Seattle Schools Board Meeting April 26, 2023

and I'm now calling the April 26th, 2023 regular board meeting to order at 4.20 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 is not yet here.

Vice President Rankin is not able to join today.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

Director Sarju.

Present.

Director Song Moritz.

Present.

President Hersey.

Present.

Director Cron Barone.

Present.

Thank you very much.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Jones for his comments.

Thank you, President Hersey, board members, and those who are watching.

To open tonight, I want to thank our SPS community for continuing to hold us accountable for keeping students safe.

I want to take some time to recount the work that's currently being done as part of our safety initiative.

We are conducting a safety review of all of our high school campuses.

We are participating in community action teams that include the city, community partners, and we are part of a wellness advisory council comprised of mental health pediatricians and wellness leaders from our community.

And this is in conjunction with the mayor's office, local hospitals, University of Washington, just to name a few.

We are currently working to finalize a meeting with the Friends of Ingram pretty soon here to talk about the progress in more detail, and that was per their request.

I will continue to provide you updates and a district-wide message on the status of our safety initiative will be forthcoming soon.

Speaking of holding us accountable, I want to state my sincere thanks to all of you in the district community who have reached out with concerns about programs and staffing changes, and we recognize the enormous impact that these programs have in students' lives.

in response to the dedicated advocacy of our Washington middle school students and families, including those who are with us tonight, just know that we have a decreased enrollment and we're faced with difficult choices, but we hear and recognize the significance of jazz and understand the many benefits that art is providing for our world-class holistic education.

I want to respect the local context of schools and the decision making and the insights that they have.

And we will continue to work towards a solution.

Let me be clear.

I am committed to jazz in the city of Seattle.

I've been a beneficiary.

It helped me grow up understanding the richness of that in our culture.

There are many people who have come forward since we've been talking about the jazz situation and they're willing to help.

And so while the solution may not be the same solution that we've had over several years, we're going to make sure that jazz is available.

Next, I'd like to talk about what we're going to focus on, on our goals and guardrails.

And we're gonna focus on our guardrail tonight that really has an emphasis on operational systems and how those impact students on a daily basis.

And we're gonna talk about how we're providing reliable service and how essential that is to improving student outcomes.

And I'm looking forward to learning along with you all in the process as we talk about this really important guardrail.

With that, I turn it back to you, President Hersey.

Thank you.

Thank you, Superintendent Jones.

We will now turn it over to Director Crone-Baron for student member comments.

Oh, is that on?

Oh, there it is.

Thank you, President Hersey.

So first of all, I want to thank our Washington Middle School students for showing up here today.

And as I was going to talk about today mainly is the importance of arts in our schools.

I'm a tried and true theater kid.

I'm a huge arts person and I know firsthand the importance of arts in our schools in my life and in so many students' lives.

That was one of the things that drew me to this position is protecting arts in our schools and enriching arts in our schools because the kind of community that you find in art spaces is unlike the kind of community that you find anywhere else.

The kind of family that you find in art spaces is incredible.

and with that, I will actually extend an invitation to the community and to my fellow board directors and the superintendent to Nathan Hale's theater's production of Hello, Dolly!

these few upcoming weekends.

We'd love to see you there.

Next thing, really good luck to AP students who will be testing in the next few weeks.

I've seen with a lot of my friends, a lot of my peers, how difficult this process has been and how hard people are working is really incredible.

I'm like, woo, just thinking about it.

So good luck, you got this.

Another important recognition is that this month of April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

And This is an important time to highlight the undeniable problem we have with sexual harassment and violence in our schools here in Seattle Public Schools.

This is something that I've witnessed firsthand, that one too many of my peers have witnessed and experienced firsthand.

It just breaks my heart because it is a top priority and it should always be the top priority to have our schools be not only loving, welcoming and accepting places to exist and to be and to grow and to learn, but also safe places.

And so when we're talking about school safety, the problems with sexual violence and harassment in our schools is a huge part of that.

and a great way to do that is highlighting the importance of sexual violence prevention early on through education, through positive sex ed and consent education, which is so important and can help so many kids.

And that is all I have for this student comment, so thank you so much and I'll turn back to President Hersey.

Thank you, Director Cromerant.

Okay, we have now come to the Board of Comments section of today's agenda.

For today's meeting, we have a full testimony list and we'll then move into the Consent Agenda and the action items related to planning for next year's budget.

We will conclude with progress monitoring on Guardrail 2, which supports reliable operational systems.

Last week the board held two work sessions, the first related to planning for our next Building Excellence or BEX Capital Levy.

The board will be establishing guiding principles to support the development of that levy package and I will come back to the directors with ideas on how we can move this work forward.

We also had a work session about our committee structure.

Our temporary policy waivers expire on July the 31st.

So it is time for us to make permanent changes to our policies to solidify our committee structure for the upcoming year.

This will allow us to next set our board meeting calendar and develop our work plan.

During last week's work session, directors provided feedback about our governance practices, and we've already made some immediate progress in response.

The board received the updated work plan Monday.

It's now at the top of the weekly emails for easier reference.

And starting this week, our full committee materials were also made available directly on our committee webpage for easier reference by directors and the public.

There were also additional areas of improvement identified.

These include making more visible and accessible the work I do as your Board President to set agendas and collaborate with staff to prepare for our meetings and resharing our process for requesting a work session or other agenda items.

We have it online form, but it has not yet been widely used with just one response so far.

So we haven't had this list of potential topics come back to us.

Finally, it was suggested that we continue to consider any gaps resulting from our changes and address those through the work plan going forward.

I'll also be preparing a board action report that incorporates your feedback on our policies related to committees.

I heard general support for discontinuing our standing committees with the exception of the audit functions.

I hope to have a board action report ready that is responsive to this feedback for intro on May 17th and action on June 7th.

We'll now move into committee and liaison reports, and I'll open it up with today's ad hoc community engagement committee meeting.

I will let you know a little bit about what we discussed today.

We had a robust conversation, and these have really, you know, for me personally, having been on the board for about three years now, probably a little more, have been some of my favorite experiences because we can really get into the nitty-gritty.

We discussed the need to expedite our work around the community engagement calendar, so we've moved that up.

We are also in the process of reviewing several one-pagers that we have generated to educate and inform folks who are interested about the work of the board and from all sorts of different avenues.

If any board directors are interested in what those will look like we'd be more than happy to share them once they have finished and you can provide feedback and we can go through that process if necessary.

But in addition to that we are also trying to think through what is the best means of us to share out the work of not only the Committee on Community Engagement but also the Policy Committee that just had its first meeting yesterday and many other aspects of board work that have been taken up in recent months.

So that is a little bit about what is happening in the community engagement space.

And we will now have a couple of other reports tonight.

I will be giving a report on behalf of Director Rankin, who could not join us because she is at fifth grade camp and sends her love.

Let me go ahead and pull that up.

Vice President Rankin is chairing our ad hoc policy manual review committee, which met for the first time yesterday.

As I just mentioned, the committee reviewed the charter and foundational information, including recommendations developed by the ad hoc governance committee.

The date of the next meeting is still being finalized.

But do other members of the committee have insights that they would like to share at this time?

All right.

Seeing none, thank you so much for serving on that committee.

Let me pull up a statement that she also had.

Okay, here we go.

And so this is the legislative report.

As many of you know, Director Rankin serves as our legislative liaison.

And so legislative session, 2033. has ended and we are grateful for the advocacy and partnership of our legislators and community and support of Seattle students and families.

Yes, that is definitely worth applauding.

I especially want to note the importance of the level of communication and collaboration between SPS staff, the superintendent and the SPS legislative team.

The session was challenging, but our teamwork was strong and noticed and appreciated by legislators.

So thank you to our team.

Students in SPS and districts across Washington will benefit from the much needed increase in special education funding via adjustments to the multiplier and raising the funding cap.

And we have a strong collaboration coming out of this session to continue work toward a complete removal of the arbitrary cap and continued increase in investment to meet the promise of fully funding access to basic education for students with disabilities.

Thank you to everyone who added their voice to elevate this issue.

From the state capital budget, our legislators secured over $12.7 million for projects that will increase the skill center access and offerings to students, making a difference in their and our lives in Seattle.

Please join us next week for our budget work session to learn more about the specific funding numbers from the state budget that will impact Seattle Public Schools and next school year's budget.

So that, again, is coming from Director Rankin, who serves as our legislative liaison.

Are there any additional liaison reports?

And just keep in mind, I will call for opportunities for community engagement after the liaison reports.

So are there at this time any additional liaison reports from directors?

Director Hampson.

Okay, so Friday was a big day for me as our tribal liaison.

We had our first of three convenings of school directors and tribal leaders, which is developed by the Washington School Directors Association and the Office of Public Instruction around new laws that require tribal consultation, at the school board director level and require trainings on government to government relationships for principals throughout the state as well as the superintendent, which are, those are in two separate laws, but HB 1332, HB 1426, those are two that you can reference.

And it was a, really immensely productive day, tremendous participation.

It was at the Swinomish lands.

And the focus was on the partnerships among districts and tribes and other entities such as WASDA and OSPI.

The biggest piece of revelation was specific to our historic undercounting of native students.

in this country and specifically in school districts, and you've all heard me talk about it many, many times over many years, Seattle Public Schools is no exception.

There's some very genius folks representing both different school districts on the Yakima Reservation as well as from the Yakima Nation, Elise Washeens and Ken Olden, who following on the leadership of current Suquamish Chairman Leonard Forsman have dug in deep to the data.

They went to school, found out how to do math, and came back and said, okay, you will erase us no longer.

And here's how to, laid out, spoke to me in a language that, because I'm not a data person within a large institution, we're able to present to tribal leaders and to school board directors, right?

That's who's the focus of these meetings.

This is how, you can hold each other accountable to not continuing to erase Native students.

And the wonderful thing about that is it's not actually just about Native students.

It's a way of digging into the data to really pull out and make sure that each student is counted for their particular identity or identifier and one of the things that's always critical to point out and that gets lost in a lot of the DEI, otherwise known as diversity, equity and inclusion work that gets done is that Native people, we have a citizenship that is different than any other peoples in the United States.

So we're citizens of the state, of the nation, but also of our tribes and have therefore a very unique relationship with this country and with our communities and with its institutions.

so there was a lot of focus on that as well as focus on the STI adoption, curriculum adoption, the progress or lack of progress in that to the extent that it's in our schools and working to shore that up within districts and how we do that.

There are two more of these meetings, I could go on and talk about this in great detail.

There are two more of these meetings coming up.

I've sent all directors the information.

You can attend virtually, so you don't have to go in person.

They're on the 4th of May, and share with your fellow directors, 4th of May in Spokane, and then the 18th of May in Toppenish.

I highly recommend it.

In any case, you're going to be required to do a training by the end of 2023. Anyway, I think by August, and those are coming up.

The first trainings will be happening soon.

This is a really excellent opportunity to be there in partnership with tribes as opposed to just sort of having a one-off training by yourself.

So I really encourage fellow directors to take the time to do it.

and I'm happy to resend that information.

And there was one of the Suquamish tribal council members that Superintendent Jones and Director Rivera-Smith and I met with was there.

So we were all hearing the same information and that helps us understand how we can move forward in our memorandum of understanding our data sharing agreements and in our tribal consultation policy, which again, I'm hoping will be the model policy.

Oh, and one...

phenomenal factor or little tidbit amongst many others that Elise Washines shared that just goes to the notion of how important it is to allow kids to show up in their own cultural space, she mentioned being the data geek and math fiend that she is, how much it would mean for people to understand that in the Yakima language, I'm going to see if I can say it right, is there are two different ways of counting.

