Seattle Schools Board Meeting Sept 27, 2023

All right.

It's 423. Good afternoon.

We will be calling to the board meeting to order in a moment and SPS TV will begin broadcasting.

For those joining by phone, please remain muted until we reach the testimony portion and your name is called.

This is President Hersey I am now calling the September 27th 2023 regular board meeting to order at 4 23 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

Director Hampson.

Here.

Director Harris.

Present.

Vice President Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith Director Sarju.

Present.

Director Song.

Present.

And President Hersey.

Present.

Thank you very much.

I will now turn it over to our student director for student member comments.

Take it away.

Thank you President Hersey.

This is my first board meeting so I thought I'd introduce myself.

My name is Ayush Muthaswamy.

I'm a senior at Lincoln High School and I'm one of your three student board members this year.

And I wanted to just start off by talking about my priorities this year as a student in this role which to me at their core come down to one goal and that's to increase student leadership and decision making spaces.

And I'm sharing this role one to let you know about the areas and initiatives I hope to focus on but two to hold myself accountable to it.

And this year, I hope to keep you all updated about the initiatives we as student board members are working on, focusing and regarding that goal, but also in general, increasing the transparency and also the general understanding of this role, because it's so new.

Something we as student board members have just started working on is bringing student voice into the SPS legislative agenda.

I had a great conversation with Director Rankin yesterday and in partnership with her we're hoping to meet with student leaders across the district and work together to craft legislative agenda that reflects their short and long term needs.

Two of my personal priorities in the legislative agenda are incorporating more curriculum related to harm reduction into the health education learning standards and also expanding funding for free school meals for all students because in no world is it acceptable to have hungry students in our schools.

I just want to close my comment today by saying that love for each other is the only way forward.

That hate has no place in this district and that we will not accept as a school board and as a school district anything less than a welcoming and safe environment for every single student in this district.

Can somebody like move my president title over to this young man right here?

Next we will have our superintendent comments.

Dr. Jones.

Thank you President Hersey.

Thank you IUs for attending the board meeting.

You are welcome here.

Thank you for everyone who's attending tonight.

Indigenous Peoples Day, as we acknowledge at the opening of our meeting here at Seattle Public Schools, that we work and live on unseated ancestral lands of the Coast Salish people.

In honor of the Indigenous Peoples Day on October 9th, we recommit to centering the sovereignty and voices of indigenous communities in our work.

With gratitude and respect, we offer a proclamation.

I'm gonna ask that Director Hampson, read that proclamation.

Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples Day.

Proclamation of Seattle School District number one King County Seattle Washington reaffirming the district's commitment to promote the well-being and growth of every district student a special of Seattle's American Indian Alaska Native and indigenous students.

whereas the Seattle Public Schools recognizes that the indigenous people of the lands would later become known as that would later become known as the Americas have occupied these lands since time immemorial.

And whereas the Seattle Public Schools recognizes the fact that Seattle is built upon the homelands and villages of the Coast Salish peoples of this region without whom the building of the city would not have been possible.

and whereas the Seattle Public Schools values the many contributions made to our community through indigenous peoples knowledge labor technology science philosophy arts and the deep cultural contribution that has substantially shaped the charter of the city of Seattle.

and whereas the Seattle Public Schools has a responsibility to oppose the systemic racism towards indigenous people in the United States which perpetuates high rates of poverty income inequality exacerbating disproportionate health education and social crises.

and whereas the Seattle Public Schools seeks to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination stemming from colonization and to promote awareness understanding and good relations among indigenous peoples and all other segments of our district.

and whereas the Seattle Public Schools promotes educational excellence for indigenous people through policies and practices that reflect the experience of indigenous peoples ensure greater access and opportunity and honor our nation's indigenous roots history and contributions.

And whereas.

SB 5433 as in Senate Bill 5433 requires the teaching of the history government and contemporary issues of the 29 federally recognized tribes of Washington state.

and whereas the school board of directors has mandated through policy two three three six required observances to observe the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Therefore all schools are encouraged to support the well-being and growth of American Indian Alaska Native and Indigenous students and recognize the contributions of native peoples on October 9th Indigenous Peoples Day October 9th 2023 is hereby proclaimed as Indigenous Peoples Day and celebrated across Seattle Public Schools.

Pinakigi.

Thank you, Director Hampson.

I'd also like to recognize Latinx Heritage Month, which runs every year from September 15th through October 15th.

In our school buildings, our teachers and our staff are taking care to highlight the history and diverse cultures of our Latinx students this month.

This year's Heritage Month theme is Latinos, Driving Prosperity, Power and Progress in America.

Generations of Latinx people have shaped American history since this country was born, and on this day we continue to have enormous influence on our culture and society.

Our district and larger Seattle community are deeply enriched by the presence of our Latinx students, families, and neighbors, and it's a joy to uplift them this month.

On the legislative front, we had the opportunity to talk with our Seattle legislative delegation this week about our current situation, primarily about budget.

We're trying to capitalize on the good work that we did in the last session but more importantly we want to build a shared understanding of our vision for SPS and what it will take to realize that vision.

And so we are thankful that we have our legislative delegation solidly with us and we're going to continue to progress to provide the adequate and solid resources for Seattle Public Schools.

I also wanna mention that we've had our sixth round of well-resourced school update with the community.

We wanna make sure that our community has come forward and being able to articulate the community's vision and values for how we use our building spaces, for the type of programs we offer, for the type of services that we offer.

And I wanna thank those of you who've joined us for our final well-resourced school community meeting yesterday evening.

While we may have had some technical difficulties, we're grateful for the large turnout that we had yesterday with almost 300 community members on the virtual meeting, all of whom had enormous valuable feedback to offer us.

Over the next few weeks, staff and I will put together a summary of our findings from our meetings and the survey to present to our school board.

I'm thankful to the public affairs staff for putting together this robust series of engagement opportunities, and I'm looking forward to reviewing the feedback received.

Now, I'm really proud to announce that Thurgood Marshall Elementary School received the prestigious 2023 National Blue Ribbon School of Designation Award by the U.S.

Department of Education.

Thurgood Marshall was one of only two schools in Washington State to receive the distinction and it was beautiful to be there in that space with staff and student.

The pride that they had with the accomplishment that they achieved was uncomfortable.

And so this award is for recipients who are recognized for overall academic performance or progress in closing the achievement gaps among student groups on their assessments.

And if you'd like to take a look at what Thurgood Marshall did, it's very impressive.

So I'm proud of the team at Thurgood Marshall for their dedication and providing a top tier education for their students.

Now in closing, I need to be emphatic that as part of our safe and welcoming schools, we want to reaffirm our commitment to creating inclusive, identity safe environments for every student.

The rights, yes, the rights and safety of our LGBTQ plus youth are a priority for this district, let there be no doubt.

This district stands for inclusion and belonging in policy and in practice and representation matters.

And with that, I'll hand it back to you, President Hersey.

Thank you, Superintendent Jones.

That's a means to celebrate.

Don't hold that back.

You can definitely clap for that.

We have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.

We have an extended public testimony list today because many have turned out to support our students and to speak about building gender inclusive schools.

We have committed to students that we will excuse me that they will be welcomed into safe and supportive environments through our policies including 3211 gender inclusive schools transgender and gender expansive student rights and supports.

Thank you to all of those here today who are joining us in fulfilling that commitment to our students.

We greatly appreciate your partnership.

Following testimony, we have a brief business agenda item and will then be moving into a work session to support the ad hoc policy manual review committee's completion of a policy evaluation tool.

The ad hoc community engagement committee had to cancel our meeting this week, but we anticipate coming together again shortly.

We'll now move into our other ports for tonight.

Our ad hoc policy manual review committee will be presenting later in the meeting.

Do we have a report from our legislative liaison?

We do.

As the superintendent noted we met yesterday with the legislative delegation representing Seattle in preparation for the 2024 legislative session.

In the process now of developing our our legislative priorities that will come to the board for adoption and as.

stated we are I'm working with students and getting some feedback from other other groups that work with our students about shared priorities and so that'll be coming forward.

And I just want to thank our delegation for their partnership and commitment to our students and I look forward to another productive legislative session.

I attended the 2023 WASDA General Assembly WASDA the Washington State School Director Association in Spokane over the weekend as our legislative liaison and WASDA representative.

And as we discussed last meeting in that short work session General Assembly is the annual convening of voting delegates from all 295 Washington public school districts board to discuss and vote as a body on permanent and legislative positions.

I'm really happy and proud to share that WASDA membership approved both items that were submitted on our behalf that I brought to the board last spring on isolation restraint.

The amendment to the permanent position on comprehensive school safety that states that part of providing a safe environment is one that is free from unnecessary restraint and isolation and other harmful practices that was approved.

and then there's also a new legislative position that we brought forward specifically around physical crisis intervention that was also approved by the body.

It was a very eye opening and exhausting 48 hours and I ended up submitting a few amendments from the floor that passed on other positions and also spoke pro on quite a few positions.

Most notably and especially relevant giving today's public testimony list were positions about civil rights and local control.

And I'm very happy to share that we now have a member adopted position at WASDA that states WASDA believes that the education system should support the civil rights of all students at the state and local levels.

Arguments that I used to support that position I also used later in the meeting to successfully vote down a position presented on local control and I want to share some of that with you now which is that local control cannot ever be used to opt out of following state and federal law.

Public schools using public funds and overseen by publicly elected school boards are authorized by the state which is also governed by publicly elected officials.

When we take office as board directors we pledge to uphold and follow state and national constitution and laws.

We have the authority and responsibility of adopting curriculum for our district but it must meet state standards for learning.

If your locally elected board has adopted curriculum that meets state standards but is not aligned with your personal values state law allows you to opt your child out of that instruction.

if it is so contrary to your values, what is being presented in public schools in alignment with the will of the voting public, you don't have to participate.

You can withdraw altogether.

Public school is a right that is afforded to everyone who lives in our communities, but no one is forcing you to participate.

Students' civil rights are non-negotiable in our public schools by state and federal law.

In Seattle we also have board adopted policy that clearly states the values of our community in support of all of our students and their rights to public education and to being fully included members of our community.

Discrimination on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, religion is not acceptable and is prohibited by federal law.

All students are entitled to a public education that includes identity affirming curriculum.

By state and federal law and by board policies including 0010 Instructional Philosophy and 3211 Gender Inclusive Schools which was adopted by this board under the leadership of a queer native board president, we support the civil rights of our students, their rights to exist, be included, be safe and to learn and thrive.

to our trans, non-binary, and LGBTQIA plus students, you will hear comments during this meeting from people who don't know you and are nonetheless directing hate towards you.

I want to state clearly that we up here, whether or not we know you, love you, and support your rights in Seattle Public Schools and will continue to fight for them.

Any additional liaison reports this evening.

Go ahead Director Samaritz.

I have an update from the City of Seattle.

This week the Seattle City Council approved a resolution in support of its commitment to our partnership with Memorial Stadium.

So I'd like to thank Mayor Harrell Deputy Mayor Burgess their team Seattle Center President Horace and the members of Seattle Council for the progress that we've made to date and what's to come ahead.

This week Mayor Harrell also released his by mid biennial budget adjustment and as it pertains to the Department of Education there's not much of note.

It reflects the continued investments in Seattle's young people including the mental health supports in our high school.

Thank you.

So this school board's role one of its primary roles is to govern by policy.

Occasionally we make statements of general direction by resolution when we feel it's important enough to make such statements and provide it's not so much direction but give a state our collective position in a particular area and one of the resolutions that was passed in 2019 as Director Rankin stated under Director Pullen at the time Director DeWolf now Director Pullen is our resolution of the Seattle of the Board of Directors of Seattle School District on inclusion of our LGBTQIA plus two-spirit students staff and community and it gets more traction than I think about any other resolution that we have passed and I'd like to go ahead and take time to read it to affirm the contents and remind everyone of where we were in 2019 and help folks understand anything that you hear that you're like oh that needs to be tweaked maybe that's something for us to work on right and then but also there's a lot that has been accomplished.

There are so much more now in policy and in the day to day workings of our schools that is supportive and we still have more work to do.

A resolution of the board of directors of Seattle School District Number 1 King County Seattle Washington on inclusion for LGBTQIA plus two-spirit students staff and community.

Whereas Seattle Public Schools is a district of more than 53000 students and more than 12000 full-time and part-time staff where we value and celebrate diversity and inclusion.

and whereas a 2019-20 focus goal of the Seattle Public Schools strategic plan is to provide schools where students feel safe and are welcome and that goal is rooted in the belief that students should be celebrated for being their authentic selves recognizing that when students are provided healthy safe engaging supportive and academically rigorous school environments they are able to learn to their full potential.

and whereas the recent community debate focused on the exclusion of LGBTQIA plus teaching staff and a school in our region has invited the board to reflect on our long held beliefs and commitment to inclusion knowing that educational environments where students recognize the diversity that makes them special and adult role models at school helps to create an atmosphere where students feel empowered as scholars to succeed and whereas systemic transphobia biphobia and homophobia can push LGBTQIA plus two-spirit youth out of school and cause long lasting negative educational and mental health outcomes.

