Parent Community Link (PCL)
Meeting Minutes
October 14, 2015
Platt Global Classroom
Attendees: Mo Copeland, Chris Schuck, Jordan Elliott, Ann Sulzer, David Lowell, Jon von
Behren, Gretchen Reed, Susan Gundle, Liz MacDonell, Marty Jones, Phillip Craig, Courtney
Fitzloff, Alicia Morissette, Kristin Bradley, Sally Waddell, Ruchi Prakash, Soolynn Chang,
Michelle Fitzhenry, Hilary O’Hollaren, Lucy Shanno, Jana Reddoch, Laurie Price,
Margueritte Kim, Rico McIver, Holly Hady, Kay Pinkava, Chris Gong, Clare Rathbone,
Michele Ackerman, Kysa Vassily, Jodi Wilkins, Mari Schwalbach, Michelle Tubbs, Desiree
Bliss, Dawn Swanson, Sandy Patrick, Kristina Davis, Laura Murphy, Rebecca Williams, and
Chris Myers.
Opening Reflection – Rev. Phillip Craig
Phillip said vocation (or life’s purpose) is where your greatest passion meets the world’s
greatest needs. This is what we want and hope for our children. Phillip then lead us in a
moment of silence to reflect upon our shared calling to children as parents, teachers, staff.
Welcome – Courtney Fitzloff – PCL Chair
Courtney welcomed everyone and thanked all who worked on Homecoming, especially
Susan Bankowski, Rebecca Roberts and Soolyn Chang. It was an overwhelming success and
fun evening, even though the games didn’t end in our favor.
Head of School – Mo Copeland
Mo also commended the Homecoming team on a job well done. The soccer games didn’t go
our way that evening, but the following week at Catlin was better. Mo also thanked Jon von
Behren, Director of Facilities and his staff for all the work on the traffic patterns. It’s gone
better than expected and perhaps even better than it’s ever been.
Mo brought up potential issue with Niche.com, which has rated OES #1 private school in
Oregon and #13 nationwide based on their criteria. They have requested that OES
participate by sending information for future ratings. We have made a deliberate decision
NOT to participate—it is not in our mission, NWAIS/NAIS advises its members not to
participate and Catlin Gabel is not participating. Our ranking will possibly fall because of
our non-cooperation and certain people do look at the ranking, including our international
parents. Reed College refuses to participate in college rankings and they have taken a hit.
OES Admissions will take a proactive stance, explaining why we do not participate. It was
suggested to Mo that we look at how Reed responds/explains the situation and that a letter
be sent to all parents so we also know what to expect and how to respond to prospective
families.
“We make this road by walking.” – Miles Horton. Mo recounted highlights of Marty Jones’
journey at OES. His identity work has transformed the school and Mo thanked him for it.
Marty then explained that he will take a 6-month leave of absence to regroup, re-focus on
his family, spend time with his boys, and think about what his next steps will be. We will
still see Marty at OES, participating more in his role as parent.
Associate Head of School – Chris Schuck
Chris outlined OES’s philosophy around faculty growth and development as stemming from
ideas on social intelligence and cultural intelligence like that in Daniel Pink’s books “A
Whole New Mind” and “Drive”. People are motivated by autonomy, mastery and sense of
purpose. We draw sense of purpose from OES’s mission statement and we help faculty
develop autonomy and mastery through our 4 yr growth and development cycle. Year 1 –
Department chair and individual develop road map and framework for a 3yr plan of
development. Years 2 & 3 – Individuals team up with cohorts of 6-10 for collaboration and
support in enacting the plan. Year 4 – Individual reflects on process of growth and
development. At the NWAIS conference OES faculty were in attendance at all stages of the
four year program, from learning and exploring to giving back (reflection) by leading
workshops.
Lower School Head – David Lowell
David pointed out the opportunity that was on hand for faculty to develop professional
expertise (mastery) and to present that mastery (autonomy) at the NWAIS conference.
Forty-eight faculty and staff attended NWAIS and nineteen presented workshops on what
we do well at OES. Other schools from the region want to learn from our faculty. It is so
enriching and such a gift to have the opportunity of going together with colleagues to
conferences, not just as individuals. Our faculty members have been inspired by the works
of:
1. MK Asante (Keynote speaker at NWAIS Conference) – The power of education for
transformation from his personal story of starting out an angry, poor student and
becoming an author, filmmaker, rapper, and professor.
2. Rosetta Lee – Inclusion in the early years of school through fun engaging methods.
Ages 5-10 are the critical time when not only are stereotypes formed, but they are
then internalized. Her message is “Don’t yuck anyone’s yum.” Instead, lean in with
curiosity and engagement.
3. Michael Gurian – The brains of boys and girls and how they are different. Example:
at rest, 35% of a girl’s brain is still fired up. Boys at rest have 10% fired up. What
are the implications of that in how we teach boys and girls?
So much powerful and fascinating research for our educators to learn from and use in their
development.