You use one set of words if you're counting things that are alive, that have a soul, and you use a different set of words if you're counting things that are dead.

or that don't have a soul.

That adds a whole different dimension to math that we get a lot of pushback about some of the identity work, but when you think about the ways in which that can draw Native students, in that case, Yakima Nation members, into a conversation about math and getting involved in math, it's incredibly powerful.

And all of our communities and all of our families and all of our histories, we have those connections.

And so it was a really good grounding in what the meaningfulness of that to the first people of this place.

So as I said at our work session, still working to try to put into some operational practices as are our tribes and the people at WASDA and OSPI so that it's not just about this statement here.

that were on the lands of the Coast Salish people, but that we're actually honoring the history and learning from it.

So thank you, President Hersey.

Thank you, Director Hampson.

Do we have any other liaison reports for this evening?

Okay.

Do we have any board engagement that we need to discuss that is coming up?

Director Harris.

Thank you.

We had a community meeting in West Seattle at the West Seattle Library.

It was attended by 25 people.

There was lasagna.

It was a difficult meeting.

It was a meeting from a great many folks in the District 6 community.

as well as others from throughout the city, as is per usual for those meetings.

We talked a lot about Alki and the building plans and mostly about safety and traffic down there.

And I will give anybody a tour of that area, my colleagues, and I encourage you to come.

I am hoping to spend some time with Assistant Superintendent Podesta, General Counsel Narver, and convince one of y'all to help me sponsor a resolution to address the lack of parking and take note of the fact that we don't have good transit down there and that the Alki area is very, very dense.

Hopefully there are some ameliorating circumstances we can come up with as opposed to all or nothing because it is extraordinarily problematic.

And what I told our community was that I would focus squarely on the safety issues and the lack of parking.

And some of y'all will remember that Seattle Times had a newspaper article out there with the principal directing traffic.

And I don't know about you all, but I'm thinking that that principal has other and better things to do with their time.

On the other hand, if he's saving lives of young people, I'm all for that.

The other issue that came up, most votes this firstly, is the lack of the jazz band at Washington Middle School.

And I applaud the folks that took the time to drive across town.

to meet with us on that issue, and I feel, as I think all of my colleagues know, very passionately about that issue.

Saturday, May 20th, the Southwest Library, and that's at 35th and Henderson Street, 9010 35th Avenue Southwest from 2 to 4. And yes, there will be lasagna.

And I welcome two of my colleagues to join us.

I'm starting to get my feelings hurt.

What time?

2 to 4 p.m.

So, and I think, and I'll probably go to PDC jail for that, but I have made the announcement that I will not be running for a third term, and we need to have an extraordinarily qualified and, what's the word I want?

qualified and passionate person to run for the District 6 four-year term.

That's West Seattle, South Park, and in addition to Georgetown.

It's the best and the hardest job I've ever had.

I have learned so much, and I've met the best people.

I will help whoever chooses to run to run, whether I agree with him philosophically or not, and my information is on the website.

Thanks so very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Harris.

Okay.

Any other additional board engagement for us to discuss?

All right.

Seeing none, we will next go to public testimony.

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

Board procedure 1430-BP 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 our public testimony list and, if applicable, the waiting list.

which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board 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 their time seated 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, and 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 and will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by the Board, Procedure 1430BP.

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

Ms. Koo will read off the testimony speakers.

Thank you, President Hersey.

A 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 Charlie Morrison Wong.

Hi, I'm Charlie Morrison Wong, and I'm a sixth grader at Washington Middle School.

I have been playing the violin for three years.

Let's be honest, school is hard.

It causes anxiety and stress in a lot of kids, myself included.

But after a hard test in math, I know that I can pick up my instrument and lose myself in the music.

Even yesterday, when I was stressed about a concert, as soon as the music started, my nerves melted away.

This is the reason I'm proud to say I'm a junior Husky.

The music program here is so amazing and diminishing the quality is taking away something that makes me and a bunch of other kids super proud.

Proud that after all the struggles our school has faced, we can come every day and make great music.

Part of the reason these cuts are happening is because of low enrollment in Seattle Public Schools.

So why take away the thing that draws people to our school in the first place?

This program means the world to me and everyone that showed up today.

Don't take this away.

The next speaker is Gianni Maisano-Torres.

Hello, I am Gianni Maizano-Torres.

I'd like to speak about the future of the Washington Music Program.

Can you come closer and speak about it?

I play trombone at Garfield High School.

I just wanted to take a second to acknowledge how incredible it is having all of these kids from Washington here supporting the music program.

I just thought that was really cool.

They're doing awesome.

Yeah, so I'm going to talk about my experience with it.

Before I joined the music program at Washington, I really did not enjoy school.

I felt like I had nothing to do there.

I had very little purpose.

And more than anything, I felt like if I wasn't there, I felt like nobody would really notice, which is kind of sad.

But when I joined the jazz program there, I found such an incredible, thriving community and a place where everybody comes together to create such beautiful music.

Everyone is working and everyone is so loving and supportive of each other.

And it's such an important area.

It's such an important space.

Removing that isn't just removing an extracurricular.

It's not just removing another period in the day.

It's not just removing one teacher.

It's removing a place where people can grow and thrive and learn, not just academically, but as humans.

It's why I and so many others are who we are today.

It's incredible.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Silas Collins.

Hi, I'm a 10th grader at Garfield and I play tenor sax in the jazz band.

My time in the Washington Middle School music program shaped who I am today.

It taught me dedication and teamwork skills that stretch far beyond the music room.

It really is the best part of Washington Middle School, and I hope that students can experience it to the same degree that I did for many years to come.

You might think you're making this cut to one program in one school, but you're not.

Not only will it limit the capacity of Washington's incredible music program, these cuts will compound the issue of declining enrollment in Garfield High School's nationally recognized music program.

There are tons of kids like me who really want to play music who will lose the opportunity to do so.

This drastic cut does not solve a problem, it creates one.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Mika Mirote.

Hi, my name is Mika Mirwatt.

I'm a seventh grader at Washington Middle School and I play the baritone saxophone.

As a mixed person, going to Washington Middle School, I find it very difficult to find where I belong and like where I fit in and I feel that music and especially jazz creates a space for me to be myself and just feel like included and I think it's really important that we keep something so important for so many students and I know that we aren't cutting the entire music program but we are going to be cutting half of it and we're going to have massive classes which will make it extremely difficult to learn music and it's going to make it extremely difficult for kids like me and and just kids like me to learn how to play jazz and how to play whatever kind of music they want to express themselves in.

Thank you guys for your time.

The next speaker is Vivian Thomas Kennedy.

Hi, my name is Vivian.

I am a sixth grader at Washington Middle School.

I have come here today to talk about the Washington Middle School Music Program.

Yesterday I got to go to the concert at the Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center.

There I got to hear all the music classes perform and everyone was amazing.

If the music program gets cut, the school concerts will only get worse and less passionate.

If the music program gets cut, the number of kids enrolling will become less and less.

The most common reasons people enroll at Washington Middle School is our music program and TAF, and they are both getting cut next year.

I am not in the music program, but I love going to concerts and just overall supporting.

Music is something me and lots of other people, including other kids, are very passionate about.

I just really hope that there will be some way to keep this program.

It makes me sad to think about all the kids in elementary school who are excited to join the music program and the rest of the kids who will be going to Washington Middle School next year and won't be able to join the awesome music program that we have now.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Veronica Briggs.

I would like to cede my time to M.A.

Stevens.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

I think it was the code that she was using.

Was it incorrect or something?

So I'm just trying to get her the right one.

So we may have to circle back.

Not a problem, thank you.

My name is Chris Jackins, box 84063, Seattle 98124. On the personnel report, under separations, the report lists Richard Stout, long-time manager of risk and loss prevention.

I wish to thank Mr. Stout for his service to the district.

On the fine fiscal stabilization plan, 11 points.

Number one, the board cannot leave this plan to the superintendent.

Number two, despite a current and projected decline in enrollment, the district is moving forward with expensive construction projects to greatly expand capacity at Alki, Montlake, and Rogers Elementary Schools.

Number three, this will reduce playground space and cause the closure of other nearby schools through consolidation.

Number four, school closures always harm education and neighborhoods and they have not worked to save money.

Number five, the district already went through school closures.

Number six, the district already lobbied the state for more money.

Number seven, the school board already approved a three-year teacher contract without knowing how the district would pay for years two and three.

Number eight, the current district funding approach pits public schools against each other through a mechanized model of competition between schools for enrollment and funding.

Number nine, some groups and some schools always lose in this process.

Number 10 the school district needs to return to paying attention to what each school needs to succeed.

Some smaller classes some larger classes preserving options like Filipino Filipino American history music art.

No more cookie cutter approaches.

Number 11 a mechanical device will never do as good a job as a good human teacher.

Thank you very much.

Thank you everybody here today.

Nice jobs.

The next speaker is Carla Holmes.

Good afternoon.

My name is Carla Holmes.

I'm a parent at Ingram High School and my son is a sophomore.

The parent community of Ingram High School continues to be concerned about safety following the shooting incident on November 8th 2022. Our most important job as parents and school communities is to keep our children safe.

We recognize there have been several district communications and one parent meeting so far.

However, a situation such as this requires ongoing communication and updates specific to safety at Ingram High School.

Given the traumatic violent act that happened in our children's school, we cannot stand by waiting indefinitely for the district to take action.

The lack of urgency by the district is extremely disappointing.

We're here this afternoon because we care about each and every young person at Ingram High School and every school in Seattle Public Schools.

The following are specific areas of concern.

In his letter of February 8th, Superintendent Jones states that his team is reviewing, quote, a report with recommendations for improved safety and security for Ingram.

He also stated he would update the community in March.

We are still waiting.

It has been over five months since the tragic shooting of an Ingram student.

The lack of details is unacceptable.

With no communication, we are left filling in the blanks and feeling anxious.

In his earlier, letter to the broader community in November, Dr. Jones also states he'll be creating, quote, an event for all families and students to join us in a conversation about school safety.

What is the date and plan for this event?

Regarding Board's Policy 3248, what steps have been taken to ensure that these procedures and policies are being followed in order to protect our students and prevent future incidents?

Overall, when can we expect the results of the safety audit and a timeline for specific actionable items?

The Ingram Parent Group is here to support and partner with Ingram High School and SPS in any way possible to respond proactively to the needs of our community.

We demand a detailed response from the school board district and school on what has already been done to protect our young people and what next steps we can work on together.

Thank you board members for your consideration and time.

The next speaker is Greg Rudolph Good afternoon.

Thank you board members for the opportunity to speak on Washington Middle School music situation the jazz band situation.

I'm a passionate father to a jazz band participant.

My son Ness Rudolph is in sixth grade.

He's right over there.

You want me to cede my time?

Last chance.

Okay.

He spoke last meeting and did a great job.

And nothing could be more powerful than hearing from the kids themselves.

My perspective on this is I am a musician.

I grew up in Philadelphia, which is a very strong city for jazz.

Produced John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones.

Go back and look.

and I grew up having to study on the outside of school because we didn't have the kind of program that this local program has and imagine how excited I was when my son showed an interest in music.

He chose saxophone and he gets to go to school every day and play saxophone and his playing has just gone through the roof this year and he's so passionate about it.

Now, why are we here?

We're here because this program is such an important thing for these kids.

And it's not just because it makes them better musicians.

It also makes them better citizens of their school.

It makes them better team members and better leaders.