And whereas we know LGBTQIA plus two-spirit youth particularly LGBTQIA plus two-spirit youth of color still face significant discrimination and barriers to inclusion as compared to their peers including disproportionate rates of school disciplinary action and are two to four times more likely than their peers to be physically assaulted or threatened at school leading them to be less likely to attend school.

affirming diverse sexual whereas affirming diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions is one of the most effective mental health interventions for supporting LGBTQIA plus two-spirit youth and whereas inclusion curriculum has been shown to improve educational health and personal safety as shown in the 2017 GLSEN National Climate Survey as well as to increase the level of peer acceptance of LGBTQIA plus two-spirit students and foster school communities where LGBTQIA plus two-spirit youth were less likely to hear homophobic and transphobic remarks were less likely to feel unsafe experienced lower levels of victimization and performed better academically.

and whereas board policy 3 2 1 0 non-discrimination acts of hostility and defamation expresses our commitment to fostering cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity respect and inclusiveness and the policy is implemented enforced through a robust system of procedures overseen by a non-discrimination compliance officer.

and whereas the district has long supported and affirmed the rights of our transgender and gender expansive students by establishing and continually enhancing a comprehensive superintendent procedure that details a student's right to be referred to by the name and pronouns that affirms their identity and to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to gender identity and non sex assigned and not sex assigned at birth.

In addition the district has created and provided gender identity book kits for instruction in grades K through 5 and hosts an annual LGBTQIA plus two-spirit family dinner to bring our families together.

And whereas the district is continually in a process of improvement and refinement in relation to creating identity safe spaces for all including work targeted toward greater inclusion for LGBTQIA plus staff and students including but not limited to coordinating our electronic student system so students are able to be recognized by the name that affirms their identity and continuously promoting the expansion of expansion of general neutral spaces in all of our schools.

and whereas we acknowledge that creating LGBTQIA plus two-spirit and gender expansive inclusivity in the district is not complete with any one action and it does not happen holistically with the change of a policy or the passage of a resolution but depends on a systematic shift in paradigms and by increasing the understanding of sexual and gender diversity recognizing that this creation requires appropriate communication professional development and collaboration with our labor partners and commitment from the board district staff and students.

And whereas the students of Seattle Public Schools should have the opportunity to learn about significant LGBTQIA plus events and groups such as the Society for Human Rights the Lavender Scare Daughters of Belitis the Supreme Court case 1 Inc. vs. Oleson Don't Ask Don't Tell DOMA 1987 AIDS March on Washington the riots at Stonewall Inn the Compton cafeteria riots etc etc etc and so many more.

And now therefore be it resolved that the superintendent will direct a district facilities assessment to be completed and a report provided to the board detailing schools with a single with a student single stall or multi-stall gender neutral restroom.

without a gender neutral restroom including the feasibility and estimated costs to convert existing restrooms and be it further resolved that the board requests that the superintendent direct applicable staff to explore the development of an LGBTQIA two plus two spirit history and culture course to be added to the catalog of secondary school subjects if staff determines that the new course is needed or desired and provide a report to the curriculum instruction.

committee on their determination and be it was further resolved that the district will commit to including at least one accessible multi-stall gender neutral restroom and all new facilities construction and take the necessary steps to ensure these restrooms will be present and all future educational specification floor plans floor plans and capital planning and be it further resolved that the district supports all students and staff by affirming their right to be their authentic selves including the right to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity and to speak about their personal and family lives in the same manner as their non LGBTQIA plus two-spirit peers recognizing it is never appropriate to discipline or shame a person who in good faith comes out to another member of the Seattle Public Schools community.

and be it further resolved that the district encourages its schools to display on their flagpoles and the volition and the volition of its employees to display in classrooms offices or halls a rainbow pride flag transgender pride flag or other sign of support for LGBTQIA plus two-spirit students or staff because these symbols are consistent with the district's commitment to the creation of identity safe and welcoming schools and illustrate our sincere belief that we must serve all without judgment discrimination or alienation and be it further resolved that the district will continue to honor and respect a student's self-reported gender identity and gender expression at school regardless of outside adult acknowledgement or acceptance.

The district will work to educate and support adults to a Adults important to a student on greater acceptance and acknowledgement.

However the district will not wait for such adult acceptance or require parent guardian consent before honoring the student's self-reported gender identity and gender expression.

Be it further resolved that the board district and appropriate stakeholders commit to both the urgency and the need for long term sustainable and well informed action around LGBTQIA plus two spirit inclusivity and be it further resolved that the district and our schools be proactive in decreasing anti LGBTQIA plus two spirit language feelings behaviors and bullying by one promoting positive images of LGBTQIA plus two-spirit individuals and two making available age appropriate LGBTQIA plus two-spirit inclusive instructional materials and books for elementary and secondary schools and three requiring that newly adopted United States history social studies and English and arts instructional materials and reasonably include in all other instructional materials significant events societal contributions and or represented representations of LGBTQIA plus two-spirit individuals and offering LGBTQIA plus two-spirit sensitivity training for staff and volunteers and finally reminding staff of their duty to ensure that all students are safe and affirmed in our school communities and to create a school culture that both prevents and proactively intervenes with acts of name calling such as racist sexist transphobic and homophobic remarks.

bias harassment or bullying that they see including but not limited to LGBTQIA plus two-spirit bias language and bullying and be it further resolved that the superintendent shall consider this resolution a proposal of the board to change the name of an existing school building to a distinguished individual to be specifically identified through an engagement process including staff students staff parents alumni and community residents who has served the local community state nation in the promotion of LGBTQIA plus rights and be it further resolved that the superintendent will distribute or inform principals teachers and families of this resolution and translate it into the top five languages within Seattle Public Schools and be it further resolved that the superintendent shall report back to the board on the status of and plan for implementation of each point in the above resolution.

at some point later I'm really curious to hear back from folks about how many of those things have happened so many of those things have happened including the renaming of the of the building.

So super exciting and so much gratitude to the superintendent and staff for upholding all of those.

It's also a really important time for me to update you on where we are with Title IX.

The.

fight to retain critical rights particularly for transgender students is now.

And some of you may be aware we spent a good amount of time many years actually rewriting our policy on title related to Title IX and sexual harassment and assault.

and the last revision happened under the Trump administration during which time many of the stronger protections were removed by that administration and new rules were to come out in May from the Biden administration to again affirm under Title IX the production of transgender students in both the educational and the athletic environment.

and the so far the those were to come out in May they were delayed and in June they did issue preliminary rules that are in support of transgender students because it is as Director Rankin said federal law these protections.

and that these students exist and need every support to thrive in our school environments.

And we are hoping that the additional changes that include the athletics environments will be coming soon and at the same time I encourage anyone and everyone who supports our students and to know that these there are tough battles happening throughout the country that and you know they've come here to our doors at Seattle Public Schools that we still have much to do to support the safety and well-being of our transgender students.

So I am not running for reelection and I had served in this role in connection to Title IX.

and I hope one of my fellow directors will take up that liaison role and encourage you all to continue to pay attention to when the administration provides these rules and make sure that the district is supported in making the amendments to our policies and enacting additional protections as soon as we are legally able to do so because they will be really important to providing additional protections and.

I want to say thank you to our staff who highlighted our trans and other LGBTQIA plus Two-Spirit students and staff out there and I want to see if I know we have is it okay if I call for Lisa love to do a quick curriculum update on the K-5 Lisa are you in the in the room?

which was a huge part of that resolution and this one woman show over here has just been working hard.

Okay thank you.

I'm Lisa Love manager of health education.

I happen to be a parent of two graduates from Seattle schools through Cleveland High School and I currently oversee health education which a part of is our LGBTQ efforts.

And just a quick update for you we are adding to the gender book kit that's a K-5 kit right now it has books and lessons per grade level K-5.

So we are adding a few extra titles thanks to some really hard work of some folks who are in the room who are adding some lessons to that.

We have gotten flags through grant funding out to all of our schools to hang for Pride Month.

We also of course participate in the Pride Parade every year with about, I don't know, 250-ish folks, right?

There's a photo of it that was in an article recently.

so we have lots of activities and events that happen throughout the school year that families and students can participate in and we do have a course that was developed partly because of that board resolution so the course is offered at some of our schools and that was one of the things that came up as a high request from students as well.

Was there another specific update you'd like?

Okay thanks.

and if you haven't been to the annual gathering I strongly encourage it.

It's a great community building event and I just want to.

I'm not going to say it without getting teary.

but thanks for the tissues Ellie.

I just want to express my immense gratitude for all the people that showed up to support as the parent of a trans child.

The last thing I want to do is to call them before I head off to a board meeting to do important work to ask them for their feedback on the things that I am planning to say and do in response to people that would insist that he not exist and that who he is is in fact not who he is when this is a child that just wants to go through school being who he is without anybody questioning their gender identity or anything about their sexual orientation.

They just want to be who they are.

Again, thank you so much for coming out here to support kids.

It's not about me.

It's about my kids and all of the kids.

And when they hear anything to the contrary, it does cause pain.

It hurts.

It really, really hurts.

and it is our job not to necessarily protect them from knowing that but to make sure that we wrap arms around when those things do happen.

And I want to say Pina Gigi and just note that Two Spirits in my tribal culture we have a word for Two Spirit people that has been around since time immemorial.

This is not a new concept.

Okay that concludes liaison reports.

Do we have any additional board engagements that we have to discuss tonight.

Go ahead Director Harris.

We do.

My last community meeting had to be canceled because of some scheduling issues.

However Saturday October 21 from 2 to 5 the West Seattle Library will have a community engagement session.

They're thoughtful or a little rowdy.

come bring your issues so that we can have conversations about constructive ideas and solutions to lots of the things that we are all engaged in.

You are most welcome and the West Seattle Bridge is open, no excuses.

My colleagues are invited as well.

Thank you.

All right, we have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda, but it is, actually that is not the right portion.

We will be taking public testimony by phone and in person as stated on the agenda.

Board procedure 1430BP provides the rules for testimony, and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from the public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board's website.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers.

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the testimony list or waiting list.

Those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list.

The majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about.

The board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself.

As board president I have the right to and will and have before interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by board procedure 1430 BP.

A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orally operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting.

Before we begin, I would like to ask General Counsel Narver to approach the podium to give us a little bit of a rundown on this procedure and a little, you know, additional information.

It is not.

Okay how about there.

Thank you President Hersey.

First of all it is great to see such a full house here tonight of people who are here to lend their voice to the board.

Board policy 1430 recognizes the critical role of public comment to help the board to support the board in its oversight and decision making and policy making roles.

So to everyone here who is here to help the board with those comments welcome.

I do want to stress that what is said at this podium is protected to the full extent by the First Amendment.

There's a lot you can say.

And you may hear things tonight with which you disagree, strongly disagree, that may be oversight, decision-making, and policy-making rules.

So to everyone here, whoever that was, he was making some great points.

and you may hear things that call into disagreement the board's own policies or board approved curriculum.

You may hear things that are even offensive.

Generally all of that is protected by the First Amendment and so our request is that you let people have their two minutes to say their piece, listen respectfully knowing that if you are signed up you will get your chance to come up to this podium and express your viewpoint as vigorously and enthusiastically as you wish.

Not everything is protected by the First Amendment.

Our board procedure, 1430BP, lists some of the few exceptions to that rule.

You cannot advocate violence.

You cannot engage in fighting words and try and elicit a violent response.

Board President Hersey mentioned that he has had to, on one occasion, terminate a speaker's comments.

Fortunately, that's only happened once during my four-plus years here.

I hope it doesn't happen again.

So for the most part, we're here to listen.

Listen respectfully and then you get your chance to say what you want to say.

However, if those lines are crossed, the president with the support of the board office and legal will be prepared to terminate comments if that is necessary.

Board procedure 1430 provides those guidelines.

With that though, welcome to everyone who's here to speak and we look forward to the kind of vigorous debate that the First Amendment is all about.

Thank you.

Ms. Ku will now read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you President Hersey.

A quick logistical note speakers joining us via phone please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on the device you are calling from and also press star six to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a two minute speaking time.

You will hear a beep when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will be called.

The first speaker on the list is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins box eight four zero six three Seattle nine eight one two four.

Nice to have a full house tonight.

Thank you all for being here.

On the minutes of the September 13th board meeting four points.

Number one a long chunk of the meeting was spent wading through metaphysical swamps with your paid consultant A.J.

Krabel.

Number two following the consultant's advice the board has confined itself to hiring and evaluating the superintendent.

Number three voters rightly expect the board to more directly exercise its authority in running the district.

Number four RCW 28A 40000306 requires the superintendent to quote carry out all orders of the board of directors unquote.

Please drop your consultant.

On guiding principles for the Building Excellence Six Levy, 11 points.

Number one, the principles fail to address problems.

Number two, knocking down a $6 million Wing Luke building that was only 13 years old.

Number three, a $10 million cost overrun at Rainier Beach.

Number four, wrongly trading away Memorial Stadium.

Number 5 tearing out the Garfield Auditorium where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke Number 6 selling Queen Anne High School Number 7 lack of on-site ADA parking at Alki and Montlake Number 8 lack of emergency notifications for the deaf and hard of hearing program at TOPS Number 9 shrinking playgrounds Number 10 artificial turf containing forever chemicals Number 11 wrongly using mega schools to consolidate and close schools.

