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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
As autumn comes to a close and winter festivities get underway, I want to reach out with updates on the work I have been doing during the Interim in preparation for the 2024 session, as well as wish you all the warmth, joy, light, and comforts of the season. I hope you had restorative time with loved ones for Thanksgiving and are looking forward to some special events this month. Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!
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First and foremost, I want to address the local and world events that have left our neighbors and community members shaken, innocent people traumatized, and our sense of safety rocked. Thank you to all who are working for a more peaceful world. I stand in solidarity against terrorism, hatred, and violence, whether the scale of the event is a middle school hallway or a devastating war. I am committed to building communities in which humanity prevails and people are safe to be their authentic selves. Please join me in rejecting hate and cruelty as we work for a more compassionate and peaceful future. Please take good care of yourselves and each other, especially our community members you know of who are processing trauma.
CONTACT: 1-844-924-BIAS (2427) or StandAgainstHate.oregon.gov
The Bias Response Hotline can help you understand your options, make choices about next steps, and receive support in the aftermath of experiencing or witnessing bias. It is up to all Oregonians to work together to ensure that everyone is safe in our communities.
Our Wilsonville community is grieving the loss of Don Anderson, a brewer, businessman and so much more. During COVID, Don and I checked in quite a few times and I will always remember how sincerely he advocated for small businesses, his employees, and how he took care of his wife Lin when she was ill. His business has hosted multiple events for me over the years, fed people soup during the most difficult days of COVID, and is truly a place where people come together for music, conversation, and good beer. The Oregonian wrote a wonderful tribute to him, highlighting his work and commitment to community. He will be sorely missed.
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Since leaving my classroom in 2018 to come to Salem, I’ve been working hard to deliver on policies that serve students, our education workforce, and our funding structures. I’m thrilled that many of the issues that have been my core focus were included in the governor’s recent press release and additional outline of commitments to education. Not only am I the Chair of the House Committee on Education, I am also currently Chairing the Joint Interim Task Force on Statewide Educator Salaries and holding regular meetings with education partners as part of this work. I look forward to continuing to chart a path forward (in partnership with my legislative colleagues, education experts, and the governor) for K-12 education that focuses on learning outcomes through foundational funding stability, funding sufficiency, safety, health, quality jobs and trust. I will continue to advocate for needed improvements including:
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Current Service Level calculation methodology must be prospective, logical, and more precise, if it is to inform accurate funding by the legislature. (HB2739 was a key focus of my work last session to improve the current structurally flawed calculation)
- The Quality Education Model must be updated and modernized.
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Students must have their basic needs met in order to thrive as community members and learners. I will continue to fight for the dollars needed for Oregon to truly deliver on Universal School Meals. In 2023, we were successful at securing $17 million more dollars to feed 114,000 more students. I will keep working toward the full amount needed in 2024 and beyond.
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Healthy Schools: Places of learning must be healthy environments both physically (HB3031, which supports HVAC funding for upgrades, takes effect January 2024) and emotionally.
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Educator workforce compensation: Professionals in our schools should be paid commensurate with the value they provide society. I will continue to look for solutions that acknowledge workload, hard-to-hire positions, and balance the need to recruit, train and retain qualified and passionate professional educators. My bill concept (HB2682) for registered educator apprenticeships was funded in SB283, and I look forward to watching apprenticeship programs grow across our state as a result of the $10 million increase in funding. I will continue to look into solutions as part of my work chairing the Joint Task Force on Statewide Educator Salaries.