They get to see the connection between practicing something and becoming skilled at it, which is an amazing thing to learn.

It gives them a chance to be more confident and more creative.

Does the tradition of this program matter?

We the community think it does and we think it really ought to be something that we work hard to keep and we don't dismantle.

We thank you very much and we know we all want what's best for the kids.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Maria Monroe-DeVita.

Hello, my name is Maria Monroe-DeVita and I come here today as a mental health provider and a professor in the UW Psychiatry Department and as a mom of two kids who love and cherish music.

As a white, cisgender, heterosexual female, I also recognize my privilege in these discussions.

I know I don't have to tell all of you about the youth mental health crisis, but I'd like to remind you of what's at stake with cuts to the WMS music program.

Youth reports of persistent sadness and hopelessness and suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased by 40% in the 10 years leading up to the pandemic.

Then COVID blew those numbers out of the water, especially among youth with disabilities, BIPOC and LGBTQ youth, and those from other marginalized communities.

Weekly ED visits for suspected suicide attempts were nearly 40% higher in winter 2021 than in the year before.

Almost half of LGBTQ youth report that they have considered suicide.

Social isolation, lack of access to the things that make kids happy and provide an outlet, and the lack of in-person learning have contributed to many of these issues.

and that's on top of pressures related to the social media, worries about climate change, and for so many kids, the direct impact of living in a country with daily racial injustices, rising anti-Asian and anti-Semitic hate crimes, and laws that try to erase the very existence of being a queer or trans kid.

As a mom, I've witnessed firsthand some of these mental health challenges with my own two kids.

There have been days they have felt paralyzed with anxiety and panic, months of feeling too anxious to go to school.

We've practiced breathing exercises in the park when it was too overwhelming to attend that one event with too many people.

We've been on multiple waitlists to get help.

But you know what helped them?

Music, something they are passionate about, that lightens their hearts, that helps them to grow, to feel like they're successful, and that helps them to find their people.

WMS Band has been all that and more.

It has transformed my oldest into a happy, less anxious kid to greet each school day, often having to drag them out of the basement after hours of practicing their instrument, completely inspired by the new song selected that day or compelled to transcribe just one more Nirvana song.

Cuts to WMS feel like complete gutting of our community on top of removing the TAF program.

Please don't remove the heart and soul of our school.

Thank you very much for listening to me.

The next speaker is Danielle Kuhlman.

Danielle Kuhlman.

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

The next speaker on the list is Frances Francia.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Hello, board members.

My name is Frances Francia and I'm a proud product of Seattle Public Schools from K through 12. a 2002 graduate of Garfield High School.

I attended Washington Middle School from 1996 to 98 and I implore you to reconsider extinguishing the legacy of this music program.

I'm not a professional musician.

I play the alto and baritone sax under the instruction of Mr. Robert Nat and Mr. Clarence A. Cox.

However the skills that I gained in concert and jazz band are skills that I use every day.

I learned the value of practice dedication and teamwork.

Being in band taught me diligence, how to be a productive team member, and how to execute with excellence.

Our jazz band won the festival award at Lionel Hampton in 98. We performed in front of thousands.

Today I'm able to speak and perform in front of any audience because I had to get over stage fright and nerves by the age of 13. Our concert band was one of two bands invited to DC to represent the state of Washington for the 150th anniversary of the Washington Monument.

we performed on the steps of the Capitol and on the White House lawn.

Imagine the sense of achievement pride and responsibility that a bunch of 12 to 14 year olds felt to represent our state on a national stage in our nation's capital.

Please do not eliminate the possibility of our youth having opportunities like these in the future.

This decision does not only affect current students and families of WMS.

Mr. Darren Fall is the director of the award winning band at Malick Terrace and he was also our student teacher at Washington.

My son is three years old and has already benefited from Weeb Off at Seattle Jazz Ed which was founded by Washington and Garfield Music Families and taught by Miss Kelly Klingen former Washington band director.

You are risking an end to a legacy that jazz legends began Mr. Knack continued and each of us has carried on for the rest of our lives.

please do not deprive our future students and global community members of the fruits of this legacy.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Amy Zarath.

Hi, I would like to cede my time to Evan Kuhlman.

Thank you.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Hello, my name is Evan Kuhlman.

I'm a musician with a Los Angeles Philharmonic.

I teach at the Colburn Community School.

I hold two degrees from the Juilliard School and I'm a two-time Grammy winner.

I grew up studying in the music programs of Washington Middle School and Garfield High School.

where I benefited from the work of legendary educators like Bob Nat, Megan Cleary, Clarence Aycox, and Marcus Sudakawa, to name a few.

I was a participant in the band, the orchestra, I sang in some of the choirs, but also I played piano in the jazz bands and jazz choirs.

The needs of the many different students served by these diverse musical ensembles requires at least two full-time instructors.

To cut any of these positions would severely limit the experiences of your students.

Although some of my other classes had diverse class lists, my music classes were the ones where I really made lasting friendships with students who didn't necessarily look like me or come from my neighborhood.

And I didn't just learn music, I learned responsibility, self-expression, confidence, and teamwork, like my former classmate Francis Francia just said.

Large musical ensembles empower their members to bring individual perspectives, We bring our individual knowledge, our dedication, and our own specific skills to rehearsal.

We each have our own part to play, we bring our own instrument, but we combine them in service of a shared mission to create something that's bigger and better than even the sum of our parts.

So I ask that you preserve these programs as they are, and if at all possible, strengthen them.

I know it's a tricky time, I know things are difficult, but this is not something that you can afford to sacrifice.

Thank you for your consideration.

The next speaker is Eileen Anderson.

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

Hello my name is Eileen Anderson.

I'm the parent of two Seattle Public School students including one at Ingram High School.

On November 8th last year the Ingram community's sense of safety was shattered when one student shot and killed another in the hallway of the school.

Following this tragic event there was a lot of talk from the district about safety.

Today I'm asking for action.

We are still waiting to hear the results of the district-wide safety audit.

We are also waiting to hear recommendations for improved safety and security for Ingram High School specifically.

In February we were told that a safety review of the Ingram shooting was conducted, that the results were under review by Superintendent Jones and would be shared with Ingram Principal Flo.

Where are the results of that review?

They have not been communicated to the Ingram community.

Our sense of urgency was only heightened last week when a video was posted on social media of a Nathan Hale student carrying a gun on the Ingram campus.

The safety of our school communities is no small thing.

I ask the board district staff and superintendent to act with a sense of urgency to review update and enhance security policies and practices and to communicate with parents and students more frequently.

Thank you.

The next speaker is John Maisano Torres.

Hello, I'm John Mayzano Torres, Gianni's dad.

Gianni's my 16-year-old son.

He would not be the same child he is, or young adult that he is, without the music program at Washington Middle School.

Gianni started, I think it was in seventh grade there, and he was assigned an elective of beginner band.

He wasn't particularly enthused about it, but he said, I always wanted to learn to play the trombone, and he did.

and he's grown.

Now he's part of the Garfield Jazz Ensemble that's gonna play at the Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival next month in New York City.

One of 15 bands from across the country two of those bans come from the Seattle Public Schools.

This is something you do so well.

You've been fundamental in supporting that and in supporting Gianni and supporting all these kids who have come in to testify.

I don't want to lose that.

I'm a product of the public schools.

My mom taught in public schools.

Both of my kids have come from the public schools.

And in a time when there's declining population in the public schools, when we're talking about a school that's a block and a half from 23rd and Jackson, the birthplace of jazz in Seattle, when we're talking about a school that's 80% kids of color, when we're talking about mental health and kids needing to have something they identify with and some community they feel comfortable with, this is so important.

This is not just another class.

This is not just another instructor.

Please find a way.

We all, when we have priorities and we see our kids invested in something, we find some way to help them pursue those dreams.

Please help us find a way.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Grace Schlitt.

Hi, I'm Grace.

I'm a former Seattle Public School parent.

For 16 years, my kids went kindergarten through graduating at Garfield High School.

So it was a great experience all the way through, and the best years of all were Washington and Garfield.

My kids graduated in 2018 and 2021. I'm also a former board member of Friends of Washington Music and I was also the president of it for a couple of years and then I was on the Friends of Garfield Orchestra.

So I was very involved in the music program.

and I saw firsthand how music education benefited the students individually and the families and the community as a whole.

Music was a vital part of the culture of, in particular, Washington Middle School.

I came from a school where being in music, you were pretty much the nerd and I was shocked to see just everybody was in music.

It was an important part of the culture And we all know too that music is vital to education, not just as an enrichment activity, but that music aids in learning, in math, in science, in language.

We know that music helps with language development, increased IQ, spatial temporal skills, improved test scores, and of course being musical.

So we need more music education, not less.

So I asked my kids, both of them, what they felt their music education did for them.

My daughter, who's a competitive swimmer at Whitman, said that the only other activity besides swimming taught her, playing an instrument taught me that consistency in practice allows you the opportunity to do something you didn't think you could accomplish.

and my son who graduated last year from Cal Poly with honors in physics and math said, and I'll read what he wrote to me, music is a huge part of my life.

At Washington I was in fiddlers and orchestra and I learned so much that I couldn't be taught in a typical classroom.

The idea that you get out of something what you put into it is a valuable lesson that was first impressed upon me and best understood through my music classes.

The idea of collaboration and doing one's job while trusting everyone else will do theirs to create something together was another thing I learned through my musical career.

As someone who does not consistently play music anymore, who did not end up in a musical career, music is still vital to my upbringing and academic success.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Maria Eugenia Galatelli.

I'm the parent of an Ingram freshman student, and let me first say that this is not how anyone's first year of high school should be like.

Seattle Public Schools states that it has a long-held commitment to increased gun safety, that it has established policies and procedures with a focus on keeping students safe, that school safety plans are updated annually, This is a serious statement, and I certainly want to believe that it is true in every way.

This is what would help me believe.

One, if we are informed of the status of the safety audit that was promised after the shooting, and by safety audit, I understand the evaluation of many different areas related to safety, not only the physical ones, not only the buildings, but also how the procedures and policies are being implemented and whether they need updates to be more efficient.

The shooting at Ingram, considering the fact that the same student who shot another student had brought dangerous weapons to school weeks prior to the tragic event is to me, and for many others, proof that something failed.

We want to feel that Seattle Public Schools will always follow the policies and procedures established going forward.

Two, if communication is direct, timely, and transparent, parents deserve to stay informed about what happens in our schools, good or bad.

Three, if the community is invited to participate in the community action team that the superintendent promised to establish back in November.

I have hope that if we all take this seriously, if we work together and listen to the needs of our students, parents and teachers and take immediate action, we can make schools safe.

Thank you very much for listening.

The next speaker is Chris Arms.

Hi there.

My name is Chris Arms.

Thanks for letting me speak.

I'm a parent of a Washington alum and my youngest will start next year.

We have lived in the Central District since 2005, almost 20 years now, and 10 years in the immediate neighborhood of Washington.

These are my observations over the past five.

Washington was passed over for the bond issue for facilities upgrades at least once and by the looks of the facility several prior.

This amidst repeated news from students that I do believe actually that they were holding their urine sometimes all day because the bathrooms were either not working or very unclean.

The community was split in half when Meany restarted.

Meany is a more affluent neighborhood so the resources flowed in an expected direction.

Then there was the James Johnson debacle where he was accused of abusing students.

My eldest daughter was in that class.

Math instruction seems to always be in dire straits at Washington Middle School.

The TAF introduction seemed to inject some energy, but also a great deal of uncertainty into the school.