Please do not close schools.

There was no mention of the Duwamish tribe in today's board comments.

That is an unfortunate omission given that a prior board resolution supports federal recognition and benefits for the Duwamish tribe.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker on the list is Carol Dancero.

My name is Carol Dancero and I'm here to deliver a demand for action to stop the promotion of gender identity ideology in Seattle schools.

Those fighting the imposition of that ideology on children including those presenting this demand come from across the political spectrum.

There are plenty of left-wingers like me.

It is not okay to present children with blatantly false information about biology.

There's nothing acceptable about telling them that some people are born in the wrong body, sex has nothing to do with anatomy, and men give birth.

It is not okay to promote sexist stereotypes, undercut safeguarding, and encourage children to dissociate from their bodies.

We're outraged that Seattle schools force children to embrace gender identity's mystical mantras and absurd new meanings for key words.

We're outraged that it forces them to disregard the evidence of their own eyes, engage in compelled speech, and forfeit their rights to sex-based privacy in female-only sports.

We are appalled that via misguided affirmation-only policies, teachers are locking vulnerable children into dissociation from their bodies, leading skyrocketing numbers to medicalization.

Multiple systematic reviews have firmly established that pediatric sex change is not evidence-based.

There is no there there regarding supposed mental health benefits, but the harm to children is well-established and massive.

Seattle schools are complicit in one of the most horrific medical scandals of all time.

I have prepared packets for you that contain the demand for action, an appendix of what is being taught, and that provides documentation for everything we have said.

The promotion of gender ideology in Seattle schools, the imposition of this belief system on all Seattle's children, is hurting enrollment and creates major liability.

The school board needs to act immediately because of these realities, but more importantly because children deserve better.

Gender ideology is an anti-science, child harming, civil rights destroying, homophobia elevating deception.

It is more than time to stop promoting it in our schools.

The next speaker is Bruce Lesnik.

My name is Bruce Lesnik.

I'm one of the signers of the demand for action to get gender identity ideology out of our schools.

Schools should be teaching science, not religion.

The sciences of biology and evolution are as relevant today as they were at the time of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial when schools were trying to introduce creationism and so-called intelligent design into the curriculum.

There are only two sexes because there are only two types of gametes and two different body types that produce them.

The curriculum today lies to children, telling them that sex is not binary, that whether you are male or female is based on feelings rather than biology, that a boy who likes stereotypical girl things must actually be a girl, that hating your healthy body and attempting to alter it with harmful drugs and surgery is a way of being your true self.

As the governments and medical establishments of Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the UK and others have attested, there's no science and there's no good studies supporting the precepts of gender ideology.

And let's be clear, dogma without data is religion.

No one is born in the wrong body.

The board should immediately eliminate gender religion from the curriculum, stop socially transitioning confused children, drop the pronoun madness, and reaffirm your commitment to science, material reality, and the teaching of biology and evolution.

I want to also point out that I was a witness to and a participant in the Million March for Children up in Canada, where thousands and thousands of people across Canada were marching for these same ideas that I just outlined, and that gives you a sense of where our continent really stands, I think.

The next speaker is Theresa Shrimp.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Teresa Schrimp.

I'm a retired attorney in Seattle.

I have three grandchildren in a Seattle elementary school.

I am also one of the signers of the Demand for Action which I really urge you to read carefully.

There's a lot more information in there than I can cover in two minutes.

I am begging you to stop the propagation of transgender ideology in the Seattle Public Schools.

At a very minimum, the materials taught are a waste of precious classroom time and resources in school which are already underperforming academically.

More importantly, transgender indoctrination promotes unscientific and damaging information to young people by introducing them to the notion that something is wrong with them that can really only be cured by gender reassignment.

Gender reassignment is not a cure for anything.

On the contrary, invasive gender change procedures renders an individual infertile and risks lifelong sexual dysfunction.

It results in a mutilated body that is neither truly male nor truly female and it is irreversible.

There is no objective diagnosis for transgenderism.

A diagnosis of transgenderism necessarily relies on self-identification which is notoriously unreliable among children and adolescents.

It can be confused and often is with underlying mental illness issues.

We have a long legal tradition in this country of protecting children from activities which can result in harm.

We do not allow children to engage in sexual activity with adults.

We do not allow them to consume alcohol or cannabis or to marry.

Why?

Because children simply do not have the good judgment to engage in such life-changing decisions.

Sadly, transgenderism is promoted by some in the medical profession, all for the wrong reasons.

Dr. Shane Taylor of Vanderbilt University Medical Center explained that, thank you.

The next speaker is Elizabeth Duranciang.

Hello my name is Beth Duranciang.

I've served four years on PTA and PTO boards at Ingram High School and Nathan Hale High School.

Chloe Cole, Layla Jane, and Luca Hine were all teenage girls struggling with serious mental health issues and were convinced by professionals that transitioning would solve their mental health problems.

They were given puberty blockers, testosterone, and double mastectomies, but then realized that they had been led down a path that they deeply regret.

They are left with lifelong harms and medical complications and are now suing the doctors and other professionals who deceive them with false promises.

Socially affirming children is a significant psychological intervention with the potential for lifelong results that many adults will regret bitterly.

Teachers and school administrators are not equipped to make consequential mental health diagnoses, but many are doing so through curriculum and practices promoted by the Seattle School District.

One school district recently Spreckles Union School District recently settled with a mother after transitioning her daughter while keeping it secret.

They had to pay her for that harm that they'd done to the daughter.

Don't put the school district at more liability by continuing these damaging processes.

No child is born in the wrong body.

No child can consent to puberty blockers.

Please protect kids.

For more information check out parents with inconvenient truth about trans.

genspect.org, that's G-E-N-S-P-E-C-T.org, and Abigail Schreier's book, Irreversible Damage, The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.

And as a final note, the suicide statistics that are often represented come from a deeply flawed study that has no basis in truth.

There's no evidence to show that suicide decreases after transition.

Actually, the opposite is true.

In Sweden, a very liberal country, they found that people who transition are 19 times more likely to commit suicide.

The next speaker is Jennifer Crone.

Hello.

My name is Jennifer.

I'm speaking today on behalf of parents who oppose gender belief systems being taught in schools.

I'm in multiple support groups to thousands of parents who are concerned about schools indoctrinated children with the confusing belief that they are born with an intangible internal essence called a quote gender identity, unquote.

Parents are witnessing children who are once stable and secure becoming confused and insecure when school personnel introduce the idea into their child's mind that they are, quote, born in the wrong body, unquote.

Many parents in the Seattle public school system are afraid to speak at the school board meeting publicly against this for fear of being alienated from their children.

Why?

Because schools are teaching children that anyone who questions opposite sex declarations are automatically hateful.

Also because school personnel may call CPS and accuse them of abuse.

In fact, these things have happened to many parents merely because they reject the dissociative belief that their child has a gendered soul.

The quote gender identity narrative is a belief system with no scientific proof.

Belief systems should not be taught as fact in public schools.

All other belief systems, such as Christianity or astrology, are left out of the public school system.

From the Washington Office of Superintendent Public Instruction, I quote, teaching about religion must be clearly distinguished from teaching religion, which amounts to religious indoctrination and practice and is clearly prohibited in public schools.

A program intended to teach religion disguised as teaching about religion will be found unconstitutional, end quote.

School-wide policies are in place that allow teachers and other personnel to hide from parents what's happening with their own child at school.

To hide that the school is performing a powerful psychosocial treatment on their child without their consent or knowledge.

When schools secretly baptize children with a new identity and pronouns and present themselves to the child as the child's quote, true ally, end quote, in opposition to their own parents, this directly functions to drive a wedge between parent and child.

Further, it puts their child on a harmful and irreversible medical path in which the parents had no knowledge or input.

I now know many parents who have removed their confused children from school districts who affirm the delusion that their child was born in the wrong body and these children desist to become comfortable and rooted in their healthy bodies.

This alone should be a clue that Seattle Public Schools should not be teaching a potentially harmful belief system to their students.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Laura Marie Rivera.

Wow.

Just wow.

My name is Laura Marie Rivera and I had originally intended to just testify about the continued discrimination against students with disabilities but I can see that we have another very pressing issue to discuss and it is so wonderful to see all of the people that have turned up and turned out today and thank you Thank you and I know that some of the people were not even able to get on the list to testify today and I just thank you.

I believe that all of our schools need to be a safe and welcoming environment for all of our students.

Seattle Public Schools has made a commitment to equity and to serve those students furthest from educational justice.

I would like to emphasize this commitment and say thank you to Seattle Public Schools, to the superintendent, to the school board, past, present and future, to the vast and beautiful and diverse staff and every teacher that welcomes our students every day.

and thank you to the parents and families and students and allies who have showed up today and a really special thank you to everyone that is showing up for the very first time to a school board meeting.

Our trans and non-binary, excuse me, our trans and non-binary children are some of our most marginalized students and they need our support.

I'd like to give a shout out to Crosscut for highlighting this exact issue earlier this week and our friends at South Seattle Emerald who couldn't be here tonight but are watching the situation closely and the Seattle Times for their continuing education coverage.

Discrimination should have no place in our schools.

I emphasize on addressing discrimination against students with disabilities but I am proud to speak against the discrimination against our LGBTQIA plus students.

I'd like, I'm gonna skip that part and I'll just tell you.

Thank you again to the district and everybody that showed up tonight.

It truly takes a village and our students deserve the best.

Thanks.

Next speaker is Debbie Carlson.

Good evening.

My name is Debbie Carlson, and I have a first grader in Seattle Public Schools.

My family is mixed race, trans, non-binary, and queer, and I am also the only out LGBTQ plus Seattle board member candidate currently running in 2023. I am here to support all trans non-binary and LGBTQIA students families educators and staff.

I support inclusive curricula that represent the diversity of students lives and prepare a future workforce to be knowledgeable and adept in understanding the diversity of our of their peers.

I support trans and LGBTQIA plus inclusive policies that protect students from bullying and promote a sense of belonging and their educational journey.

During this national LGBTQ LGBTQ backlash Seattle Public Schools should be a sanctuary.

a beacon of hope and an example of how trans non-binary and LGBTQ students families and staff should be treated in the classroom and at schools.

According to SBS 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey 65 percent of trans youth reported engaging in self-harm in the last 12 months.

65% reported depressive feelings and 20% one out of five of trans youth attempted suicide.

These numbers represent Seattle trans youth.

They also show that our trans students do not feel safe in Seattle and that Seattle Public Schools must do more to provide a safe and welcoming learning environment for them.

Currently within the district's strategic plan, as well as the goals and guardrails, there isn't a single mention of LGBTQIA students or their families.

Let that sink in.

LGBTQIA plus students aren't centered anywhere in the district's five-year strategic plan or in the new governance structure called student outcome-focused governance.

This needs to change.

We as LGBTQIA family students and staff deserve safety protection and educational excellence and I urge the district and board to be a shining example of what intersectional equity looks like through your policies curricula professional development student programs family and educator support.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Amy Nelson.

Amy if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Hi I just my phone was a little slow I apologize.

My name is Amy Nelson I'm the parent of two students at STS.

I'm here to show my support for the two-spirit LGBTQIA plus students at all the schools around our district.

The targeted harassment, violence and erasure of trans youth that is occurring nationally cannot further infiltrate our schools.

Our job as a parent and a community is to provide children with a safe environment that is conducive to learning.

Children cannot learn when their safety is threatened.

We know that this rhetoric is harming trans kids every day.

A supportive community is a life-saving one and we need to focus on the research that is clear on this.

it'd be utterly unethical to systemically reinforce transphobia anything less than our ongoing efforts to support and uplift our marginalized students is a moral failure.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Amy Freeman.

Hi everybody, I'm Amy.

I've got two students in SPS and I am proud to be part of this school district that supports gender diverse youth.

I want to thank all of you and I'm glad for the way this school celebrates and supports the intersectionality in all forms of diversity for students.

And I want the record to show that I picked up this free Black Trans Lives Matter poster out front and I'm keeping it and I want to thank whoever did this.

I didn't find it necessary to mention this earlier but since someone else did I too am a lawyer, I'm a practicing lawyer, I'm a public interest attorney and I went on recently I had occasion to find out what the school policy is for name change in schools before kids have legally changed their names because my kid doesn't want me to file that motion in superior court yet because they haven't figured out what their middle name is going to be but they know what their first name is so I looked up the policy and let me tell you, I was thrilled.

This policy is awesome.

It covers everything.

It's nuanced.

It tells parents what happens when legal names have to be used in very certain situations and it tells staff that you should do something when you do have to use the legal name to keep it undercover and not call the kid out.

This is a nuanced policy and I'm thankful for whoever wrote it.

I also want to say I want to support the district's goal of establishing all gender, multi-stall bathrooms in all public schools.

I also want to say nobody, no teacher has ever told my kid they were born in the wrong body or that they needed surgery or what their pronouns were or what their name was.

My kid told me themselves who they were long before they set foot in Seattle Public Schools.

And I also want to say that the SPS policy aligns with the American Academy of Pediatrics, of which my wife is a proud member, and I am so thankful for all that you have done.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Ian Fogg.