I have regularly been asked in recent weeks whether or not the legislature fully funded schools in 2023. The short answer is no, but the comprehensive answer requires more complexity. For now, I will simply challenge anyone to argue that we have fully funded our expectations of education when I know of no other sector where people must bring their own supplies from home to do the task they are assigned - and there is surely no other sector that relies so heavily on unpaid volunteers to make sure it runs smoothly. Thank goodness for parents and community members who spend their time reading with kids, helping make photocopies and organize files, who fundraise for computer labs and art literacy, and who help every child know caring adults are there for them! The questions I want our legislature to tackle are more about what the legislature should do to improve the level of funding, and do we have the transparency and metrics in place that will help us accurately measure and ensure equitable delivery of high-quality public education for the children of our state, thereby fulfilling our constitutional mandate:
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My legislative colleagues and I spent the better part of the 2023 session debating what the true Current Service Level in K12 education is, and how to fund it. This is a detailed and challenging conversation, as every school district has a different locally bargained contract. Many districts bargain their contracts after the legislative allocation has been determined, which means their new contracts are not what the legislature has funded, and many bargain prior to the legislative allocation, which means their school boards have to do guesswork as to whether or not a sufficient budget will even pass. This is different from other State-funded departments and agencies who bargain staff contracts simultaneously with our legislative session. (As a reminder, The Oregon Department of Education is not in charge of setting teacher salaries. Local school district processes do that decision making.) Whether or not we have fully funded quality education is the work of one of the most important committees in the legislature, The 2023 Joint Committee on Public Education Appropriations. I highly encourage all who care about full funding of quality education to track the work of this committee and review past years (2019, 2021) to understand this conversation in greater depth.
I should also note that our schools alone cannot do the work of supporting the whole child. The stability of our communities and all its members relies on community efforts and partners committed to health, behavioral health, housing, nutrition and services. I am thrilled to see the Governor focused on youth mental health and I know this will take a multifaceted approach, beyond the reaches of the 2019 Student Success Act, beyond the investments of the 2023 legislative session, beyond the COVID recovery conversations. These conversations must be ongoing and happen both in and out of our school system.
One of our local community organizations that has shown up for vulnerable families in a big way in Clackamas County is Parrott Creek Child and Family Services. Their critically needed work to stabilize families and youth creates positive outcomes in our communities. Please visit their website to learn more about their services and trauma informed approach. I worked with Parrott Creek to ensure funding for their new center of excellence and look forward to seeing these investments come to life. They recently broke ground to build a trauma-informed campus for the youth they serve. It is partnering organizations like Parrott Creek who are responding to known crises with critically needed services. I was honored to receive one of their 2023 Heart of Service Awards this year.
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SB 420 is now in effect! This is just one of many bills I’ve worked on that I am incredibly proud to celebrate taking effect. The Department of Human Services will convene a Brain Injury Advisory committee and provide service coordination, resource navigation, advocacy, and options counseling in Partnership with the individual experiencing the brain injury. This bill is the result of bipartisan and bicameral efforts and will make a positive difference in the lives of Oregonians living with the impacts of brain injuries. Here is a picture from our bill signing:
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I’m working hard to prepare for our February 2024 Short Session. My personal bills both focus on safety in our communities. A Wilsonville High School student brought us a concept that we have been working on and is ready to go. It will allow school buses in Oregon to have stop arm cameras. My second personal bill (we can introduce 2 in the short session) will give law enforcement a tool they need to respond to a crime of threatening mass harm. We must ensure that it is not only a crime to falsely threaten mass harm (current law), but to truly threaten mass harm (not current law). I look forward to working with local and state partners to finally close this gap in our statutes.
As Vice-Chair of the Environmental Caucus, I will be supporting bills to move the dial in environmental protections and investments. And I’m thrilled to be partnering with colleagues on a few bills I care a lot about. Senator Sollman and I plan to reintroduce Right to Repair and finally deliver on a concept that has industry support while also being good for consumers and small businesses.
We hold “Legislative Days”, also known as “Leg Days” throughout the interim in preparation for our session work. During Legislative Days, we have informational hearings on important topics. I serve on the Gambling Regulations Committee, The Early Childhood and Human Services Committee, and I chair the Education Committee. As Chair, I meet with members and advocates to understand the needs in our communities and what concepts my colleagues are working on. I consult with vice-chairs, set the meeting agendas, and guide the committee priorities. Generally, during the 2024 short session my education committee will be focusing on policy improvements to serve our students needing Special Education and other critically needed wraparound services.
Please watch our INTERIM House Education Committee hearings here:
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September hearings included Medicaid billing in schools, Career and Technical Education, and Summer Learning.