It has now abruptly been done away with, with little warning or explanation, and now the cuts to a legacy jazz program, as well as the food pantry provider.

The food pantry.

The only bright spot was that the school received a NIOP grant to get the ground spruced up, to essentially paint and weed.

What my wife and I call the Rat Hotel, which was a cluster of bushes that provided cover for a large number of rats right next to the dumpster of the front of the school, was removed, thank goodness.

This was almost solely advocated for and secured by my wife.

But for this one bright spot, it is all cuts and crisis.

All of this is done without any transparency or explanation from SPS.

or the administration.

Parents have to work so hard at this school advocating for their children, finding math tutors, private music lessons, nigh-up grants, hosting promotions off school grounds because admin would not allow, and this in the historically black neighborhood of Seattle, all the while SPS is doubting equity.

That is a huge disconnect for me and I'm sure for many others.

this all taking place in Seattle which just overtook Boston as the second richest city in America.

This recent cut just saddens me deeply.

Jazz band was the one single bright spot and no, it will not be covered by only one teacher.

It continues to a long trend of cuts by SPS that tragically seems like it was done here simply because it can every time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is David Chick.

I'd like to cede my time to M.A.

Stevens who was trying to connect earlier.

M.A. Stevens if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

Do you, yeah, can we?

Oh, you can hold, yeah.

Hi, I think you're having trouble getting on.

Are you okay with me holding up the phone?

And you can just, okay.

Okay, all right, you bet.

Okay.

Hi.

Great.

Hi, my name is Emma Stephens.

I went to Washington Middle School and I currently go to Garfield High School.

And I would like to bring up a very important point that music is a safe space for a lot of children, including myself.

And that means it is a safe space for children of color, children who are part of the queer community, children who are a part of media.

And I think that's very important.

Taking away this music program from Washington Middle School will take away that safe space for a lot of children because you are downgrading this program and this one single teacher cannot take care of all of these kids and provide that space for them.

Not only this, but the teacher is also an orchestra teacher.

This means that band kids who play band instruments will not receive the education that they need for their instruments.

This will not only decrease the education for them, but also the sense of importance of that space for them.

You can already see the effects of a weakening band and orchestra program from Washington Middle School feeding into Garfield by looking at the success of the symphony orchestra and band programs at Washington.

Not only this, but also the jazz program.

A lot of people are focusing most of their attention on the jazz program, and while I think this is important to a lot of students, the majority are in orchestra and band, and this would take away that space for them.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Shae Bloomer-Mereau.

I'd like to ask if Christy DeVader is present.

or online.

My intention is to cede the majority of my time to her because I think we've heard a lot from Washington.

I wanna thank all of the directors because frankly this is a really hard job and I just recognize that.

I also wanna respectfully say this is clearly not about jazz.

This is about music.

Music, it's about our children.

Music's not an extracurricular.

This should be an essential component of what's happening in our schools and it can't be cut after these kids have gone through these years.

of isolation.

This is not what equity looks like.

And frankly, neither of these programs, neither of these schools are so special that they have these programs.

These programs are possible anywhere.

All the kids at this school are provided instruments.

That's why we've got this huge program where it's getting more and more diverse.

So I think we really need to be thinking about our priorities and having this kind of program in every school in this district.

There's just no excuse for it.

Christy, are you here?

because we also shouldn't be isolating kids in special education and restraining them and I know that the special ed PTSA has some things to say about that.

Thanks y'all.

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

I am, yes.

Thanks, Shea, for giving me the opportunity to testify and thanks to the school board directors and Superintendent Jones for listening.

My name is Kristi Devater and I'm testifying as a member of the Seattle Special Education PTSA.

As you may know, the U.S.

Department of Justice entered into a settlement agreement with Spokane Public Schools last week to address that district's use of restraints and isolation practices.

that according to DOJ findings effectively discriminated against students on the basis of disability by denying them equal opportunity to participate in or benefit from the district's education program.

This despite all of the work Spokane has done to ban isolation and reduce restraints in their district.

And it was just the latest in a series of DOJ rulings around the country.

Seattle Public Schools through the work of this school board and this superintendent have taken some bold steps to address the practices of restraint and isolation in our schools.

And we are grateful for your leadership.

But there's so much work left to do.

So much training and systems improvements that are needed to make the vision of these changes into a reality in our schools.

And to that end, the Seattle Special Education PTSA drafted a position statement on restraint and isolation in Seattle Public Schools.

It's a deep dive into the policy and procedure with analysis and information from our organization that highlights some of the challenges to implementation and recommended steps to overcome those challenges.

I'm the primary author of the statement, but it was part of a group effort with input from local and statewide disability rights groups and families.

We hope you'll make time to partner with us to discuss the statement, our concerns, and our recommendations.

We hear you when you say you're committed to family and community engagement.

and we know that we're all working toward the same goals, ensuring the safety and mental wellbeing of students and staff while at the same time addressing disproportionality and discipline and disparate educational outcomes for minoritized groups, students of color and students with disabilities being the most affected.

Thanks so much for your time.

Before moving on to the waitlist, I want to go back and check on those who may have missed their turn.

The first is Veronica Briggs.

No?

Okay.

The second is Danielle Kuhlman.

Yes, I am here, if you can hear me.

Yeah, go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

My name is Danielle Kuhlman.

I am going to speak on the to the Washington Middle School Music Program.

I'm actually an alum of Washington Middle School Music Program and I now play professionally in the Seattle Symphony here in Seattle.

I play the French horn.

So this means a lot to me and I'm really happy I made it out of rehearsal in time to speak today.

But I wanted to point out a couple of things.

This is actually a real big equity issue in music because if you're gonna cut music education out of public schools, then only wealthier families are gonna be able to access music education and all the benefits that come along with it.

And this is just gonna create further racial and economic inequity in music, the kind that we see in the professional field at the collegiate level and the high school level.

It all starts in this age when kids are really starting their instruments in middle school.

So it's so important that we have that public access to music education at that crucial time when so many students are starting to learn.

music and building their lifelong passion for music.

And specifically with the music education and jazz legacy of the Central District in Seattle, we want to honor that legacy of all the great musicians who have come out of Seattle.

And we don't want that to end.

We want that to continue.

We don't want music to be just for wealthy white families in Seattle.

And also I wanted to point out that playing music is more than just learning an instrument that music fosters courage and vulnerability and actually is a really important vehicle for constructive risk-taking, the kind of things that, as we know now, the adolescent brain will search for and Music is one of the ways that young people can do that constructively.

So it's not just about music and art and inspiration, but it's actually a safety and a life-saving thing that we can offer young people to have a constructive path to experience vulnerability and to experience risk-taking and build community in the process.

So there's so many positives here and I really just don't want to see such an amazing city like Seattle, Luz, any kind of music education, the kind that I benefited from because I wouldn't have been able to afford extracurricular activities.

And I was so, because of that and that foundation at that age, I was able to pursue a life in music.

And so I just want to really encourage you to rethink these budget cuts in those areas.

So thank you for letting me speak today.

That was our final speaker.

This concludes today's testimony.

Thank you very much and thank you to everybody who took the time to come out and speak to us tonight.

Directors, how are y'all feeling?

Y'all need a break?

Yeah.

Can we keep?

Yes.

Got you.

Let's take a 10 minute recess Please be back here promptly at 6.03 No, no, no, 5.43, my bad, 5.43 Please come back at 5.43 I'd love to see people making connections.

Please continue to do so if you would like, but we have a quorum.

So if you could take those conversations outside the room, that'd be super helpful.

You don't have to go home, but you cannot stay in this particular room and chat.

Woo.

Okay.

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.

Second.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Sardew and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Do directors have, excuse me, any items that they would like to remove from the consent agenda?

Director Hampson.

Item number five.

All right.

Any other items?

We have a motion for the consent agenda as amended.

Take your time.

I move approval of the Consent Agenda as amended.

Second.

All right.

So this has been moved and properly seconded.

All those in favor of the Consent Agenda as amended, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we will now direct our attention to the item that was removed from the consent agenda, item number five.

May I have a motion for this item?

Yep.

Yep.

I move that the school board amend policy numbers 3231, student records, 3510, associated student bodies, 3520, student fees, charges, fines, restitution, damage, deposit.

Rename student fees, fines, or charges.

and 6800 Safety Operations and Maintenance of School Property and Board Procedure 3520BP, Student Fees, Charges, Fines, Restitutions and Damage Deposits Procedure, renamed Student Fees, Fines or Charges.

as attached to the board action report.

I further move that the school board repeal board policy number 3233, fees for copies of student records.

Second.

All right, thank you both.

We will now go to Director Hampson for comments or questions.

Thank you, President Hersey.

I apologize for sending it.

late, I don't know even if I had sent it in advance how we would have incorporated it, but I don't have an issue, comments, questions or concerns with the specific changes that are being proposed.

They are changes that need to be made and we do need to make them now to be in compliance with state law and avoid issues with our audit.

However, I also believe that when policy comes before us, we are still approving all the other language that's in there at some level.

And I don't believe Director Crone Barone and I sat down and had a long conversation about this particular set of policies and about whether or not In particular, policy 3-5-2-0 and 3-5-1-0 are consistent with our vision and values, with our goals and guardrails, with our strategic plan, and I do not believe that they are.

I'm not saying that in whole cloth, but there are some really, really long overdue changes.

And so I'm gonna read through some of the things that I would like us to consider and I'm interested in bringing this back before the end of this legislative of our legislative calendar to look at some deeper changes so that students can go into next year with some hope about maybe a calendar of changes that might take place to better insert equity into, it's really about fiscal equity into this conversation and also leadership.

So the first one, you have it in your email, but I'm gonna read this because it's not available in any packet.

These are for discussion.

This is not something that is currently under discussion for what we would vote on today.

So possible edits.

Number one, all allowable fundraising activities must include a rebalancing fund mechanism so as to ensure equitable access to activities, athletics, uniforms, personnel for all students and SPS.

Whether school ops to utilize rebalancing funds may not be limited by volunteer availability.

Number two, beyond the state required waiver, the student superintendent shall make every effort to ensure fees, whether assessed by the district or ESB, are assessed excluding, to the extent possible, participants in the federal free and reduced lunch, federal free or reduced price meals program and for reducing fees for students, this is official language, family members and other non-students of the age of 65, or over who by reason of their low income would have difficulty in paying the entire amount of such fees.

It's unreasonable in my opinion that for the aforementioned families and students to be required to opt out of each and every fee assessed by the combination of district ASB and booster clubs, and I believe that while it's a process, our system can do better in making it so that those fees are not assessed to those families in the first place, those students and their families.

Number three, the superintendent shall not assess fees without demonstrating that administration and collection of such fees isn't a disproportionately large percentage of the revenue generated by the same fees.

In other words, it's foolish to assess fees if the cost of collecting those fees is gonna represent a huge portion of what you collect, then you've accomplished nothing you may not, and this is kind of where we are with school lunch, right?

Like where we just really wanna just pay for it because the whole process of that program is, it's in many ways more efficient to just pay for the whole thing.

Number four, ASB constitution and bylaws shall be revised annually based on a model constitution and bylaws approved by the school board in collaboration with the superintendent, similar to what we do with WASDA, and submitted for approval to the superintendent or their designee.

There's some portion of this in this policy right now and we are not in compliance with it because we don't review and have never stated when we're going to review ASB constitution and bylaws.

They're just out there operating on their own.

ASB constitution and by-laws should not be inconsistent with model policies and should not create barriers to participation or fail to create a body representative of the student population.

Number six, staff support for ASB activities.