Superintendent Jones and members of the school board, my name is Ian Fogg and I'm a student in Seattle Public Schools.

My mom showed me the list of testifiers today and she asked me if I wanted to speak up.

I do.

I have friends who identify in different ways and they all need to be in school.

I feel my education is better when the other students who are with me in class feel safe and welcome.

The world outside of school is beyond our control and there are deeply problematic things happening.

Inside of schools, on our school property, during our school activities, students should be safe to be who they truly are so that they can learn.

Students should be able to go to the bathroom, participate in sports, be in class with their peers.

Seattle Public Schools has a strong history of supporting our LGBTQIA plus students in policy.

As you continue with your policy review and continue in the work that you do as a board, I ask that you continue to explicitly and strongly support our LGBTQIA plus students, and in particular our trans students.

I'm in appreciation of 0010, your 2019 resolution, and also of 3211, gender inclusive schools.

It takes time for us to see policy on classrooms, but I ask that you continue to embed the rights of our trans students in policy and procedure and in our classrooms.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Samantha Fox.

I am Samantha Fogg, immediate past president of Seattle Council PTSA, here to voice the support of Seattle Council PTSA for our trans students, our trans staff, our trans parents, our trans caregivers, and our trans community members, and to recognize the SPS board and staff for the work they have done and continue to do to support our trans students.

My children will be speaking more and so I will be ceding the remainder of my time to Lisa Love.

Thank you.

Thanks, Samantha.

I'm Lisa Love, as you heard before, manager of health education.

I have had the good fortune of working with so many families who are sitting behind me and their children as well as staff.

I really just want to start with saying students who are here, we love you.

You are perfect exactly as you are.

I also just want to mention that there are staff in this room who have done tremendous things to move all of the policy language forward who have contributed to community meetings who have suggested language and I appreciate their input I've worked in the district for 27 years I know I'm about 106 and I have seen school boards that have said, gee, I'm not sure a library should have a book that shows two moms, all the way to having policy language that's incredibly supportive, that's really leading the nation in this work.

So I applaud you all and I appreciate what you're doing and thank you for the consistent support and ongoing support of our trans kids.

Next speaker is Wendy Reynolds.

A few years ago when my youngest child started middle school there was a big change in their personality.

My usually happy and hilarious kid was suddenly very depressed and even suicidal.

I was getting calls three to four times a week to come to get them from the nurse's office.

I kept asking them how can I help and they finally told me that they didn't want to be a boy.

I was taken completely off guard and I said, oh, do you want to be a girl?

Totally lost and not knowing what to do, I did what most parents in this room would do if their kid told them something like this.

I Googled.

I learned that Seattle Children's had a gender clinic.

I called right away to get an appointment, but the wait was 10 months.

I didn't know much at that time, but I knew enough to know that if my kid was actually female, I did not want them to go through male puberty.

We couldn't wait 10 months.

I started crying, and the person on the phone said she would transfer me to somebody who could help me.

I thought she was going to transfer me to the office manager or somebody who could get me a quicker appointment, but the voice on the other end said, hello, this is the crisis line.

Are you having a crisis?

No, I sobbed.

I'm just trying to get my kid an appointment.

The person on the phone was amazing, calming and told me about a group called Trans Families.

He stayed on the phone while I went through the process of signing up and getting confirmed for an upcoming meeting.

We attended the meeting and learned of some other providers in the area and set up an appointment quickly.

I am happy to say that my kid got a puberty blocker and that saved their lives.

I have no doubt about it.

As for trans indoctrination, there isn't any.

There is however a lot of misinformation and fear.

I believe if people would take some time and listen to stories, things can get a lot better.

For all the trans parents and trans kids in the room, I don't look like much, but I've got you.

The next speaker is Emma Fogg.

Superintendent Jones and members of the school board, my name is Emma Fogg.

I use she her pronouns and I'm a freshman at Nathan Hale High School.

Inclusion matters and every student in Seattle Public Schools should get to show up as their whole self and get to learn and be part of their school community.

I know what it is like to be excluded for something unchangeable about yourself.

I am disabled.

This year I have been excluded from one of my classes three times and this is only the 16th day.

It is painful and unfair.

It makes you wonder if you're worth less than your classmates.

I do not want anyone to be excluded based on who they are.

Today, people are debating the rights of students to be themselves.

Trans students are students.

They should be included in every way, in their classes, in sports, and be able to use the bathroom at school.

Our community and our learning is more meaningful when we can all show up as we are our full selves without having to pretend to be somebody else.

We all deserve to be safe in school.

I deserve to be safe and every student deserves to be safe.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Levi Fuller.

Levi if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

The next speaker on the list is Sarah Kent.

Hello, my name is Sarah Kent and my pronouns are she, her.

I'm a parent of two children in Seattle Public Schools.

This is our family's tenth year with students in SPS and our ninth year helping our oldest child to navigate their schools.

First as a gender expansive child in kindergarten and later as an openly transgender non-binary adolescent in ninth grade.

This journey has not always been easy for our family, but it feels important to thank key allies here at the John Stanford Center and at our child's schools who guided us through this process and steadfastly assured us that our students had the same right to exist authentically at school as all other SPS students do.

We're grateful to the Washington State Legislature, OSPI, SPS, and the board directors here for codifying these civil rights into law, enshrining fairness into district policies, and for including information about gender expression and gender identity in K-12 curricula.

While there is still much room for improvement at SPS, we know that the situation is so much worse for children in other areas of the country, and my family is grateful every day to be raising our children here.

For those of you who may still be struggling to understand the concept of gender diversity or who may feel uncomfortable with the idea of your students learning about gender expression and gender identity at school, I'd like to share these words from genderspectrum.org that informed my own journey back when I was still struggling to understand these issues.

School is a place where children are taught to respect one another and to learn to work together regardless of their differences.

Learning about gender diversity is part of that work.

Creating a more tolerant, inclusive, and accepting school environment teaches all children to recognize and resist stereotypes.

We teach children to stand up for others, to resist bullying, and to work together.

Children whose gender is seen as different than what is expected of them can face very difficult circumstances.

Too often, teasing, bullying and violence are common experiences for a gender expansive child.

Gender expansive children and all children deserve a safe, supportive learning environment in which they can thrive and empower themselves.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Michelle Campbell.

Michelle, if you're on the line, please press star six to unmute.

The next speaker on the list is Jacob Fogg.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Superintendent Jones and members of the school board, my name is Jacob Sahl and I am a student in Seattle Public School.

I've been worrying about policy and what you do.

Eventually, a someday might show up to me and to my friends in all classes.

I asked if I could read all your policies and there are only two minutes.

This is an ridiculous amount.

Maybe you find a way to convince them or get rid of what you don't need.

This is too hard.

But my mom should do some of your important ones.

0010 says environments where all students feel seen, heard, and welcomed in all schools and spaces, including general education classrooms, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, social economic status, religious affiliation, LGBTQIA, pro-sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Primarily language, and I mean also identifying also that every level student is a fully included member of their community.

I was just, me and my friends, and all the kids should be okay at school.

Now we know that so not all the kids or even all my siblings are okay yet.

And we know some people are mean to kids because of who those kids are and that is not okay.

It makes it hard to learn when people are mean.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Sarah Kent.

I cede my time to Karen Emmerman-Masner.

Good evening.

Thanks for having us here.

Since we're credentialing ourselves, I'll just say that I'm the mother to a queer SPS student and a professor of ethics and moral philosophy, like Chidi on The Good Place.

Thank you.

So I do feel like I have some expertise in this area.

The ideology that's dangerous is patriarchy.

The idea that children don't know who they are is insulting and disrespectful of young people.

Like Amy Freeman, my kiddo knew who they were long before starting school.

Listening to and respecting young people is their birthright.

Showing up for them and supporting them is their birthright.

As the brave young people who have showed up today, and you are very brave, each and every one of you, can attest, the pervasiveness of cisgender heteronormativity as a norm is not a right.

It's an outdated set of beliefs that erase the existence of so many marginalized people.

The other day, my kid looked kind of depressed.

And I said, what's going on, kiddo?

And he said, I just can't stop thinking about how many people want to kill me and wish I didn't exist.

And I have to go to college next year and I don't know if I'm going to be safe outside of Seattle.

And I wanted to die, me, his mother, right there and then.

I'm proud to say that, fingers crossed, my kid is about to make it out of high school in June and go on to a place where I hope people don't want to erase his existence.

It has been a long and sometimes terrifying and heartbreaking journey as he has made his way through the public school system as the person he is, the beautiful, wonderful, talented, exceptional person he is.

He 100% would not have made it without the extent to which SPS has shown up for kids who are gender diverse.

He 100% would not have made it without Lisa Love.

Thank you.

The next speaker is McKenna Gideon.

Hello, I have nothing profound to say but that I love you to my trans community, I love you to the teachers that are in the LGBTQIA2 spirit community, I love you to our parents, I love you to our students and hate has no place here and you are loved and there are so many more people that couldn't be here today that wanted to be here that found out at 7 o'clock in the morning or 8 o'clock in the morning.

And so this is just a fraction of the love and support that our community has for LGBTQ two-spirit individuals in Seattle.

I am a teacher, I am an artist, and I have no other credentials, but...

but I think that it's important to be here and to show up and to stand up and to say that you are important and you deserve a safe space and you deserve curriculum that teaches other students not to be assholes to you.

I hope that doesn't break our civility but I have seen students come in being misogynistic and being full of the patriarchy and because of our curriculum, because of the stories that we tell, because of the love that is in our school, they leave a better person and they leave a better person to other people.

So it is not just about our LGBTQIA students having a safe place, it's about making our other students see that they are important and they are valued, so they are out there making decisions that matter.

Anyways, I'm rambling because I only found out a couple hours ago and I immediately jumped and said, I've got to teach, but I'm going to be here.

And I love you guys.

And thank you for being here.

The next speaker is Zach Lewis.

Yes, just a mic check before I start.

Yeah, we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay, thanks.

Members of the board, thanks for allowing me to speak on behalf of so many families with elementary students that have just started a new year at SPS.

My name is Zach Lewis.

I'm the father of a third grader at West Woodland Elementary and I'm pleased to say that the start of the school year is going great for our community.

It's now in our third week and the students, faculty, and parents are just starting to get another swing of things.

But I, along with many others in our community, were just told yesterday of an additional budget constraint that's going to be imposed starting next week.

After almost three full weeks of school, Westwood Elementary, along with, I understand, a handful of other elementary schools in the district, are going to be required to change previously approved class sizes to align with state funding requirements.

And the result in our school is going to be the dissolution of an entire first grade class.

and the shifting of a large percentage of children in their current classrooms to completely different classes.

These changes are planned to go into effect starting Monday and negative changes like this after the school year has started are frankly untenable.

It's a huge disruption for our community at large and goes against the well-resourced school philosophy that SPS is trying to encourage.

For our students, their educational experience is going to be degraded Teachers are already into the curriculum at this point in the school year and there's going to be a loss in continuity of instruction which is crucial for their academic progress.

In addition for our fourth and fifth grade students who are by almost every national study published shown to be behind due to the pandemic they're going to be the most negatively impacted by this change.

I'm not sure why we would do that for these kids.

They've already endured so much and they need the most support.

and for our teachers who have already worked very hard at the beginning of the school year, they're setting up their classrooms and preparing their curriculums and now we're asking them to essentially start over.

With no additional time to prepare that seems almost impossible.

And finally, for the parents of SPS students, as you're aware, decreasing enrollment is a major issue.

Public schools should be trying to prove that they can provide a stable and reliable learning environment for children.

This change will do exactly the opposite of that, and it will encourage further exodus from the Seattle public school system.

So I implore the board to do everything it can to prevent these negative changes from being pushed through at the last minute for our elementary schools.

A change like this will likely end up costing SPS more in the long run and it will potentially save then it will potentially save in the short term.

Thanks for your time.

The next speaker is June No Ivers.

Hi.

Hi.

Go ahead.

Hello my name is Juneau Ivers I use she her pronouns and I am the Seattle Council PTSA board member and I cede my time to Astrid Gillan.

My name is Astrid Gillan.

I attended Seattle Public Schools myself and I now have two children in Seattle schools.

One of them is transgender.

I had some stuff to say but after hearing testimony from others I'm going to speak from the heart.

Even in spite of the beautifully inclusive policies that we have in this district on paper my trans child still struggles to access the full range of academic and extracurricular activities at school because of bigotry among students as well as adults in their schools.

It is essential that if your student shares a classroom or a hallway or an auditorium with mine that they understand how to respect their pronouns and treat them as a human being.

I beg you all to continue moving forward to the inclusive future that we would like to see and not move backwards due to bigotry and scientifically unfounded The next speaker is Melissa Westbrook.

Good evening.

I see on the agenda the board resolution that any new board members elected in early November be allowed to attend the State School Directors Association Conference later that month.

I think this is a great idea that there will be at least two new members to the board.

And it states that the theme of the conference is focus and it will be an opportunity to focus on what is important in being a board member.

That's a great question because I think most voters, parents or not, would say transparency and communication are two of the most important things.

And that has not been the hallmark of the current board.

The board speaks of, quote, community vision and values.

and yet there's never been a public forum to talk about that.

They vaguely say they've had meetings with NGOs but don't say who or when.