Upper School Head – Jordan Elliott
Jordan also echoed sentiments for the powerful messages in Daniel Pink’s books—
autonomy, mastery and purpose are what motivate us. Our essential competencies are
grounded in the work of both his books. Our faculty has built on the principles from their
opportunities at conferences to learn and explore the wide sense of what’s going on in
education. We have direct results such as our work in Intercultural Competencies and the
adoption of best practices established in education. Our programs follow directly from our
work with other education leaders:
1. Inclusive Student Government – how we encourage all sorts of students to
participate. (MK Asante)
2. Culture Shock – from Rosetta Lee’s work.
3. Octoberim – helping kids be successful in work of OES mission.
Middle School Head – Ann Sulzer
MK Asante, author of “Buck”, says “if you make an observation, you have an obligation.”
Ann had an aha moment when faced with the work of Michael Gurain on brain work in
children. She related the story of two boys fighting in the hallway, pushing each other. The
teacher brings them in for discipline. Were you hurt? Was he annoying you? Did you want
him to stop? Do you like each other? The answers prove that they are just friends showing
affection in the way that boys do – physically. So Ann has observed something—what is the
obligation? How do we treat these issues? What about gender fluidity? We certainly divide
by “sex” not necessarily gender. What does it all mean for teaching? And then there are
“bridge brains” that don’t fall on one side or the other.
Ann mentioned that Phillip Craig presented on Sacred Spaces—allowing in mindfulness
whether or not within the context of spirituality. Also Cindy McEnroe and Steve Brennan
presented on mindfulness and diversity. Ann thanked the group for these opportunities to
go out and find inspiration and come back with motivation to do the best for our children.
Mo Copeland noted that not only do we “get” in these conferences, we “give” and it’s very
well received when we do. OES is definitely considered a leader in education.
Earthquake Preparedness – Jon von Behren
Jon noted that there’s been a lot of press about the “big one” due to happen in the Pacific
Northwest. OES does have a plan and it is a response plan that has been in place for any
type of major emergency incident. Basically there is one incident command person in
charge and all communications and instruction has to originate from that one person.
Under that person are leaders with areas of authority—they are already designated and
have training. We have supplies and equipment to take care of our community (approx 870
students and 300 adults) for 3 days. Those supplies include: 3,300 gallons of water, 3,000
emergency bars (each is a full day’s nourishment), first aid supplies, search and rescue
equipment, blankets, hats, canopies, sanitation supplies, sleeping pads, etc. These supplies
are checked annually and supplemented/replaced as needed. Communication with parents
will happen through Honeywell Alert system – it’s not just for snow days. You opt in once
and will stay until you opt out. In the event that local-to-local communications are
disrupted or co-opted for emergency responders, we do have an out of state sister-school
with which we can communicate. See page 13 of the OES Directory for more information.
Non-crisis communication is handled via email at the discretion of the Head of School.
Depending on the impact, parents may or may not hear about minor incidents involving a
small segment of the school population. For example, a medical emergency involving
someone taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Question: Is this the same plan for something like the Roseburg/UCC shooting? Yes.
Suggestion: Jon bring this message to parents through PAL meetings or on website.
Director of Advancement – Liz MacDonell
Liz asked Margueritte Kim to provide update on OES Fund. Margueritte informed us that
many have donated already and we are up about $100K ahead of this time last year.
Phone-a-thon is October 27.
Liz told us that most of the Capital Campaign letters have gone out. There are
informational meetings planned for the Capital Campaign and that as PCL members we
should attend so that we can field questions from the broader community.
OES Auction – Michelle Fitzhenry & Hilary O’Hollaren
Michelle introduced herself and her co-chair Hilary. This year’s Auction is “Aardy Goes to
Hollywood” on March 12th at Montgomery Park. Most of the team has returned to work on
the various positions, although we still need people to shadow and learn to take over the
positions for the following year. Courtney added that this is a great opportunity for people
new to the school or anyone who wants to get involved. It’s fun and there are a variety of
ways to help with more or less time commitments. As PCL members we can keep this in
mind to suggest whenever people ask us how they can get more involved.
Book Fair – Jana Reddoch
Jana reported that the book fair is November 12-15 at Annie Bloom’s Books in Multnomah
Village. The LS Wish List is online as well as the librarians’ Hot Picks. The MS will have a
bus to take students to Annie’s. Also ThinkerToys is having 10% off for OES families as an
added incentive to come to Multnomah Village for the book fair.
Hot Picks – Chris Myers
Chris reminded us that we can pre-order any titles we want for the book fair, but the Hot
Picks are conveniently referenced, as well as titles from the counseling office and DCL
picks. Pre-orders are due October 26th. Chris then reviewed some of the Hot Picks. The list
can be found on the OES website: Home—US—Library—Book Fair—Hot Picks.
Courtney reminded us of the next PCL meeting on November 11th and ended the meeting.