She'll be adequately trained and supported by the superintendent staff, including in grades five and below.

Currently, state law says that the superintendent can appoint an adult at grades five and below as the ASB, meaning they don't have to consult with students in grades five and below.

I've seen principals do incredible involvement of students forming ASBs in elementary school.

I don't believe we should support not having that engagement where they make decisions about money that's spent at that school.

and then add policy 4120 to this revision to clarify the role of PTA and booster fundraising and the implications of superintendent and our principal receipt of such funds, because I should say district receipt of such funds, adding the same rebalancing mechanism requirements stated numbers one and two, any gifts in the first and second points that it made, any gifts accepted or fees assessed by boosters, PTAs must have a rebalancing mechanism and follow the same guidelines for waivers if they are approved by the superintendent or principal.

In connection to 4120, all curricular opportunities that utilize school district resources, including district email, property, et cetera, must demonstrate the same equitable approach to assessment of fees and proactivity and waiving fees for those unable to play.

So anyway, well, before I make comments on my comments, I would like to pass it over to Director Crom Brown for her comments as well, because she had some things to say about these policies.

When it comes to these policies and when it comes to our ASB policies in general, I think firstly one of the great things that have been added that I want to thank Director Hampson for adding is or fail to create a body that is not representative of the student population because that's so important when it comes to equity and when I think about booster clubs and I think about student budgets and student activities when it comes to extracurriculars.

And when we say these things must align with our values as a district, one of those main values that has been said again and again is equity and what happens in our schools is really inequitable.

I mean, Director Hampson and I were sitting in this coffee shop and we were looking through each and every one of the different budgets and how money is allotted throughout different high schools and middle schools and even elementary schools and it is just incredible.

My job was on the floor of that little Queen Anne cafe.

that we can claim equity in these practices and yet have huge gaps like that and not just gaps in funding when it comes to extracurriculars, PTSAs, booster clubs.

but there's huge gaps in quality to, in access to quality arts and to quality sports and to quality gear for such things, which is a huge problem to me as a student.

It's something that we experienced like at Nathan Hale, with Nathan Hale Theater, which is something I'm deeply involved in.

we receive very, very little funding from our school's budget because we just don't have the budget for it.

And so that means we rely on our community and we rely on reaching out to parents and families to get the money we need to put together high quality productions and to do storytelling and to encourage kids to do what they're passionate about.

And that in itself just feels inappropriate to me that school programs are being forced to rely on outside resources of different families and not having this funding there in the first place.

I know that's a huge and wholly another conversation, but I think what this all reflects is the need for equity in how we are distributing funds and how money is handled in this district and in education in general.

And the importance of our students' experiences.

Our schools should be excellent.

They should be places of excellence and high quality education and that includes extracurriculars and all students should have that access to those things and should not have to fill out forms to opt out of fees if they don't have the money for those things because they should just be there anyway.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Thank you.

So I would love to hear from other directors if possible.

I'm taking this as an opportunity to hopefully hear from you all about whether this is a direction that makes sense with an ear to our legal counsel over there to make sure I'm not crossing any boundaries.

But this is one of the few ways that we can do work on the dais.

and if I can accept, I mean, Luna's the only director I've worked with directly on this, so I can accept to others if anybody wants to work on this.

If it sounds like there's a reason to move forward, I mean, I might move forward anyway and at least produce a product working with Luna and others.

and I don't think this would be a final step.

I think it would be a first step in trying to give the superintendent a direction that he can then utilize to try to accomplish some of these things over time.

I think the other thing that underpins this for me that I want to be really clear about is if we don't do this, we don't, these inequities will never go away and we don't actually know what these things cost.

We don't know how much it costs at certain schools to do the things that they do because they're always being extra buckets of money are being carted in and filling in gaps.

And so we don't know what it costs to really have a robust program of the arts, which, by the way, despite not being funded by the state, is part of basic education, according to our Constitution.

So if we're going to get there, we've got to know how much things cost.

And for me, there's an obvious equity component to this, but there's also a fiscal component to it.

Thank you.

I'm wondering, can you explain a little more, explain what rebalancing fund mechanism is?

What is that?

The what?

The rebalancing fund.

The number one where it says all allowable fundraising activities must include a rebalancing fund mechanism.

I'm just wondering what that is.

So basically that somehow we would have to resource other schools.

So the counseling example is a good one where we slowly over time have been adding counselors to, I mean, pre-pandemic, we were adding counselors to schools that we started with schools first who were higher needs, or I should say the district did, and then slowly, as funds became available, built it into those other budgets.

this is quite a bit more complicated because it flows into extracurricular but it's basically saying if we accept funds whether it's within the school day or it's connected to the school and it's supporting things that for example, the complexity of athletics that is connected to Seattle Public Schools.

They are school sports.

We pay coaches, right?

How do we make sure that what is raised through booster clubs, what's provided through fees that are raised, because different schools charge different amounts of money, as you are aware, from reading these policies, how do we rebalance that at schools that aren't able to accumulate the same level of resources that other schools have?

Luna and I talked a lot about this since having experience of fundraising at schools where there is a combination of need and the rebalancing sort of happens internally versus from school to school across the city where you have extremely high need and extremely low need and there's great disparity in terms of what's accessible there and so the district would have to figure out a way to fund that difference so that whatever it's kind of it's a you could use the um the levy caps as kind of one what do they call that the re uh trying to balance out the funds across, not that I'm giving credence to that, but across the state, we're just...

Regionalization?

Regionalization, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

So we're in the same category of trying to balance things when it comes to what kids have access to at schools.

No, just so I know if I'm understanding it right then.

A rebalancing mechanism means that, An organization or entity does a fundraising activity, they will also take a portion and contribute it towards this rebalancing fund?

I'm not suggesting how.

I'm suggesting that it needs to happen.

And that when we allow communities to fund programs at their schools, in many cases as I was also surprised at some of the numbers, because we are required by state law to report both the, and there's a reason, right?

Because it creates inequities.

We're approving this tonight because the waiver is necessary to try to keep us from creating inequities.

But we need to go a lot further if we really want to address the issue.

I'm grateful the state has done this far, but when a school receives those dollars, then somehow the district has to make up the difference or limit the amount that they receive.

Like I said, I didn't want to prescribe how it's done because it's, I mean, I've been talking with the financial staff in Seattle Public Schools about this for years and it's highly complex.

There is no one size fits all.

And so there's got to be a lot of discretion on behalf of the superintendent and his leadership to make sure that those things happen.

And I think doing it through programming might be their best approach.

So you don't want to start taking stuff away from schools, but you want to figure out how to make those things available.

And it goes all the way to things like We do advertising on behalf of ski bus in our schools.

Are those programs accessible to everyone?

Yes, they have scholarships.

Are they actually accessible in the same way that is consistent with our vision and values in terms of our expectations?

So I'm trying to put the vision and values and equity piece in every aspect of our system.

If you're using our resources, then the expectation is that your line with our vision and values.

Is that helpful?

Yes, thank you.

OK.

Go ahead.

I'm curious if there are examples from other districts that have tackled the, what did you call it in here, the rebalancing fund?

So I would very much stay away from calling it a fund.

and put it very much in the hands of staff that it's an internal thing that they have to work through.

I have not researched it for a couple of years when I had, and we got an email ironically today, like at the same time that I sent this information out.

There's always these notions of, well, if you contribute, yeah, give 25%, or we'll take all the money and we'll redistribute it, just give to the central fund.

from an economic standpoint, those things don't really work, and I couldn't find any really functional models, because I think the localization is really key.

People really want a different school.

Even if you did say, oh, well, everybody gets a theater program.

Well, not every school wants a theater program.

I think if there are students who want to do that, we should figure out how to offer it.

But right now, it happens only if people can pay for it.

and that's not okay.

So no, in terms of the level of rebalancing that I'm talking about, no, I would need to go out and that's what I would commit time to, to research more and talk to districts.

I didn't have certainly access to districts.

Like I didn't have that I'm on the school board where we've had the opportunity to meet with so many of them across the country and to say, hey, who's doing this well?

But it's really an administrative thing.

Like it's something that I want the superintendent and his staff to figure out, but instead of us telling them how to do it, but to at least give it their best shot.

The example that does come to mind for me was Franklin High School and Prom.

Franklin High School prom, is that what you said?

A situation where I think that we should be supportive of the kids came and gave really powerful testimony.

I do see that as a problem that needs to be solved.

And then there's some kind of, I don't know if this is the best example, but Lincoln High School, because they don't have athletic fields, they are spending a lot of money on bus transportation, right?

Yep.

That is also part of the problem.

Yeah.

So there's different kinds of complexity.

So I would be interested in learning about how other districts have approached this.

But I recognize that the issue exists.

I think it's something that has to be solved over a good amount of time, and we want to allow for that up front.

But if we don't give the superintendent the charge, it's never going to happen, and we're just going to keep...

We shouldn't let the state beat us to the punch on any of this stuff.

We should be stepping up.

But, yeah.

As I said, I think an initial take at it and then getting more student involvement in looking at it, and we've heard from a lot of students about it, but there's a lot to learn about what it means to actually truly do this if we don't start talking about it.

And I couldn't let this policy come through without, this was an overdue change that got pushed off because of all the COVID stuff and It actually, as you heard from when our AAMA or Kings and Queens were here talking to us the other day, you heard from Roosevelt the comments about the fees issues there.

It is something that affects their lives every single day.

And then access to programming, like you're saying, the transportation, money being spent on transportation, or having to get into cars, and is there equity there?

I know there's inequity in terms of you know, Title IX, girls' sports versus boys' sports, and forget about the fact that we have very little in terms of non-gendered sports.

It's a whole, yeah, but we gotta start somewhere.

The last comment I want to make is that sometimes I get feedback from community members that paperwork and processing is cumbersome when it comes from central office.

And one concern I have is if we're adding a layer of administration.

And that is the last thing I want to do in terms of slowing things down for things that kids are passionate about.

So that is just, I think we understand that and something to be aware of.

Yeah, I agree.

That occurred to me as well.

I think that we could probably speak to that in the language, right, to make sure this isn't meant to add layers of, oh, you have to do this and you have to do that and you have to get this approval, but for the superintendent to look at the whole system and say, how can we do better in this regard without shutting things down?

I don't know.

Superintendent Jones, I'm open to hearing from you about it as well.

Briefly, thank you for asking.

Yeah, I think the clearer the charge with some expectations around phases, I think we can backwards map, we can process, engineer how to get it done from a procedure perspective.

but if you all can spend just time getting clarity around what is the outcome?

And it almost sounds like an emerging guardrail that we can have for if such programming goes out, then there's gonna be this level of analysis per every item or whatever.

But I think there's a, again, the clarity of the charge would be really helpful and we can figure it out.

I'm interested in knowing what the intersection is here with the definition of well-resourced schools, which we're throwing that phrase around a great deal and we, I don't know what the hell that means.

And two, how we distribute money to our schools under the weighted staffing standard formula.

Because I see those, three issues, rebalancing, weighted staffing standards, well-resourced schools being very much interconnected or crosswalked here.

That's all I got.

So I'm not hearing any reason to not keep working on this.

Yeah.

I don't see any reason not to keep working on it.

The only question that I had is, do you see any potential overlap with the policy ad hoc committee?

Yeah.

OK.

I just don't want to over-capacity them, so I'm looking for kind of pretty succinct fixes.

That's sort of why this is the, what did you, I forget what Les called it, but this is the big version and smaller, more succinct versions should come from that.