That's not public engagement.

That the district could not pull off the virtual meeting about well-resourced schools last night should tell you something.

The board is now pushing a word salad of a fiscal policy that would greatly impact PTA, labor partners and others.

If the district wants to see enrollment continue to decline, trying to smack down PTA fundraising and spending will surely do that.

that the board has not made this draft policy public and that it's such cryptic reading, they owe the public more.

I feel quite certain in saying that two things that the old board wants to do before the new board comes in.

One is to announce which schools will be closed in order to head off any attempts to not close schools.

The other is to pass this fiscal policy so as to tie the hands of the new board members and further strengthen the hand of any given superintendent.

I have never seen such a board who wants to give up their oversight power.

I want to add my voice to those who support gender inclusive school communities.

Folks these students are our school communities and we must support them today and every single day.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Joanna Foss.

Joanna if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I cede my time to Adrienne Martin, a student in SPF.

My name is Adrian.

I'm a senior at Lincoln.

My pronouns are he, him, and I am transgender.

I've been out as trans in SBS since eighth grade.

I've been out as queer in SBS since fifth grade.

Being trans is not without its difficulties.

There's a possibility for violence in every weird look I get.

I get misgendered every day.

There's bigotry in the student body and the staff.

It does take its toll.

I'm the one most privileged of my trans peers, and I know that being trans is hard.

Here's the thing that you don't know about your trans kids.

They are stronger, braver, and more stubborn than you think they are.

Confidentiality has been a trans rights topic recently.

I want to speak to those parents opposed.

Exploration is normal.

When you demand that students be outed to families when they try out names and pronouns at school, you are giving them an all or nothing option.

Many kids will choose nothing and go through something hard alone.

And go through something hard alone.

Kids deserve the chance to try out things among their peers.

If they do get that support, they are more likely to share themselves with you as a choice.

One of the best things about a safe space is it makes you strong for the rest of the world.

I am forever grateful for the spaces I have been afforded.

My parents are great, and I wouldn't have come out to them without coming out to school first.

Preventing experimentation doesn't prevent experimentation.

It just prevents expression.

You think you're protecting your kids, but you're not.

You're making a hard life harder.

Your kids are brave.

Don't stand in their way.

The next speaker is Spencer Visek.

Spencer, if you're on the line, please press star six to unmute.

Hi, my name is Spencer Visek.

I'm a parent of a student at Denny Middle School.

I am just calling in today to encourage SBS to continue to support LGBTQIA plus families and students and staff, affirming humanity and dignity of trans people saves their lives.

We still have a lot of bigotry and hate in our community as seen by the bigots who spoke first in this meeting, but we need to continue to support our kids and their families So SPS's own youth risk survey shows that we have a lot more work to do and I thank you for your support so far and I hope that this meeting just affirms that the right thing to do is to continue to support our trans kids and their families.

Thank you.

Before we conclude today's testimony, I want to go back and check on those who may have missed their turn.

The first is Levi Fuller.

Levi if you're on the line.

Levi if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Next on the list is Michelle Campbell.

Michelle if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Moving on to the wait list.

Hello.

Can you hear me.

Michelle.

Hello?

Yeah, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, school board directors and Superintendent Jones.

My name is Michelle Campbell and I'm a mom to a second and a fifth grader and a PTA leader.

I'm here today to speak about the board and superintendent evaluation process.

I'm really excited about the potential within the student outcome-focused governance model and I wanna take a moment to thank you all for bringing this incredibly powerful liberating and healing framework to Seattle Public Schools.

I also wanna uplift the way you all have embraced in my opinion one of the most important aspects of this government model something many adults in our community including myself do not do very well.

You are fostering and modeling the behavior we all want to see in the classroom here in the boardroom.

I'm grateful that our students can witness your diverse and representative team learning in public together.

A team that shows up to collaborate with love, vulnerability, and curiosity.

A team not afraid to tackle hard problems, ask hard questions, and challenge the status quo.

A team that is accountable and adaptive and bold and unapologetic in protecting and affirming all students.

You know and understand that when we say love thy neighbor but we show up with hate and exclude and deny civil rights that our kids, all our kids are learning is hate, exclusion and that only some civil rights matter.

Thank you for protecting and affirming all students.

Thank you for being dedicated and laser focused on our important student outcome goals and equally important, thank you for demanding identity safe practices and welcoming school environments in the process.

It's so vital for our students to see the adults in their lives living their values and recognizing everyone's humanity.

Thank you.

Moving on to the waitlist.

The first on the list is Sarah Beth Zamel.

Sarah Beth if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Next on the list is Diana Charbonneau.

Diana if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

The next is Eli Zavatsky.

Eli if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Yeah hi can you hear me.

Yep we can hear you.

My name is Eli Zavatsky and I am a high school teacher in Seattle Public Schools.

and I have a trans colleague who anonymously wrote a letter that they wanted me to read.

And let me pull that up now.

I'm a transgender SPS educator writing anonymously due to fear of anti-trans retaliation and targeting.

Transgender students are a fact in our schools.

they exist they are telling us who they are they are here and they are hurting.

In Seattle Public Schools in 2021 according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey one in five of our transgender students attempted suicide.

I'll read that again.

In Seattle Public Schools in 2021 one in five of our transgender students attempted suicide.

These rates correlate with higher levels of teasing victimization and bullying.

Today the bullies are adults not children.

When I was growing up as a student in public schools I was not taught a single thing about transgender people.

When it came to the existence of trans identity I was educated in an atmosphere of silence and denial.

This invisibility and hostility led me to suppress my identity for many years at an enormous mental and emotional cost.

Big surprise Even without learning a single thing about trans people in schools or at home, I still turned out trans.

I was as a child and I am as an adult.

Any educated person knows that exposure to ideas reflecting a diverse society does not make a person gay or trans.

But visibility and affirming curriculum saves lives.

Our goal is not for cisgender children to become transgender children, but for transgender children to become adults.

Our trans staff are also terrified for our personal safety.

We did not ask for our identities to turn into a hot button issue that gets manipulated for conservative political clout.

Please, SPS, be unapologetic in your support of us.

We are literally dying out here.

and again this is a letter written anonymously by a trans staff member at SPS.

Thank you.

Before we conclude today's testimony student member Crone Barone would like to add her comments.

Hi can you hear me?

Yep we can hear you Luna.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Luna Crombrone.

I am a Seattle School Board of Directors student member.

I am also openly trans and proud and the first openly trans person to ever serve on the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors and that is a fact that I am proud of and grateful for.

I first of all want to say thank you to the incredible amount of support pouring in since this morning.

The incredible community that has showed up here.

our incredible school board who affirms trans students every day and will continue and I know that this is a commitment and I will continue to push for this commitment to continue to affirm uplift support and most of all celebrate trans and LGBTQ students in our district from now until forever.

One thing I want to say to those in the room if they are still in the room who do not believe in my existence, who try to villainize my body and the bodies of trans people, who try to villainize us as children, and the adults who support us and save our lives.

I want to say, I wish you love.

I wish you more love in your life.

I wish you a more loving way of viewing the world.

because the incredible thing about being a young trans person and the trans community that amazes me every day and inspires me every day is that no matter how hated we are, no matter how much hatred we face, how much discrimination, how much violence, we remain such a loving community who our identities are built on love, open love for ourselves and our truths and our community.

And I feel love and I can hear and feel the love in the room today.

So I wish you who want to deny us our existence, want to deny us our fundamental rights, I wish you more love.

I also want to thank Lisa Love who has supported me, defended me, fought for me every step of the way as a trans kid through Seattle Public Schools because it has been a hard process.

It has been difficult and I wish and I hope and I will make the commitment that I will continue fighting for all the trans kids who come after me in Seattle Public Schools to make their experience less hard than mine.

And I want to to send the message to every trans kid hearing this right now every student in the room that teacher who left that incredible message anonymously that I love you and I'm here with you and I'm in pain with you And I hope we can all find a more loving way forward together, no matter how complicated that may be.

And I hope that those who wish to deny us our existence will most of all find that love in their lives and in the ways they lead themselves in the world.

Thank you.

This concludes today's testimony.

Thank you.

If y'all will humor me for just a second I just had a thought that popped into my head and I would be remissed if I did not share it.

A lot of y'all know that I was a teacher for a number of years and one of my favorite months surprise surprise is Black History Month and during Black History Month we read this book about Ruby Bridges.

Y'all know who Ruby Bridges is?

Of course you do.

And I just remember this conversation.

It was my first or second year teaching.

This little girl.

We're reading the book.

And in this picture, there's that iconic photo of Ruby Bridges being escorted into school.

Mobs of people who didn't want people that looked like me and our superintendent to go to school.

Now look at us, eh?

But one of the things she said really stuck with me.

She said, man, they came all that way just to hate on that little girl.

Yeah, they did.

And then she asked me, is Ruby Bridges still alive?

I was like, yeah, she is.

And I was like, wow, are those people still alive?

I was like, I don't know.

I was like, I wonder if they feel any different now.

And that's the cool thing about cameras, right?

When we look back at this, and this is in HD Technicolor Forever on YouTube, I really wonder what are people going to think right.

And then it came to me I don't have to wonder because our community has showed all of us exactly what we think that people regardless of how you show up in this world deserve love.

And that goes for each and every person.

And I just want to say on behalf of this board and on behalf of everybody in this room that even as a Mississippian living here in Seattle, y'all have shown me time and time again why this community is so beautiful and so wonderful and there are so many children who are going to be watching this video back 50, 20 years from now on their Apple Vision Pros.

And they're like, dang, I wonder if those people feel any differently.

So with that, I'm going to give us a 10-minute recess, because I'm tired, right?

And hopefully we'll have some time to regroup, come back, and get back to business.

Thank you, everybody, for being here tonight.

Okay, directors, I gave y'all a couple extra minutes, but it's 620. We need one more for a quorum.

We do have a quorum.

I'm gonna go ahead and get started.

All right.

We have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Approval of the.

I second.

Lit.

Thank you Director Sargent.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Rankin and seconded by Director Sargent.

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda this evening?

All right.

Seeing none we will now move on to a vote of the consent agenda.

All those in favor of the consent agenda please signify by saying aye.

All those opposed any abstentions.

Consent agenda passes unanimously.

Thank you all very much.

All right we have now come to the one introduction item on today's agenda approval of the board resolution number 2324-4 resolving that those persons newly elected to the November set or excuse me newly elected on November 7th 2023 to the Seattle School District Board of Directors be designated to attend the annual conference of the Washington State School Directors Association to be held November 16th through the 18th 2023 as representatives of the district.

As a sponsor I will present this item Washington State School Directors Association's annual conference will be held next month and the conference will include sessions tailored for newly elected board directors.

This year's conference, however, will take place before directors newly elected on November 7, take the oath of office and begin serving on November 29. WASTA has advised districts sending directors elect to pass a resolution providing that directors elect are designated as representatives of the district for attendance at the conference.

Passage of this resolution would be consistent.

Yeah, revolution.

There we go.

Turn up.

Passage of this resolution would be consistent with the approach taken by the board in past election years.

The board office will confirm with directors elect their intent to attend the conference and ensure that they are registered.

Do directors have any questions on this item?

Lit.

Okay.

Yep.

All right.

Cool.

Thank you very much.

Yep.

Okay so board self evaluation will now move into our time use evaluation.

Thank you Vice President Rankin for evaluating the last meeting and providing the detailed evaluation with today's materials.

Director Rivera-Smith is next in the rotation and will complete the evaluation for tonight's meeting.

Thank you in advance Lisa you're great.

Are there any takeaways from either meeting that you would like to discuss Vice President Rankin.

Take it away.

I would I was looking at you know just as we've gone throughout this process been thinking more and more about like what we do in this room and what our role is outside of this room and that this meeting you know a regular board meeting has there's specific prescribed legal things that we have to do and approve and because we're a governance board we need to do those things in public.

but it's really I mean today aside because that was kind of amazing but generally it should be kind of procedural boring we're approving things we've we've fully vetted talked about and and we do spend you know like our work sessions of course increase a lot of time that's not specifically tied to goals guardrails and such.

But I had as I ramble on and on it thought which was.

the liaison updates if it wouldn't do two things which is make updates from board liaisons more accessible and shorten our non student focused time to provide board updates written.

and have those be attached to the agenda.

That was just a wonder that I had then you know members of the public could have access to our updates without having to watch the meeting.

So I don't know that was not necessarily a takeaway just a wonder if that was a way to use time a little more efficiently.

I love that.

Yeah I think that's a great idea.

I'll talk with staff to see whether that's something that we need to talk about or if I as the president can just do.

But we will have that discussion.

Thank you for that feedback and thank you for completing the evaluation.

Oh the other question I had was I didn't I did the I did the regular board meeting and I did a work session and I didn't do any I didn't add any committee meetings that there may have been.

Tsk tsk.

Because I know that's part of full board use time but I wasn't sure where we were in our process if we wanted to do that or not so.

OK.

Thank you for the work.

Any questions on time use.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we will now have a work session and I am told that it is brief today on policy evaluation tool.

Oh my gosh.

On the policy evaluation tool that will be used for our policy manual review process.

I will pass it to Vice President Rankin as we move to the tables out there.

