critical safety issues for students, sextortion. The FBI aims to help our community understand the dangers of financially motivated sextortion in the workplace. And no, there are options for those who need help.
The FBI has seen a 20 percent increase in reports of financial motivated sextortion incidents targeting minors. This scam involves offenders deceiving and manipulating victims into creating sexually explicit materials for extortion purposes. Minors and young adults caught in this trap often feel isolated, embarrassed, and cornered with seemingly no way out.
In some cases, victims have even turned to self harm and suicide. I encourage our educators, parents, caregivers, teens, and young adults to attend one of the presentations being held in our schools.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jen, for raising awareness on such a serious concern. To continue our discussion about safety, please tune in to our next episode of Learning in Lake Oswego when we talk with our Lake Oswego [00:25:00] police chief and our two school resource officers.
Keep listening, following, and liking our podcast as we bark on another season of Learning in Lake Oswego. Until then, keep exploring
Speaker 3: and stay engaged. Class dismissed.
Speaker: We hope you found this episode informative and helpful. While our discussions are general, we understand each family's experience is unique.
If you have specific questions about your child, please contact your school principal. To learn more about the topics we discussed, visit oswego. ca. Ask a question or share ideas for future episodes, please visit LOSDSchools. org. And remember to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for engaging with Learning in Lake Oswego.
We appreciate your support and look forward to having you with us for our next episode.