But I also didn't want to just move forward with that without talking to my fellow directors about it and getting people's questions and where it needs to be clear and what the unintended consequences are.

It's all very helpful.

Awesome.

Just let us know how we can support.

If you need additional folks or you need somebody assigned to the work to support, just let me know.

Yeah, and I'll talk to Director Rankin about just not the actual work, but whether or not it fits in that sort of policy manual area, or whether this is, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not sure yet.

Yeah, neither are we.

All right, thank you.

With that being said, Director Cromero, do you have anything you'd like to add?

Don't feel inclined.

Yeah, great.

Awesome, thank you.

So Ms. Wilson-Jones, roll call please.

We still have very technical things that we do need to approve tonight, if I'm not mistaken, but Chandra is just forecasting that there are additional pieces.

Yes.

Yep.

Director Sarju?

I need a point of clarification.

We're not voting on this, correct?

What's the vote?

So there was no way to do any additional work on this and still comply with the changes that need to be made under state law.

We're voting on the changes being proposed and I'm using the opportunity to say I want to bring this back and address the rest of it.

And here's why.

My vote is aye.

Director Song Moritz?

Aye.

Director Hampson.

Aye.

Director Harris.

Aye.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Aye.

President Hersey.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you very much for that robust discussion.

We are now poised to move into our action items of which I believe we have uno.

We will now move to the action item on today's agenda.

Action item one is approval of the Board Resolution number 2022-23-14.

Direction for the 2023-24 fiscal stabilization plan.

This item is for introduction and action.

May I have a motion for this item?

I move that the board adopt board resolution number 2022 slash 2314, direction for 2023-2024 fiscal stabilization plan as attached to this board action report.

Immediate action is in the best interest of this district.

Second.

All right, approval has been moved by Director Sardin and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

Vice President Rankin is unable to join us this evening, so I will be providing some introductory remarks on this item on her behalf.

The board action would approve the resolution that directs the superintendent to provide the board with a detailed plan regarding reductions and other actions necessary to balance the budget next year.

This resolution is the first step in a sequence.

After approval of the resolution, the superintendent will provide the board with a fiscal stabilization plan on May 3rd in our work session.

On May 10th, the board will consider a board action to approve the fiscal stabilization plan.

And this plan will guide the final budget that will be brought to the board in June.

We are in the midst of making challenging decisions as a district and this process will help increase transparency and clarity for the board and community around the proposed changes to district operations in advance of our final budget adoption.

The work session on May 3rd will be an opportunity to discuss major changes in more detail where we can get a deeper understanding of their impact and how they align with available resources as well as our values.

The board action was co-sponsored by Directors Hampson and Song Moritz.

Would either of those directors like to offer any additional comments at this time?

So, As I told Superintendent Jones, Director Rankin, and then Director Songwritz, we talked about the relationship between this particular resolution and what I believe is a more robust financial policy that we don't actually have, a fiscal policy that doesn't exist currently, which I have sent to all my fellow directors.

I did want it to be included in this, but it was I guess that it would be confusing because we're not voting on a new policy, we're voting on this resolution.

But the reason I thought it was important is that it did speak to, okay, it spoke to when a situation like this occurs, what the expectation is, so that this isn't just sitting out there by itself.

I think if we had taken the time to write a stronger fiscal policy and prior years, prior decades, then we might have just naturally come to this place of having this resolution where we have to be really clear about, hey, we're in this deficit period.

We don't have, we need the clarity of the forward motion in the face of these significant fiscal challenges.

We've been, our expenditures have exceeded our revenues.

consistently for quite some time, and we have failed to address it.

And that's all of our failing everyone collectively that's involved in that because it does entail making cuts.

But it also, I think importantly, it underlines even in this time of declining enrollment and those impacts on funding that we need to make sure that the resources that we do have or that the superintendent is demonstrating the alignment with the successful achievement of student outcomes.

And we did try to speak to that in this resolution.

I hope we did so successfully.

And this is a big opportunity have a balanced budget and make that first step on a path towards sustainable fiscal stability.

We need a much more, this creates some transparency in terms of the process.

It's always been a struggle for us to figure out how do we provide that transparency so people can see how we get from point A to point B, because it feels like we just suddenly, it's fully baked and then we vote.

Some of it's baked at the state level, some of it's baked in our existing ratios, and that's another thing that the draft fiscal policy I sent out speaks to.

but at this time we need to have a really clear and serious response.

And it's not just the adoption of the budget but actually asserting our commitment to financial stability.

and directs the superintendent to propose a fiscal stabilization plan that includes specific actions necessary to balance that budget.

The use of the economic stabilization fund, which is a big deal because we do have to repay that, as well as other reserves, finding non-general funding sources and significant reductions of expenditures in the central office and to a lesser extent schools.

we need to bridge this $131 million deficit or whatever it is when we finish calculating the, I don't wanna say nominal impact, but possibly limited impact of what the state is providing to districts right now and start the development of a multi-year strategy.

And again, I just wanna emphasize that it is our responsibility to, I, My hope is that by the fall we have in hand a fiscal policy that really clearly lays out all the different pieces, the reporting piece that we don't currently have, the administration piece that we don't currently have, and the budgeting piece.

Those are the three, it's kind of the three-legged stool of a fiscal policy, I believe, for a school board.

And we only have it in sort of smattering places.

and this type of resolution would always be necessary at a time when we need to shift direction.

This isn't just business as usual.

So I don't know, Vivian, if you want to add anything?

My kind of interpretation of this exercise was that there isn't formal direction from our board for the superintendent to address the fiscal cliff.

It's a legal obligation to balance our budget, but there isn't necessarily formal direction, and I think this is our attempt at that.

I think it's an opportunity for individual directors to express ideally combined direction for our superintendent.

I have no idea, obviously, how individual directors plan to vote on this resolution.

But my hope is that there will be enough support for this resolution to give that kind of support for Dr. Jones in the exercise that he needs to undertake that will be difficult.

So that's kind of my interpretation of this exercise.

And also, in addition, it puts specific dates as to when we will be getting a plan to add that transparency to the community.

And I think the other point that I'd like to reiterate is that It's also giving direction to the superintendent that to do the multi-year budgeting and to create a plan to do that.

So that's kind of my take on this resolution.

But I'm interested in hearing feedback from colleagues.

I don't think that What I'm about to say is necessarily feedback.

One of the things that I've been thinking about I have frequently asked myself the rhetorical question, how did we get here?

And this has been a decades long march to this place.

So we're not in this place because of the pandemic or because of the last couple of years.

we have been marching towards this kind of deficit for a long time.

So that said, I guess what I'm wondering, and I don't know if it's really a question because I think I should just assume that this change that we're doing through this work My hope is that in the future, and I know hope is not a strategy, but there needs to be a system in place so that this cannot happen again as a slow march.

No superintendent should have to inherit problematic situations from multiple superintendents over time.

And that's where we are here.

And this is not a blame game, but we did not just land ourselves in this financial position.

I have a vivid memory of being in this auditorium when Mary Bass voted no on a financial budget.

She was the lone no vote and her colleagues were incensed at her.

But she's a finance person in Metro and is still a finance person.

We're talking 20 years ago.

And so this can't just be for the time that we have Superintendent Jones here.

We need to set up future superintendents with a structure so that future boards can hold the superintendent accountable to ensuring that we do not make a U-turn.

Because if we don't, we can make a U-turn right back.

We can solve it now.

And then 10 years later, we've made a U-turn and we are right back at the same or worse deficit.

So I don't think we need to have a, I don't need an answer from you all about the the weeds of the details, but that to me has to be the forward thinking, is this is a course correction and we're not going to make that U-turn.

And the way we're not going to make that U-turn is to have policies and procedures in place so that it doesn't happen again.

Thank you.

I endorse what you said and I've also been one of the lone votes against a budget and it really is very, very painful.

But I assure you I will vote against a budget again if some of the questions that we've been asking for months and months are not answered because I perceive that as my fiduciary duty.

not because I don't think that staff is working very, very hard.

I acknowledge that.

Questions that I asked about this bar, this policy, are attached to the agenda tonight.

They got in late.

I own that.

My hope is that by the next budget meeting they will be answered and they'll be real answers, not Yeah, yeah, fine, Harris.

We're gonna roll you and blow you away here.

Not a problem.

I can't do that.

I do know that some of us have been asking for the actual costs of special education that we've been spending.

As I might add, too many legislators.

And if we're going to make that argument to the legislature, we need to be able to know what and how we're spending that money.

And I don't envy anybody on staff in this district with the ugliness that comes with reductions in force, with the overwhelming responsibility and the hours worked.

I do think though that it's unfair to set our superintendent up with these kind of sort of ghosty expectations when we talk about things like well-resourced schools and we don't even know what that is.

I think we need to do a better job of backing our superintendent up on that piece and I appreciate that you and Director Rankin worked on this together.

Dr. Jones, I appreciate that immensely.

But I'm going to hold those same questions that are attached that haven't been answered to the next budget meeting.

And I assure you I'll read every sentence, comma, and period at that time.

Thank you.

Director Harris, thanks for your comments.

I also echo that I think that I'm thinking about this resolution separately from a budget vote.

I am cautiously optimistic that with this direction, the support around the understanding that this board knows that significant changes have to happen.

That's what I think this resolution is about.

but I also have this expectation that we will be getting the information that we have been requesting around special education spending before I will be able to take a vote of confidence on the budget in July.

So I just want to echo that.

Any others before I move to the vote on the resolution?

All right, Ms. Wilson-Jones, roll call please.

Oh, yeah, please, go ahead.

I don't think this will affect your vote, but I just want to just give you my perspective on this, that this effort is not singular to Seattle.

Other school districts have been bringing resolutions forward in extraordinary times.

I believe this brings clarity to the superintendent and staff as to what to do.

It brings transparency around what are the elements of this exercise, if you will, of balancing the budget.

and bringing fiscal stability.

I believe it instills discipline in terms of what are we setting out to do with dates and times and who's going to do it.

Therein is role clarity around what is the board giving the direction to the superintendent.

I also believe this asserts the board's authority as to what their responsibility is in terms of fiscal stewardship, and then the superintendent's responsibility for responding to that, and this gives that clarity going forward.

and so I think this is a healthy thing to do.

Will it be necessary every year to have a resolution?

Maybe not, but I believe these are extraordinary times that we're in right now and the more transparency we can have about who's doing what and what is expected would be healthy for us.

So I just wanted to mention that as you all go forward on your vote.

Thank you for the support.

All right, so there being no further comments or questions, Ms. Wilson-Jones, roll call please.

Director Rivera-Smith?

Aye.

Director Sarju?

Aye.

Director Song-Moretz?

Aye.

Director Hampson?

Aye.

Director Harris?

Aye.

President Hersey?

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you all very much.

We sincerely appreciate it.

We have a progress monitoring session today on guardrail number two.

We are joined by our governance coach, AJ Crabill, with the Council of Great City Schools.

I will pass it to Superintendent Jones now to begin the progress monitoring session.

Yeah, I got it.

Yeah, we are going to the tables before I pass it to Superintendent Jones.

All right, thank you all.

Oh, and take your mics, don't forget.

Thank you, President Hersey and board members.

Today we're here to talk about student outcome-focused governance, particularly guardrails, and we're gonna start with guardrail number two.

and guardrail number two is really speaking to the board's desire to make sure that systems are reliable.

And the guardrail reads, the superintendent will not allow operational systems to deliver unreliable service.