Our chair of the ad hoc policy manual review committee now to begin the work session.

All right.

Well my fellow committee members are not present in the room but I see your faces on the screen.

While we're getting the PowerPoint up on the screen there, I will just give us a little intro.

So this work session is about the draft policy evaluation tool being developed by the ad hoc policy manual review committee.

We'll start with just a quick overview of the charter of this committee, which is our reason for being a committee, and where we are in our work.

And then we'll look at a review of the draft tool and some samples of how we have used the tool to evaluate some policies.

And then we will have the full board try it out on two policies and gather feedback so we can refine the tool and move into the next stages of work.

So we're building on earlier work of the ad hoc governance committee that made the recommendations to do this policy work and that committee recommended a policy manual review to align with our governance model and charted out some recommended implementation steps President Hersey then chartered the ad hoc policy manual review committee last spring and that committee is chaired by myself and also includes Director Rivera-Smith and Director Sargeo.

So we're chartered to develop recommendations for a policy manual that is informed by best practices, that conforms with legal requirements, and, well I will say maybe most importantly, in my mind anyway, enables us to regularly review and evaluate our policies in a way that is predictable and consistent and improves our accountability to the public of what we all are expecting for our students.

Ellie is going to take the next slide.

The committee put together a work plan to support their work under the charter and it consists of four main deliverables.

Tonight's going to focus on that first one which is developing a Seattle Public Schools policy evaluation tool.

You'll become pretty familiar with that throughout the course of this work session.

The remaining deliverables the committee hasn't yet moved toward but the tool it will sort of unlock the ability to get going with that work.

So the second deliverable is evaluating policy series 0000 and 1000s using that tool and then based on those findings leading a board review of the 1000 series policy looking at potential recommendations for any changes to that policy series and then recommending a policy adoption and review process.

So how the board would go about policy work in the future.

Oh and then apologies Vice President Rankin and I also had a conversation following our last committee meeting about what we've heard from directors so far about some of the outcomes that you're seeking from this work and some of those are clarity for the board the superintendent and his staff and the public on many fronts including roles policies and shared and individual obligations so a lot of clarity around those needed.

more definition and differentiation as to why the board has various policies and finally a policy model that supports board governance through the policies you adopt and most frequently review and then also board focus on student outcomes to the goals you set and monitor.

This slide documents some of the committee's work to date.

I'm not going to go through it in great detail.

But this shows the general flow of committee work to review some source materials, guidance documents, how policy work is sort of supported through WASD in Washington State, the work of the Ad Hoc Governance Committee, prior reviews by Moss Adams.

So a lot of kind of inputs into this work to look through and then the committee's progress towards developing this policy evaluation tool is also documented there.

So starting with development of a work plan coming up with an initial draft of that tool then developing a final draft that the committee used to evaluate numerous policies kind of refining their understandings as they went and then finally here today you have this work session to support the committee in finalizing the tool at their next meeting.

The next slide is the tool itself which is a pretty simple document in terms of what it is seeking to cover, the magic and how it is utilized.

The tool builds on some of the recommended practices for how one would engage in a policy mailing review and that would be looking at goals, guardrails, governing and delegation as your four main categories.

The committee also had conversation about including information about whether the policy has an analogous WASDA or Washington State School Directors Association policy so whether the state agency that supports school boards has developed a policy that is similar and then also how that state agency WASDA has classified their recommended policies whether they deem it to be essential, which means that, in WASD's eyes, having that policy is legally necessary, whether it's discretionary or encouraged.

And then, finally, there is also a compliance column.

That's where we just would chart whether or not we have to have that policy by virtue of state or federal law, generally.

Did you want me to go into the specifics of each area or do that in relation to the policies?

if maybe pause and see if everyone's good where we are to this point.

If we don't have questions I'd say let's continue.

But I want to give folks a minute to respond or ask questions if they need to.

Looks like none.

OK.

Oh sure.

Moving into the next slide I'll go into a little bit more detail but I will just flag those right two columns are kind of grayed out on there because the thought is that that analysis would be conducted with some staff support with some legal support.

And so those ones kind of get backed out of this document as we move forward but I don't want the board or anyone watching this to think that we aren't reviewing for whether something is legally necessary and we're not tapping into those resources that are available through the state.

This next slide then provides sample analysis from the committee on four policies.

The committee conducted these reviews over the course of several meetings and came back to some of their earlier reviews.

It was iterative as their baseline shifted for what these categories mean to the committee and how they would scale them.

You can see up here that the scores range between 0 and 10. So that is the scale that is being utilized by the committee in this tool.

And I was going to sort of toggle between the policies and come back here unless you want to take these pieces on.

Well, I just want to add that it's kind of a reminder or the context that none of this makes decisions about what to do with any policies.

A policy that gets a zero doesn't self combust or anything like that.

What we're using this tool for is just to identify what do we have in our policy manual?

What is this policy for?

Who's responsible for the work in the policy?

All policies are board approved.

but some policies are more about implementation and management and some policies are about governance and then within that there's these different buckets so just to what we're looking at right now is just a way to identify what our policies are not make any determinations about what happens to them.

that will come later.

And that basically our scale of one to 10 is, or zero to 10 is, zero would be not at all aligned, 10 would be completely aligned with the bucket there, and then there's some in between.

If directors will indulge me, I'm going to take these a little out of order because I think Vice President Rankin did a great segue to some of the concepts that are evidenced with policy 2025. So I'm going to skip forward to a slide about that policy and then we'll come back to that scoring.

So 2025 is your policy that's about copyrights.

There's just a summary or there's a snippet of the policy there.

It's too big to fit on the slide, but I promise you it carries on in relatively similar character.

So this policy speaks about restrictions on the use of copyrighted material and ownership of copyrighted works developed in the district.

You've got the printed ones in front of you, so I'm going to go back to the committee's analysis on this one.

It's pretty small but I'll let you know that it just says zeros across the board.

So for the committee this illustrates really what a zero looks like in evaluating on goals and this is the board's direction to the superintendent for student outcomes based on the vision of the community and then in the tool it has the goals that have been adopted by the board so that it's really specific to those goals.

and it scored a zero.

Under guardrails, also scored a zero.

So this is board's direction, the superintendent based on the community's vision and then it lists a summary of your guardrails.

And then on governing and delegation, governing talks about the board's relationship and processes with the community.

directors and the full board.

These are typically policies about the board's role, board member roles, officer roles, committee roles, self-evaluation, board meeting processes, and community engagement processes.

So again, in that area, the committee scored it at zero.

And then finally under delegation, this is about how the board's relationship with your direct reports, which there's two of them, your internal auditor and then of course your superintendent.

and again the committee found that this policy scores a zero.

So to the point that Vice President Rankin was making, this doesn't necessarily mean that this kind of operational policy shouldn't exist.

It doesn't mean that it's just all of a sudden disappears.

It may be that this policy is required by a state or a federal law.

If not, then the requirements of this policy may be still might be worth retaining for another reason.

For instance, you may...

The cat got me.

The cat got me.

Sorry.

So it might be required by state or federal law, in which case you would need to retain it as a board policy, or perhaps it's important content, but maybe it's not of the character of a board policy and maybe it is retained as a superintendent procedure.

So the tool doesn't tell you exactly what your next step is, but it helps you to understand a little bit more about the character of this policy and help to categorize them.

Any committee member feedback or discussion on this one or other?

This is just an example of zeros, basically.

Do you want me to go to another one or do you want to take one?

All right, so that's the example of a zero.

So now we can do an example of a 10, which is the board policy 1005, says right in the title, the responsibilities and authority of the board.

And the purpose is to define the authority, duties and powers of the board in carrying out its mission.

So if we go back to the tool, we found that to be completely aligned with governing because it is 100% about the role of the board.

It is both directed by the board as the board and the work contained within it is about what the board does.

So this is about our why we exist.

So that is 100% aligned to governing.

So it got a 10. The next one, 1620, is the board superintendent relationship which has a 10 in delegation and a five in governance because it does include things that the board must do but its primary function for existing and the content that's in it is about the board superintendent relationship.

which we have defined delegation as being policies that describe the board superintendent relationship.

So again, that's in the title.

And yeah, so we had some that were a 10 in one area and then a five or a three in other areas.

Obviously the 10 would be the most defining score there.

And according to our tool, we would say that this is a delegation policy.

Do you want to do 16, or 62, 15?

I'd love to, oh, I see Director Rivera-Smith.

Uh-oh, your sound is, I don't know if you've got a cat on your mic.

We can't hear you.

Better?

I don't know what to do.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Hold my laptop, it's floating.

As long as we look at these policies that we weren't looking and this might have already been covered a little bit, that we weren't looking at like if we agreed with it 100%, if that was perfectly written, if we didn't, even if there were things that we would have changed We weren't doing that.

We were purely looking at it from these bucket standpoints.

So it's not cool to know that we weren't trying to doctor the policies or change them or anything like that.

Any kind of work like that will come later after the evaluation has been complete.

Thank you that's a super good reminder yeah because we did especially at the beginning we were like oh well if it said this instead of this then that would be that.

But we tried really hard to be disciplined about we're just trying to identify what's here.

So thanks Lisa.

The next policy is 6215. I'm going to put that on the screen.

Sorry.

This one I believe fits in its entirety on the screen.

So this is your policy about warrants.

The committee reviewed this policy recently and had some considerable shifts between individual directors' initial evaluation of this policy and where the committee ended up.

Going back to the analysis of this one, you have the policy in your printouts.

The committee scored this as a 10 for governance and that's because this policy outlines the board's responsibilities for approving warrants.

The committee also had additional conversation relating to delegation with committee members scoring somewhere in the zero to two range in their final conclusions because it authorized the superintendent to draw and sign warrants.

This one again it shows another example of the zero for goals, the zero for guardrails.

Ten was given to it for governing because it is a policy about board responsibilities and then it's got a little bit of a handoff to the superintendent so some committee members gave it some delegation points.

Yeah, and this one was, it's interesting.

So again, we're trying to just identify what we have, not make judgments about it.

But in our other language and work around governance, some other governance policies really have kind of our position on something or our direction on something, and this one is something that has to happen.

So that's where in the later steps, like, is this a legal requirement, and that's why it exists.

but we can talk about that later to make sure it ends up in the right place because I think this is quite different from us being clear about a relational or directional on behalf of community kind of policy.

So yeah, it's a good example.

I just had a quick question.

What's the criteria for a policy to score a three opposed to a five or a six in a certain bucket or does that remain just subjective to the committee?

So we somehow came to some kind of consistency.

This is a really good question and why we wanted to bring this to the full board is that we found and committee members correct me if I misspeak that we came to some pretty good alignment and in the final version of the tool should pinpoint what a three actually means.

We did find that there was some kind of a shared definition where we were all sort of like, yeah, that's a three.

But we need to get more specific and we'll do that with your feedback about what that means.

And you also had discussion about maybe compressing to a one to five scale as well right?

So to make it easier to provide the.

We did, which we can also talk about maybe after we go through two with you all is that the other thing we discovered that most of the things, we didn't have a lot of eights or fours.

We kind of had one, three, five, seven, 10. So would it be clearer to have a zero through five instead of a zero through 10?

Or does it help to understand the difference between a seven and 10?

That's something we can talk about too.

Lisa?

I just wanted to offer I think the two was me if I recall correctly because it had that line in there that says the superintendent shall be authorized to draw and sign warrants.

We kind of had a discussion how all policies are a directive to the superintendent or they say it should be in one way from Oregon to ourselves.

So

Do we give all policies some ranking for that one?

Well I think we can read that that was a no but this one in my opinion had a very specific directive that was different than general policies which was to authorize and draw and sign warrants or he's authorized to draw and sign warrants.

So that was why I think I stayed on a two for that.

I think I just wanted to explain.

I felt like I needed some sort of allotment of points.

One other kind of observation the committee's work.

The baselines really shifted over time.

You had to evaluate more policies to get a sense of where you wanted to kind of allot your scores.

The committee had conversations in sort of the later stages about is essentially is the policy a prerequisite for the thing existing?

If we erase the policy but a state law already tells us to do the thing does that make it score lower on governance?

And I think there was still a little bit inconsistency on that.

You can see that because the warrants report is a 10 for governance but some of that is kind of tied to state requirements.

But there's Ultimately, I think the committee stabilized a little bit on that point of it doesn't necessarily have to be elective for it to constitute governance or delegation in some way.

The committee also started the process kind of searching, scouring our long policies for any kind of hint of something, right?

So if something had a cross reference to policy 0030, it was in the beginning, it was getting scored as being aligned with your guardrails.

or if a policy mentioned the creation of a superintendent procedure, either permissive or mandatory, it was getting scored as potentially a delegation.

The committee, as its work evolved, it started biasing, instead of biasing toward really long, detailed policies, it actually started to look at what percentage of the policy is about the thing and allotting points that way.

So just a few notes about how the work shifted over time.

Do any directors have any questions or comments at this point before we move to our next item or next part of this?

All right cool.

So we wanted to we picked two I think two policies to just sort of test out the process get a feel for it for those of you who are not on the committee.

and so we chose 1810 annual goals and objectives.

Each year the board will formulate goals and objectives.