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November hearings included welcoming the new Director of the Oregon Dept. of Education, Dr. Charlene Williams in her new role as the Director of the Oregon Department of Education, Accountability Structures in our K-12 education system, Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE), and the need to lift the arbitrary 11% cap on Special Education funding in Oregon.
Stay tuned for more updates on legislative initiatives I will be pursuing in 2024, and, as always, please reach out and let me know about issues that are near and dear to your hearts.
In 2023, after our Clackamas County Caucus’s unanimous calls for hearings to address ODOT’s woefully inadequate and deeply concerning tolling plans went unanswered, I introduced HB3614. The bill would have paused tolling and structured a task force to ensure that ODOT do thorough study, outreach to impacted communities, analysis on diversion mitigations, multimodal alternatives needed, and provide financing details. While the bill didn’t move forward, it was a catalyst for the Governor’s executive order to pause and create The Joint Subcommittee on Transportation Planning. During the month of December this special committee is holding four community meetings in potential impacted toll areas. They will hear both invited guest speakers and public testimony and began their public testimony this past weekend for other regions. They will come to our region on 12/14, so please plan to share your concerns with this committee. Whether you submit written testimony or come to testify (2 min) in person, it is essential they hear from you. Make your voice heard about how this proposal will affect you and our community at large.
MEETING @ Wilsonville City Hall:
29799 SW Town Center Loop East
Thursday, December 14th, 2023
5-7pm
In Person Testimony:
- Register to testify in person at the meeting location. Registration will open 30 minutes ahead of meeting start time.
- Testimony limit is 2 minutes. (This is usually approximately 1 page of prepared remarks).
- Practice ahead of time.
Email Testimony:
- JTSSTP.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov.
- Specify the meeting date/location in the subject line (for example: 12/14/23 Wilsonville)
Watch meetings from home:
View a live stream of the meeting:
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023I1/Committees/JTSSTP/Overview
Earlier this month, the Office of Economic Analysis delivered Oregon’s updated revenue forecast to the legislature. This forecast again contained promising news. While the state’s projected revenue was slightly down from the forecast in September, it remains $217 million above the levels projected in May. With corporate profits remaining high, we anticipate a healthy corporate kicker which is constitutionally mandated to go to K-12 Schools. The full revenue forecast can be found here. Additionally, the recent Consumer Price Index Summary shows near zero inflation last month, which could bring relief to Oregonians struggling with recent skyrocketing inflation.
I sponsored our 2019 paid family and medical leave bill so that Oregonians who need to take time off work to care for important personal life events can do so. This critical benefits system went live this fall. Apply for benefits online by visiting the Frances Online portal.
You can apply for paid family and medical leave benefits to care for yourself OR members of your family during health conditions; for birth, adoption, foster care placement; or after domestic violence or assault. Please use the Paid Leave Oregon checklist or check out the Apply on Frances Online video to help you get ready to file your claim. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Paid Leave Oregon using this contact request form.
Thanks to all who joined me for the Sherwood Constituent Coffee Hour at the Marjorie Stewart Community Center. I love these events where we get to be together and I get to hear about topics that are important to you. Please let me know if you would like me to visit your community event or organization to connect.
I’ve appreciated multiple school visits in recent months as well. I was able to visit Metzger Elementary to see the ways teachers are mentoring and partnering in their immersion program, Tualatin High School Spanish classes with my former colleague Sra Rand, and recently visited Ms. Roth’s AP Government classes at Sherwood High School to share about our legislative process and answer their questions. Here’s one of the pics from my visit that they took for their class Instagram page:
I’ve also really enjoyed supporting and attending the Wilsonville High School productions of Elf. This inaugural show in the brand-new Performing Arts Center sold out most of their 5 shows and the students delivered wonderful performances to numerous sold-out shows! Shout out as well to the stage crew who work so hard behind the scenes on this dynamic show! It came together beautifully!
Wishing all a wonderful holiday season filled with joyful reunions and good company. Please stay in touch with me and connect on the issues you’re tracking most closely. As always, you can reach my office by email at rep.courtneyneron@oregonlegislature.gov or by phone at 503-986-1426.
Cheers!
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1426
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-281, Salem, OR 97301
Email: Rep.CourtneyNeron@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/neron
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