So I have today Interim Deputy Fred Podesta here, and I have a couple of staff members that are gonna help us perhaps walk through some of the more detail, Carlos de Valle, Dr. Sarah Pritchett, and Dr. Marnie Campbell, and they'll each be representing each one of these Interim Guard Rail goals that we're referencing as metrics.

So, The board approved guardrail number two in fall, this fall, October 26th to be exact.

As I mentioned, this guardrail focuses on operations.

This is the only guardrail that has that focus.

And as you'll remember from our discussion last spring regarding interim metrics, once the board approves the goals and guardrails, it's my job to determine what are meaningful interim metrics.

And so these metrics will enable the board to effectively progress, monitor each of the goals and guardrails.

So I'll stop right there and see if AJ wants to do any introductions to the first time that we're talking about guardrails.

But if AJ, if you say proceed on, I will.

But I'd like to maybe give you an opportunity to set a little bit of context.

rather than looking at academics.

I look forward to the conversation.

All right, fantastic.

So in tonight's memo, there are three metrics that I believe provide meaningful system-level information about critical operational systems that support the Board's monitoring of reliable services.

These areas are bus on-time arrival, teacher vacancy fill rates, and technology system availability.

We also sometimes refer to that as uptime.

Each of these metrics relates to an operational system that students interact with directly on their daily school experiences, ultimately impacting learning outcomes.

These metrics also reflect that the board, what the board provided when developing the operational guardrail around systems when you are hearing most from community.

So we tried to identify the elements that you all have represented were most, had most concern for community.

As you'll note in the memo, we are on track to meet the targets in each of the metrics.

and my and our interpretation of Guardrail 2 is that systems are either reliable or unreliable.

There's no degrees of reliability, it's either yay or nay.

And so the targets in each metric are based on industry standard for reliability.

So once our system looks at these standards, they are considered unreliable.

Excuse me, once our systems drop below these standards, they're considered to be unreliable.

And that's when corrective action will be taken.

So each metric includes not only the meeting of the target, but also the maintenance of that reliable status.

So staff work is to, an effort is to maintain reliable systems that's equal to the work required to achieve these targets.

And so once we get to a place of reliable, we'll do the work to sustain that.

And that's a little different than perhaps how we've represented goals and metrics in the past.

So I'll stop right there for a second and see if there's any questions about the framing and what this is and then we can get into some more specifics about the actual data.

I have a question about how you came about picking these as the interim metrics and specifically why wasn't school lunches, for example, considered?

Yeah, so that's a good segue into this next section.

I want to take a moment to review the rationale for each of the metrics.

So first one is around transportation, bus on time arrival.

and we believe this is a critical metric for our transportation system.

It allows if we're monitoring for daily service that allows students to arrive at school, prepare to learn, take advantage of breakfast or services.

Some of their core classes are early in first period.

and so we believe that this is a really important issue and it's been transportation, buses have been an issue that has been talked about a lot by the board and community.

The other piece is teacher vacancy fill rates.

This measures the percentage of classrooms with a teacher on the first day of school.

We know that a fast start is really important for our students.

We don't want them to get behind.

We want them to have the highest quality experience from day one going forward, and if they start without that, that's problematic.

and this allows us to mount it to the effectiveness of our supports to schools in preparing for the academic year.

And we have a whole start of school effort that we really have to, we dot the I's, cross the T's, we do all kind of checks routinely to prepare for that day one experience for our students and we believe that's an important measure.

The other measure, the third one, is around technology system availability.

As I mentioned, that's also the term called uptime, and this monitors the key systems that students use in their daily learning.

We believe without that, it would jeopardize quite a bit of their experience.

and technology system availability is what we deem as a marquee metric in the technology sector and this metric allows us to determine reliable access to student learning tools as well.

when we think about interim metrics, these were the three that we thought had the highest impact.

They had the highest level of indication of if we're reliable or not.

And so there could be other metrics too.

And so with that said, I'd like to just hear from the board as to are these three, do they look like the things that you hear about?

Are there additional metrics?

But we're pretty, and I'm confident that these can be an indicator of how well we're doing in terms of reliability.

I'll just go ahead and dive in.

I think that bus on time arrival and teacher vacancy, if we're talking about student outcomes, are two really good indicators and they have definitely been instances where, especially at the beginning of the year, does somebody else have a mic on?

They've definitely been indicators, especially at the beginning of the year.

Or rather, they've definitely been things that we've heard about pretty frequently.

So that's my two cents.

I think that we're headed in the right direction with those.

Other directors?

Go ahead, Director Hampson.

Consistent with what President Hersey said, teachers and transportation are definitely ones historically that we've, I mean, just ditto to what everybody said.

I think that less about the, well, I guess, it's hard to say on the technology systems because we went from like that's all we heard about to, you know.

Yeah, that less so.

I think the only one that I feel I hear about all the time that's missing is enrollment.

Just, well, kids getting enrolled, people getting enrolled, their customer service experience with enrollment, but also our data on, I don't think we've had I don't think I've seen a data report around loss, students that we lost during the pandemic.

I know it's something that I've heard you're looking at, but, and that is connected to our, well, obviously you can't learn if you're not in school, and it's connected to a lot of the other issues, the enrollment, like overall enrollment, right, keeping our enrollment numbers up.

I know there's a kindergarten enrollment is something that y'all are talking about trying to, we hear about the Skill Center on the radio, but yeah, that's a service area that I hear about.

And then I had one, my one question is, whether or not as these things become consistently proficient, whether they would sort of slide down to a, okay, we're good here, now we're gonna focus on these other things.

part of the thinking or am I looking at that wrong?

I'll answer the second question, but before I do that, Director Hampson, are you suggesting that enrollment would be prioritized over these or would they be in addition and how describe your prioritization of enrollment versus these?

I don't think It's more my question to you.

I don't know that I have, because what we hear is anecdotal, right?

So I don't know if I have enough data to indicate that it is a broader issue, I'm asking the question.

Meaning I would think in terms of reliable service, that's a pretty major service area for us and we have open enrollment periods and so there's that whole thing and there may be changes to that coming depending on what happens with consolidation, I don't know.

Yeah, so it just remains a big question mark for me, because I don't feel like I have the, I've heard any data on it, and I guess maybe my question should have been, have you looked at that as a potential area where there's a need to improve?

I can't say that it, I mean, the only one that I would potentially bump is technology, but how do you, that's pretty important stuff, so, yeah.

In the 2023 context of declining enrollment, I think I agree with you.

It doesn't matter if I agree with you or not, but I'm acknowledging, confirming that this is a really important piece.

And I think we weren't looking at that even as back in October as such a critical item.

Yeah, I'd like the board maybe to think about that one in terms of if you wanted to tee that up as something that was really important, you know, we can certainly consider it because we are going to spend a lot of time on enrollment over the next year, two years, three years, probably next 10 years given our projections.

So I think that's a really important one.

As for the second question around once we meet the mark, we meeting standard, I'm not sure if we would lower it and say that's not the priority anymore because how we approach this is that it takes a lot to maintain the standard and that that's the work that goes into a behind the scenes and Carlos' team, Sarah's team, Marty's team, they're all working hard to keep that at the industry standard.

But I want Fred to be able to kind of speak to that a little bit, but it's really about a maintenance goal here.

Yeah, what we were trying to do here is find some significant metrics that are at scale, that represent system complexity, and most importantly, have direct impacts on students.

And there's always room for improvement in areas, but in terms of a guardrail, what we're hoping, and this is the first time we've had a monitoring session on a guardrail, so we need feedback.

but what we're trying to do is get a slate of indicators that give the board an overall sense of district operations and, you know, again, areas that are complex and large scale and they do take ongoing work.

None of these things represent, well, once we've figured this out, it's solved and then we'll never come back to it again.

And so I think we appreciate feedback.

Do these give you the general sense of operations if there's is a glaring omission.

I think enrollment and the services and this kind of enrollment trends and how does enrollment how do enrollment trends reflect operations versus reflect other goals is an interesting conversation.

But the customer service, if we're not approachable and the customer services part don't work, that certainly has an impact.

So I think that is certainly one to consider.

But I think we would tend to think, once we get the appropriate slate, and depending on how guardrails work, you know, unless we're hearing from the board or the community that, oh, and again, our goal is to not, to never provide unreliable service.

If something rears up that, you know, that we're having something that needs a mitigation plan to get back to reliable, then we would certainly measure it.

But overall, what we're hoping is to find the right set and then report on them regularly.

Quick follow-up question.

In terms of connecting what you said to the receipt of additional title type funds for students who have certain designations.

thus creating additional funding sources.

Where does that data scrub happen in communication with the state?

And it's less about where does it happen, are you confident Superintendent Jones that that information is scrubbed sufficiently so that we, and is that in the enrollment area?

Because whether or not a box gets checked means whether or not we get funding for that particular child for that service.

That is team effort with enrollment and then the various program areas that would lead to funding and finance usually.

I think there's room for improvement.

Thank you.

I'll just add on to that.

Team effort sounds great, but it always also means less accountability, so if there's some way to harness that so we can know who's accountable for those very important steps as Dr. Hampson was laying out.

I wanted to go back.

So the question I think was, what do we think of these three?

Is there something else we prioritize more?

I agree with the selections.

My only, I think, question is regarding the hiring, filling vacancy rates.

It looks like it's centered solely on first day of school.

But as we all know, throughout the year, there are vacancies that sometimes sit way longer than they should, especially in our special ed department.

this looks really great we're green we're doing pretty good here but throughout the year I don't know how we're doing I mean I just anecdotally hear that it's hard in a lot of our buildings so that's the only place I would maybe look to expand upon or maybe focus also on because this is important first day school is definitely important but throughout the year is like I feel equally as important especially in certain departments

Thank you for that, because the first day is an indicator of how ready we were, how we've made sure that we're going to fill each classroom with the qualified educator.

And then as we go along the year, we measure daily, obviously, but that's mostly around sub-fill rates.

And so we have a parallel process going around sub-fill rates.

We also have a process that we look at when a teacher goes on leave, how do we fill that position?

So that's all part of it.

If you would think about this as the top line measure of an indicator is what we're doing the first day.

Throughout the year, we're also measuring formatively how are we filling these classrooms.

And so I think there's a parallel process that also answers the concern about what are we doing throughout the year.

I've got one just follow-up question.

The more that I'm mulling this over and after reading the memo, technology system availability is something that's just sticking around in my head.

And I wanted to ask this question to you, Superintendent Jones, but also would love to get some feedback from either our coach or my fellow directors.

I'm looking, or at least from my perspective, one of the things I hear about regularly is communication follow-up.

and I don't necessarily know if that is related enough to student outcomes to justify being a guardrail but I would love to hear just like from the folks that I mentioned if y'all understand kind of like the track where my brain is going in terms of ensuring that we're closing the loop on some of the most important like communications that we receive because it's just common that we as board directors here get like X, Y, or Z like, oh, I haven't heard from staff, nobody's responded, dah, dah, dah, dah.

and a lot of times that's not related to student outcomes at all but sometimes it actually is and so I'm just wondering in terms of like fidelity with follow up in terms of like getting things to especially families and students when we say we're going to get them to them as potentially something that we could look at measuring.

But wanted to hear some feedback.

If I'm way off base, I know that I shouldn't be giving any advice to you as a superintendent about what we're measuring, but wanted to introduce that piece of the conversation.

President Hurst, you mentioned that related to technology.

Were you referencing that being a feature of the system's availability?

Okay.

No, something different because it's like I'm just not seeing how system availability in my mind is an adequate measure of this particular guardrail for technology.

But that's not to say that I can't be convinced of that.