The goals and objectives may include but are not limited to the board functions of vision structure accountability and advocacy.

At the conclusion of the school year the board shall reflect on the degree to which the goals and objectives have been accomplished by conducting a board self evaluation and engaging in board development activities where needed.

So this is a policy that currently exists in our board policy manual as it exists.

To my knowledge this board has not made amendments to this or this is a standing existing policy and how do we want to proceed.

So I guess where would we score this based on what's in it not what we think should be in it.

I assume you're looking for non-committee members to answer this.

I think we shall let them try.

Yeah.

To start.

To start.

Yes.

So when you say goals in the first column those are overarching goals right.

So I would think that annual goals and objectives does not necessarily align with our overarching goals.

So would that mean that we would rate it lower

So if if to score high in goals it has to be aligned to the board's direction to the superintendent for student outcomes.

Yeah.

So if it's for us it should not score highly.

I'll take my blue ribbon now.

We can both have blue ribbons.

And.

And.

Under governing it says the board's relationship slash processes with community members directors and full board.

So I actually under governing would give that a 10 and under delegation I'd give it a zero.

I think we can both be right here.

Yeah.

Blue ribbons for everybody.

Good job.

A plus.

I got an A too.

Yeah.

0 0 10 0.

So that would be zero goals, zero guardrails, 10 governing, zero delegation.

And I've put this earlier slide back on the screen because it's probably too small to read, but this has the full text of your goals and guardrails.

So just to signal that it really is about those goals and guardrails that the committee is referring to.

I have a question.

So just from the scoring, did y'all make this from scratch?

I can't remember if you said that or not.

Or is there another district that y'all based this off of?

We started with what's in the Council of Great City Schools policy evaluation.

Okay that makes sense to me.

I'm wondering even if like as opposed to numbers do you think there might be words that we could use that would actually like communicate what we're trying to do because what I'm seeing here is like low medium high in terms of priority or maybe something like that.

I'm just trying to think about like how to make it accessible and in terms of like you know is there that much of a difference between like a one and a two right as you're thinking about consolidating down.

I might even advocate for a one to three scale.

If you know not knowing the body of work that has gone into this so just trying to think about if we were to present this in some fashion how are we providing access.

So I would say I think low, medium, high is definitely worth considering.

And maybe we should try the next policy and see what comes up.

And also that, yes, it should be understandable and presentable, but also that the primary function of this is for us to be able to use it effectively.

So yeah, hopefully it's understandable to people.

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

We thought, too, should we do an A, B, C, D, E, F?

Yeah.

So basically what we used was a 0 through 10, identified that there could be other ways to do that scale, and that we just need to hone down on what designs it.

Yeah, that makes total sense to me. 100%.

Thank you for answering my question.

And my question and it's funny I think he was reading my notes.

Is there another district that has implemented SOFG that we can see their process on their policy manual?

for understanding purposes.

Was it successful?

Yeah.

One really good example is Kansas City Public Schools that very specifically implemented student outcomes focused governance framework.

There's a lot of other districts in Washington that have used a policy governance model that student outcomes focused governance is basically taking a lot of elements of a policy governance model and making it into a framework that's specific to schools, to school boards.

Policy governance is a general board.

There's also like coherent governance and there's some other models.

I'm talking about this process.

but I know definitely Kansas City schools and then even if you look at, I don't know how they did it in like federal way but they use policy governance and they have the categories of governance policies and administrative or operational policies in the similar way that we're thinking about these buckets though they didn't necessarily get to it by this exact process.

So I don't know, maybe do you know?

By some process, they would have had to do a similar evaluation and identify what they had.

Yeah, I believe this is written up in the implementation guide.

I interviewed University Place most extensively about it and I definitely encourage anybody to go look at their policies and their policy manual because of how they represent the monitoring component of it right there in line.

with the policy itself in these same categories.

So they've been doing it for 20 years.

It's a long time.

Brandon and I also interviewed Federal Way, the person who helped move them along.

So there is this sort of process of figuring out what you're keeping for the policy manual and then everything else is left to staff to kind of go through the same kind of rubric to get to figure out if there's anything that needs to be filtered up for some reason.

But yeah, I'll have to go back and reread that and see what the, because I know Rick sent me some really detailed notes about exactly when they did their, how they did their process.

And he could come speak to us if we want to.

So does that mean, pardon me if I'm not getting it, I apologize in advance.

Does that mean then that the policies that they didn't find quote unquote useful under SOFG were brought to the board to nullify or ditch them?

No, no, no, they just aren't the, SOFG is just the student-focused framework, right, and the policy governance is a general concept that can be for non-school district boards as well, is about the notion of the ends that you seek, which are our goals, and then the limitations, on achieving those goals, which we call guardrails.

And then there's all the other really important pieces called governing and delegation.

And those same categories exist in these other models that don't have the layer of the student outcomes piece.

And all the other, no policies go away.

unless the superintendent comes and says, hey, these policies are inconsistent with what you have in goals, guardrails, governance, and delegation, and we need to make some amendments.

They still stay here and they still require board approval.

They're just not part of the package of regularly monitored, as in annual to every two years, policies that is the board work.

The responsibility of keeping abreast of policy is staff.

Thank you for that explanation.

I had the impression we were trying to do a policy diet and in fact I've heard that phrase from you.

And I purposely called this policy review because I felt like policy diet wasn't really accurate.

OK.

And I guess I guess something to think about and I'll spend some time thinking about that.

Where does that and I think Council Narver will help us on that.

where does that put us in terms of legal liability down the road?

If we're not ditching the policies that we're not connected with here through this process but they're still sitting out there from a plaintiff's perspective that's kind of a dream.

I mean they still And so this is really about to me anyway and I and I don't want to get us too far ahead of the next step while we're trying to really nail down what the tool is that just establishes.

But the the governance policies everything else that happens should be aligned with what we've dictated in the governance policies and right now the structure that we have any policy anywhere from the zeros to the sixes is sort of evaluated or brought to us of equal importance.

and we don't spend as much time being really clear about our directives and so this would basically allow us to say these are our governance policies under which everything else should align and then the other more administrative policies a lot of them are still very important to have and to be brought before the board but don't need to be with the frequency with which we should be holding everyone accountable to our more direct direct you know our direction to the superintendent.

The word diet is gone then.

Yeah OK can I add on to the legal part of it I I I believe that if we do this successfully and what I understand from other policy governance districts is not only one of the things I know they're they're way more successful than we are at is community engagement.

because of their shift in the use of time.

But the other piece is that they're actually more on top of their policies because they have a much smaller set of policies that the board, through the process, what this is doing, we're prioritizing.

or prioritizing the policies that matter to our governance process, which includes the setting of goals.

So let's say, for example, one thing that I really like that University Place has that I think is very brave and very interesting is they actually have a physical health goal for their kids.

and I think that's really interesting.

I want to talk to them more about that.

How did you come to this conclusion?

What does that look like?

But it starts to wrap in a whole bunch of other, if we made that commitment, let's say in the next round of the next strategic plan, then it would bring in a whole set of policies that the superintendent would be responsible for, revising and getting up to speed based on a really clear SMART goal associated with physical health.

And so then it would sort of bring that set of those other policies into greater focus for the superintendent.

So we are setting, you know, it's sort of like the, we're in the middle of the pie and we're saying here's our core, literally in the core policies and then everything that radiates out of that needs to be consistent and we're not always gonna be focused on everything because we can't.

So we have to say, okay, and right now what we're focused on is this goal.

And again, I find that one exciting and it would really provide us the opportunity to, as a district, to really clean up our practices around how we support that, how we approach that whole child aspect of education.

That's not what we're doing right now, but it doesn't mean that it's not a worthy focal point down the line.

Does that help?

So I think it actually limits our legal liability.

It helps me a great deal and I like you using your example.

Thank you very much.

And just to add to that, I assume that we will find many policies that are zeros across the board that still are critical to retain.

I imagine we will find some that we're like, okay, it's not a governance policy and it's not really helpful for implementation and we discover, oh, that state law change or whatever, then we would decide together like, yeah, let's get rid of it.

but I think most of what we will discover will say, okay, this isn't a governing policy but it's really important that we retain it and that it still come before the board in a regular consistent basis but we won't be spending as much board time on it as we are on these other ones.

Cool.

One thing that the committee has discussed is that the policy evaluation tool, it doesn't dictate or generate an automatic result like you were describing.

It doesn't flip a switch on a diet that happens and the policy book is transformed.

It's a tool that's used to catalog the board's existing policies, figure out why you have them, what they cover, and then to generate data that would support the board in making those decisions like what was just described here.

The committee's deliverables again are basically developing this tool, using the tool on the initial policy series, and then making recommendations based on those findings.

So the committee has talked about how once you have that data on a section of policies, you'll start to see some patterns, some gaps, and be really well poised to make a really SPS specific decision about what you do with this information as the committee makes recommendations back on any policy shifts in that initial series as well as how you want to go about policy making and policy reviews in the future.

Go ahead, Director Song.

I'm wondering if you came across any policies that would have scored higher than a five for goals and goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals goals

Policy 1010 on progress monitoring.

Yes thank you.

Which is a governance policy but also could potentially be a goals guard.

Could be a goals guard policy.

Some districts actually have a new policy that they approve where like so we approved we adopted our goals in a public meeting.

They're online but they actually don't they're not they're not in in policy.

so some other districts I've seen have a policy I would consider a 10 in that because it specifically says our three goals attached to this strategic plan are these specific measures that would then of course change as the board adopts different goals but it's actually set as a board policy so that would be a 10.

And another way to answer that is that if we hadn't started this work in the middle of a strategic plan then we would have you know we heard some comments about it tonight but we had actually gone out to the community already in the process of establishing that strategic plan.

There was a massive amount of work and there was that would have been horrible to throw that out and folks don't realize that that we.

started midway through with this existing strategic plan.

But for the next strategic plan, the top line goals that the board adopts would immediately become policies in the policy governance manual.

And they would be what other districts call the ends or some of them call them the goals, it doesn't really matter.

But this is our expectations of what we expect you to focus on and achieve, not to the exclusion of everything else, but this is our top line measures.

and where we want you to, you know, that focus I was talking about for right now, like let's say that we added a health, or I mean a physical wellness piece, then that would kind of change the dynamics, because as you work on things, things get better, right, and you can kind of move on to other things, but it would be a more natural segue if we, at the start of the next strategic plan for this next board.

That answers partially my second question.

I'm just wondering is there a target mix of policies that we're trying to work towards similarly to how like we're working towards a target mix of how many minutes we're spending talking about X in our meeting?

You mean a mix of governance versus administrative or?

A mix of goals, guardrails, governance, delegation.

No.

Not necessarily.

The policy governance model very strongly prescribes or recommends that you do not have more than five goals, ideally three, and that your guardrails are no more than five.

But even that, there wouldn't be a policy for each separate goal.

There would just be the goals policy.

Well, there actually is in other districts.

They have separate policies.

Oh, really?

Well, anyway.

It doesn't matter.

But I'm just saying.

There's not like a how many policies should be goals, how many policies should be guardrails.

We're probably going to end up mostly with governance policies than maybe second delegation than the other two.

But there's not necessarily a.

The main thing that we want to do is just identify what what do we have and I think we're going to find probably we don't have very many goals and guardrails policies which is a little bit of a you know alert because that's what we've asked everyone to prioritize.

But yeah in terms of like proportions I don't think there's anything.

And I think they set it up that way because then they can directly go flow to the monitoring of that particular goal and there's a management interpretation of that goal listed here's what the goal set here's what the superintendent it's a it's really like you know like putting the microscope on the relationship by saying here's what the board said here was the superintendent's response to that and here's the actual monitoring and that is all in line with the policy itself.

That would also put, in terms of goals and guardrails, put much more control with the board if, for example, we decide that, oh, maybe this, if the superintendent decides, oh, maybe we should adjust that a little bit, not that you would do that, but that would require actually coming before the board and saying, hey, we've encountered, we've learned something, we think this should change, it would come to the board to approve that.

and then also in setting the next goals it's 100% within the hands of the board in a very defined and public way too.

Just try and recap that to make sure we're bundling that into the future committee work.

So there's not kind of a perfect mix of policies that the board is seeking for.

It's more about cataloging your policies to know why you have them and then making decisions about them.

There is guidance that's specific to how many goals and how many guardrails the board should have, but when we get to governance, for instance, it's really just a matter of preference for the board and whether you want to have a really long policy that describes a lot of different aspects of governance or whether you want to break that up into discrete one-sentence policies or how you want to structure that work is going to drive the mix that you have.

And then on the other question you had about does anything score on goals and guardrails?

So I wouldn't say that these are the committee's final analysis because the committee's baselines really shifted with each iteration because they were focusing on building out the tool, not on finalizing their assessments of the policies.

but there were quite a few policies, not quite a few, there's a sprinkling of policies in the mix that they did that scored kind of in the five, three, here's an eight range under goals and guardrails and this, they were earlier scoring much more generously in that area and then ultimately were like, oh, it's not that we need to find every policy as being aligned in goals and guardrails, we just have to have goals and guardrails and the board does have those.

The real answer to your question Director Song is actually that it has to be within the scope of what the board can review on an annual to semi-annual basis.

That's the whole notion of a policy manual is that it's something that we can actually because we haven't reviewed our in the series that the bulk of the series that make up the policy manual haven't been touched for like a decade.

So that's what we're trying to get away from is like we can't have policies, we're not in compliance with the vast majority of our policies.

Yeah, and so this is to try to get us to being in compliance with the vast majority of our policies by us focusing on what we can manage.

So that's the mix is what we can, what can we manage to hold the superintendent accountable to, what can we manage to hold ourselves accountable to, and then what can we hold ourselves, well if that's it, it's us.

It's just us, what we're accountable to for our community.

But I really want people to hear that.

We have not ever done that.

We have not ever reviewed our policies in this way on an annual basis or a semi-annual basis and said, okay, let's take a look.

How are we doing on this?

And that's led to a lot of policies that have vision and values kind of imbued in them in ways that get kind of muddy and confused about who's responsible for this work, whereas if we can be very clear about, yes, these things and these policies must happen, and it's our governance policies that give the direction about how we expect that to happen.

we don't have to wordsmith as a body of seven every policy so that reflects our values because we're going to be very clear about that in the governance policies, I hope.

All right, so the other policy that we brought forth to try out is about contracting.

It is policy 6220 procurement and probably you don't want to have me read the whole thing but this is about the policy of the Seattle School Board to attain materials, equipment, goods, supplies, services, construction, blah blah blah, everything that we would procure.

and it says that it's our policy that that be done with all applicable laws, which is already the law, and that district staff will use sound business and financial practices and that the following, and then it designates the following contracts, changes and amendments must be approved by the board and lists out what kind of contracting and monetary limits have to come to the board for approval.

And some more things about if there's a change in a, you know, from budget to expenditure.

And also some direction that the district, about who the district to contract with to prioritize minority businesses, women's business enterprises.

small businesses, et cetera, et cetera.

And then it ends with the board delegates to the superintendent all other authority and responsibility for procurement within the budgets as approved by the board.

The superintendent may delegate such authority to procurement staff or other designees as the superintendent deems appropriate.

The superintendent is authorized to develop procedures to implement this policy.

So how how would we score this one.

And this one's tricky so don't skip ahead.

The committee surprised staff with how they wanted to go about this.

No cheating.

under governing the oversight and trust issues with our public and our careholders is really critical and we've got some fairly nasty scandals in our past.

So on the one hand do I always spend my life reading this stuff?

No.

On the other hand I think that a large majority of the public think that this board is in fact watching watching the henhouse.

So I don't know where I would put it in terms of governing but I do think it's part and parcel of our job.

The oversight accountability piece.

Does anybody else want to go?

I mean there is delegation in there so I would at least give it a five of delegation if not more but also there is a role of the direct role of the board to approve contracts up to us so I don't know I think I would have done five and five five governing five delegation

I might even give it a few points in guardrails just because of the operations bullet point.

This policy regards its district operations and the superintendent's operations guided by that policy.

Yeah maybe not 10 but maybe a few points there.

Can I go before Ellie?

Are you going to give us a hint or something?

I'm not going to give you a hint.

I'm just going to let you know I'm switching back to the slide that has the full goals in guardrails in case that's helpful because this is a tricky one.

Not to say that that's a clue.

It's not a clue.

So I think there's a I gave it a five in guardrails because there are some guardrail components to it.

which I put in the perspective financial policy which is part of the guardrail that we don't have that we should have.

And then I gave it a 10 in delegation because the vast we're saying besides these dollar amounts it comes to us otherwise you're delegated to approve the rest.

It doesn't change whether we would still see them regardless of how it's scored with the with the policy the way that it is.

It doesn't change that.

But it does have I think it has a guardrail.

I don't think there's anything related to governance in there.

I think it's just guardrails and delegation.

So Ellie do you want to talk about.

Yes, gradual reveal.

Talk about the kind of journey that we went on it.

Yeah.

So this is one of a couple policies in which the committee generated some relatively animated feedback from me in their scoring.

I think you started with zeros across the boards or something similar on this one or kind of a companion policy that you looked at.

and the committee ultimately ended up in a place where for their goals and guardrail scoring they were really asking whether it is tied to those specific goals and guardrails rather than sort of a drafting style of setting a goal statement for students or the district or crafting it as a directive that was framed as a guardrail.

So that was how the committee utilized that.

So there's a hint that the committee gave each one of those a zero.

On governing and delegation, the committee got to a place where there were, well, initially in the conversations, we were just trying to find some points to get something to, like, why is it here?

For some of the other policies, the committee was looking for if there's any touch point with the board, it's obviously got something to do with governance.

So if it's an annual report that comes to the board, that must be governing.

By the end of their journey, they scored this one as a zero.

They didn't view it as being about the board, even though the entire policy is about the board's approval of contracts.

and I don't mean that in a snide way.

It's because what the committee viewed this as is a delegation to the superintendent.

So what this policy is about for the committee is that this policy prescribes the limited universe in which the superintendent doesn't have full authority to just administer and operate the district.

If it reaches this level, then in the relationship with the superintendent, the board has a touch point.

I don't know if I summarized that.

well enough?

I think so.

I see Michelle nodding, but no, it was kind of, this is what, you know, I think this was in our second cycle, so we had learned, or was it maybe our first, I don't know, but it was like, well, it's the policy of the Seattle School Board, but we don't procure.

but we have to approve so that's us.

We went all over the place and then actually kind of came to the conclusion that where we're trying not to go which is perhaps this policy could be more clear and specific about its purpose and that perhaps there's a need for some of the language to go into a different policy or place.

But yeah I think that's we yes I think that's how we ended up.

Do you all discuss a list of FAQs or questions that you would use in your analysis bullet points if you will?

Would that be helpful for figuring this out?

to determine the score.

Yes, we did some.

And Ellie actually did a really good job of capturing our questions into some consistent points of the questions that we were asking ourselves and each other as we kind of came to.

I mean it's cool to do and we did you know started off being like you gave that a zero I gave that a ten you know and then kind of understanding why that happened but I think that's that's what we want to you know hone in on today is seeing if there's alignment between the full board about what where we've arrived and I think Ellie can read back some of that too

And just a quick point on that so that the committee's baseline just shifted really dramatically as the committee gained more experience and revised how they approached the tool.

So there wasn't necessarily totally stabilized findings and takeaways but as the committee finalizes the tool and then goes and like does a big chunk of the policy book with it I think we can really document those with more clarity and a little bit more stability.

I was just hearing I think what Ayush was asking for at the beginning in terms of what really kind of dictates these different levels is very connected to what Director Harris is saying in terms of the FAQs that's helpful because yeah I just saw the mistake that I made because I only went through this a couple times with you guys and then I was like oh yeah I'm thinking about what I want the policy to be not what it is right now so what the thing that I want to be is yes would be in a guardrail but this one is over here.

And the other thing I want to point out about procurement having looked at about 100 different procurement policies throughout the country before we made changes to this last round was that if you have a really strong consent agenda practice where you bring things forward on consent agenda like a lot of contracts but don't pull them and spend a lot of time reviewing every one of them because it's just the practice of like the board approves above this amount so it's there for transparency.

for anybody who wants to look at it.

But then you can lower the dollar amount but where you have to spend lots of time looking at every single one then you need a higher dollar amount and that was consistent across districts.

And I will also say that that particular policy was uniformly difficult to find in every district meaning it wasn't a top line policy.

it wasn't connected to their goals or however they run whatever their model is of governance, it was usually pretty well buried because it was such an administrative piece of work.

That's okay.

Oops, no, we're not to thank you quite yet, but thank you.

So we've touched on this a little bit already.

And I know that we haven't given you a baseline framework written down.

But now is the time where we would really like to hear from you all about things we should consider.

We heard some of that.

Maybe low, medium, high might be more accessible and functional for us.

and then also what would...

Well, yeah, because we almost...

I mean, pretty much everything was either a 0, 5 or a 10. Wasn't it?

I guess not quite.

In some of your goals and guardrails once there was a little bit more gradation and by the end we were just trying to figure out what your definitions of governance or delegation were so you kind of did end up getting some more tens in there because we were just trying to force some examples there.

Director Sarju.

If I'm remembering correctly one of the conversations that we had was For example, what is the difference between six and seven?

If I gave it a six and Lisa gave it a seven.

And quite honestly, we could not articulate something objective.

And when we talk about policy, we've got to be real clear about what is objectively, what are we trying to do?

So for me, the 1 to 10 was very difficult, because I don't know in practice what it would look like if we needed to make some decisions, if we've got a 6 and a 7, and one of us speaks pretty strongly about it.

So when Brandon said, I think Brandon, President Hersey, was that you that said, I don't know, you said something.

I'm running off four days of no sleep.

So what did you say?

Potentially looking at it as a three-tier system, like high, medium, low priority.

Oh, that's what you said, high, medium, low.

Or something like that, something to that effect.

Just something to make it more accessible if there's not as much variation.

Yeah, yeah.

I do think a numbering system can be useful, but we have to be clear about what makes something a 5. In this case, we have to be really clear about what makes something a 10. And we can do that if we had a scale of 1 to 5. What makes something a 5 and what makes something a 1?

And then what makes something a 3?

Because you want to have a scale, I think, of odd numbers.

but I think it's gonna be really hard for us if we keep.

It's just my own personal experiential opinion that if we keep the one to 10, that's gonna make it difficult to get through this exercise.

Yeah and can I just tag on and then move on really quickly.

The only reason that I suggested the word as opposed to number is that like when you have a scale and we do this in education a little bit too.

When you have a scale in like numbers people then have to go look for the scale versus if you can find some range of words it just cuts down on the like OK what does this mean again.

So it.

could be or could not be consequential just that's where that came from.

That makes sense.

And I think that either either way if it's words or if it's numbers that I feel like we will be able to define zero through five much more clearly than we can define zero through 10.

Are you using zero now?

But I was going to say the only reason I think I want the math.

I want the numbers.

I want to stick with numbers.

And but also because low isn't zero.

And you need to have a zero.

Yeah we should have zero.

Or you need to have a one that is defined as not applying at all.

Can I make an attempt at unifying these and you can tell me if this shouldn't be brought back to the committee.

I was going to try to do that.

I was going to say in educators use typically four domains and I'm thinking we can use four three two one zero with highly effective effective developing and ineffective.

And then those are descriptive and those numbers make it didn't make sense.

So I'm thinking maybe that might be a solution.

So however you want to talk about the alignment is it effectively aligned.

I think we can definitely find a way to use a scale that is familiar, exceeding, meeting, approaching, or not.

We will bring it back to you.

I was going to say the same thing.

You can check my work.

I've got zero, one, two, three, four, low, medium, high.

Because I don't know if a zero is bad.

So we'll have to figure out how to use common terminology that is familiar to our system.

But a zero isn't necessarily a deficit.

It could just be not applicable.

All right.

So I'm hearing some adjustments in the scoring range, development of the sort of FAQ, common understandings document, making sure to build that out as the community works through additional evals.

Almost like a yes-no flowchart.

Like, does this policy do this?

If the answer's no, it goes here.

If the answer, you know, until you get to, yeah.

Yeah.

So we will...

take all of this to talk about during our next committee meeting and use it as the foundation for our deliverables.

I feel like we have a good mutual understanding if it is reflected by everyone else that you feel comfortable with where we're headed and it makes sense.

Go ahead.

I apologize.

I'm still fuzzy.

So after you've evaluated these on whatever scale you land on, then what do we do?

So is the idea that anything that is a zero we just cut?

No.

That's what I'm wondering about the scale.

Oh, we're not monitoring it.

No we are, but it's not part of our, well we're not even doing that part right now.

Right now we're just trying to use the tool to evaluate what do we have.

You're describing deliverable number four.

So deliverable number four could encompass all of those approaches that were described.

They could encompass an entirely different approach too.

So the committee is developing the tool.

They're going to run a bunch of policies through it.

Kind of check what their findings are and make some recommendations back to the board about you know policies could be structured in this way and you would review these policies with this frequency these ones with this frequency or maybe some of these policies become more operational documents for the districts whereas these are sort of core governance policies.

So those pieces the committee just hasn't gone to yet.

So if it's zeros basically that means it's not part of our, like if you think about it as like a forward of the policy manual.

Like here is the board policies and here's all the other rest of the policies that we approve.

And so if they're zeros they go in the rest and then some of those we might say, why do we have this?

Most of them are going to just stay there.

Oh you have more?

Go for it please.

I was just going to say this is all about creating focus.

Yes.

That's that's what this is doing.

It's just where is our focus?

What policies do we need to retain as part of our focus?

And that is as a board not the district.

Yeah that's what.

As a board.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just us.

Just us.

There's the front section and then there's all the rest.

Sorry.

That was actually a clearing of my throat.

I wasn't trying to.

Sorry.

No seriously.

Good job everybody on the committee.

This is awesome.

Very excited.

Y'all have done some really amazing work.

So and thank you to Vice President Rankin for chairing.

All right.

Our monthly budget status report is posted to tonight's agenda as a written update.

There being no further business.

Going once, going twice.

To come before the board this evening, the regular board meeting stands adjourned at 7.39 p.m.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm now going to go to baby duties.

Bye-bye.

I'm so excited for you.

Enjoy.