I'm just struggling as I sit here thinking through like how well transportation and the vacancy pieces fit into like What we're trying to accomplish here with this guardrail, it feels as though technology systems availability is kind of on the outside of those two things.

And again, that's just me, right?

Like, don't take this as like, you need to go fix this or change this.

Just providing feedback.

Yes, you open that up to your fellow board members.

I'd love to hear their responses.

But again, if this is a better interpretation of what you all intended for, the superintendent will not allow operational systems to deliver unreliable service.

And in that context, communication would be a priority.

We certainly can look at that and see how we can incorporate it, but I'll defer to board members in terms of priorities.

The way I'm thinking about what metrics would be that I would like to see around this guardrail are things that impact the day-to-day functioning of our school.

So I actually would include technology on that because if the technology wasn't working, that would really interfere with the work of our staff.

So when I'm looking at these three metrics, I think they are appropriate.

I have a wonder, should we be including something around lunches?

Because I do think that directly impacts our student outcomes.

And that is something that I often hear feedback from families about, my child had to wait for a very long time for a meal, or there's staff missing and so my child wasn't able to get something or there was a missed delivery of X.

And so that is something I anecdotally hear about.

I don't have any data to support that.

But I just pose that to my colleagues if lunch should be considered.

I had a very similar question to Director Rivera-Smith around the human resources metric, which I submitted.

And the answer that was provided to us, there was reference to a continuous operation plan and I would be curious to know more about that and perhaps within that plan there are better ideas for metrics that we should be discussing.

I can't speak to the exact details of the operations plan that really relates to, again, ongoing recruiting, both for teachers and central office positions, and then fill rates, but we can certainly provide to the board, you know, what all the metrics that HR uses, as everybody is well aware there's very much a cyclical pattern to our work in a school district and so that's why the first day and that metric again that we're looking we're trying to look for indicators that just kind of speak to the overall health of the system was our thinking about this memo and so that's why we think that's really important that's not to say that this represents all the management statistics that every department speaks to.

So given that that will be complex, if this is acceptable to you, I think we could follow up with how that operations plan works and send that to all the board and see if, and then you can give some thought to are there metrics in there that would be a better indicator than our first day or in addition to.

Clarification, that continuous operations plan is specifically around staffing, not other.

Regarding staffing, I have some concerns about how many grievances are filed by our staff.

I have significant concerns about the length of time it takes to finalize investigations.

and that's student outcomes focused absolutely when teachers go missing and it takes a very, very long time.

Are we appropriately staffed with our investigators?

Are we using alternative dispute resolution early on?

I don't know those statistics and frankly I'm not sure you keep them and maybe we really should because we were in a terrible place about a decade ago and we climbed out of it and I suspect that we are slipping back there.

That to me is an absolute operational goal and it affects the trust and it affects our risk management as well.

That's real money.

Director Harris, is your suggestion that that be an element of the human resource fill rate or it's a standalone?

Just that we do it.

I can bootstrap it any way you want.

All right, well thank you.

So we'll take this feedback into consideration and we will maybe ask a couple follow-up questions to you all as you have a chance to think about it.

But we'll incorporate some elements of that, some or none of it, in the next iteration.

So it just depends on how strongly you all feel about it.

So we'll move to a more familiar part of progress monitoring.

Let's talk about the data a little bit.

and then after we do that we'll talk about strategy and that's when I'll maybe ask Marty, Carlos and Sarah to come forward to help clarify any detail.

But if you, if we're looking at the, first off, the human resource hiring vacancy fill rates and at this point I'm looking at the chart on page three and if you have it, please turn there, if not, please flip the page to page three on the screen.

What you're not seeing, but I can speak to it.

Since 2018, we've had around a 98% fill rate on a teacher in the class on the first day.

It's dipped significantly in 2021. We probably have some data on why that dipped, but that was a COVID year, so there's an anomaly there perhaps.

and then we're back up to 94%, which is a little higher than when we saw that dip and first happened in 2021. So this is clear that where we wanna go is keep it above 95%, so we have a little work to do there, but I just wanted to see if you all had questions about this data, and I might employ Dr. Pritchett to give some detail about this.

Any questions about this particular metric and where we are?

I mean, since the guardrail is around the health of the system, I think it's great to look at the data at a top line.

But I am also thinking about our goals that are written in a targeted universalism format.

So I'm curious if your team is looking at more granular data on a by-school basis to ensure that our students furthest from educational justice are not disproportionately being impacted by missing teachers on the first day of school.

I must say that's tremendous insight and we know for example that substitute fill rates are disproportionately hitting certain schools with those demographics.

Similarly, we are also familiar with how the first day of school is impacting various schools and so we track those data as well.

And Dr. Pritchett, am I accurate on that?

She said yes, okay.

Don't want to be accurate.

So that is a component of this and that's one of those kind of, one of those other data points that we track.

So that's astute, thank you so much.

A very specific example was alluded to earlier this evening in public testimony, which is math at Washington Middle School.

I think it's been really hard to staff those positions, and we have a stated middle school math goal for our black students.

And so I think to the extent that you feel comfortable sharing some more granular data with the board, I think that would be a healthy conversation for us to have.

And you touched on this as well briefly, but I think that one of the things that we saw throughout the pandemic is something that I experienced often in my time in the classroom was the lack of substitutes being filled into positions on a daily basis.

And I think that that has a large impact on the same thing that we're trying to get at here because there will be several instances of folks that like need to take the time in their contract off to do whatever they need to do.

But because substitutes are really difficult to come by for a myriad of reasons, loss of classroom time is a big thing that is impacted by that.

And so I see a relation there and I would be interested in some data around that potentially.

So I just didn't want to lose that thread.

First, are we only looking at the human resources piece of it right now?

Okay.

You set the target at 94%, which is where we are now.

Or where we were.

No, where we are now.

Yeah, because we just had that first day of school.

Do you have trends that give you a sense of...

Are there any other indicators that tell you whether or not you'll be able to meet that next year?

I mean, obviously, personnel separations, personnel reports, that kind of stuff.

I'll ask Dr. Pritchett to come up and maybe speak to that.

However, I think our trends are all out of whack right now.

I think after we've had this last year of pandemic, I think employment trends and how we recruit, all those type of things have been, we have to kind of reconfigure, think differently how we're doing it.

I know we've had to be much more creative in our recruitment efforts and we've had to be much more creative in how we're thinking about retention but I think there's some unknowns of the last two years that have really kind of changed how we do business and so if Dr. Pritchard has some additional information on that I offered come on up but I don't think we have a good idea to be honest.

Good evening.

I just want to say, one, that looking at our trends, it's kind of a year-long piece that we do.

We do meet with our principals, building principals, every year to talk about retention and talk about where they are, talk about strategy around how they're keeping teachers, particular teachers, are there areas where they need additional support for teachers?

So those are ongoing conversations that we have.

We do look at climate data as just kind of another piece to say, are we seeing high levels of retention and high climate scores?

Are there things that we need to be working on As I'm coming aboard, I'm looking to strengthen the relationships with directors of schools so that they can also have that on their radar as they go in and talk with principals and school leaders around staffing.

So those are just some of the pieces in there.

I think we outlined them in the memo of some of the strategies that we use to kind of monitor staffing and where we're falling short, where are some of the areas that particular schools are seeing more need.

As Dr. Jones said, I think that with the pandemic, we've seen kind of topsy-turvy in people leaving or people coming on board.

We also saw a significant number of emergency certification for teachers.

And as people were emergency certified, they also started to think whether or not this was a job for them.

So we've seen some turnover in there.

So there's just a lot of things that we're learning about, that I'm learning about as coming into this position and completing a full cycle this year.

I have another HR question, just a consideration.

Another thing that I experienced in my time teaching was that there would oftentimes be variations in the evaluation depending on the principle, right?

In federal way, I know that putting no one's business out there, there would be tons of educators who would spend the vast majority of their careers on basic and would be basic year over year.

And that's not necessarily due to the educator, that's due to either a lack of support or a lack of understanding of how an evaluation cycle is intended to work by the administrator.

I would be curious to know if there is a link between the schools who are who have more educators who spend year over year in the basic category in the outcomes of those schools versus educators where we see a different type of trajectory, right?

And I'm very cognizant and cautious of asking that question because I don't want to see like administrators potentially just moving educators up because they know that we're looking at it, and there's definitely the possibility to do that.

But it is, I think, a question that's worth asking to see, like, does our evaluation process for our educators and the supports that we're providing them actually align to student outcomes?

And can we say that definitively, right?

Because if it's not, then there could be space for us to, especially in partnership with our Education Association, look to see is this a process that serves us and is there something that could be augmented.

I'm gonna steal a little bit of Dr. Pritchett's thunder here, but what we do in the strategy section, what we'll talk about here in a few, but there's data inputs from meetings that we have with principals around school by school and we take into consideration non-renewals and movement of teachers and sometimes it's due to performance.

However, I think there are multiple factors that we're looking at, including rift analysis, displacement, voluntary movement, non-renewals, all that go into the mix for how that's going to happen.

But I think that is a component of it.

I will just add that we, with our peer assistance and review program, we're also looking at evaluations because right now, I would say the majority of our evaluations are proficient or higher.

And does that necessarily track with student outcomes?

just a wonder.

And so that's a real question.

With a school district this size, we're certainly not seeing the number, just if you did percentage-wise, the number of teachers that we would think would need additional support.

we're getting ready to roll out another professional development with school leaders for next year as we've changed the Danielson requirements and the language that's coming forth with evaluations so there's time to recalibrate as we get new leaders we need to recalibrate what they're seeing in the classroom Again, that's another opportunity to partner with principal supervisors to talk about what they're doing with principals as they're walking through classrooms and buildings so that we're getting that calibration there, because that is a concern across the district as to how people are looking at classrooms, what they're seeing, how they're rating, and then to also build that understanding that as teachers come into the classroom, Although we don't want to live in basic, that is a space where you can be and you can grow and it's okay.

And so we really need to be having that conversation as well.

And so those are some of the things that we're talking about as we prepare for next year.

We'll have a section after we walk through the data to talk about our strategies.

If it's okay, we'll move on to the data center availability.

Data center availability, network infrastructure availability, and Office 365 availability.

And so our overall system uptime is about 99.8, and that really correlates to an industry standard.

And if you move the slide one more, please.

Yeah, thank you.

It really correlates to an industry standard.

In December, for example, we had an unscheduled data center power outage, and that probably took our number down a little bit.

But our overall network infrastructure availability was greater than 99%.

And so Carlos has researched and 99.9, I believe, is the standard that we want to make sure that we meet.

So that's where we are right now.

And I think the We're there and it takes a lot to sustain that and there's different reasons why it can go up and down, including events such as power outages and weather events, but this is an industry standard that we're looking at.

Any questions about the data center systems availability, network infrastructure availability, and Office 365 availability?

So the data basically is derived in the idea that unless you have an outage, it's being supplied.

Is that kind of how it's pretty simple?

Carlos, come on up here, please, sir.

Because I'm out of my league here.

But that's the way I understand it.

But I'd like for Carlos to give some legitimacy to those responses.

I'm trying to understand the data collection it sounds like unless there's an outage we're assuming that the services were being supplied so for all of our calendar except for those two days of outage.

That's how we get the 99.8.

Yeah, our goals have redundant systems.

When we're talking about the data center availability and networks, we're actually talking about internet access, access to the learning management systems, Schoology, you name it.

teams.

So we have a system that's called solar winds that keeps track of the uptime.

Our number one enemy, like Dr. Jones is saying, is when we have power outages.

We do have some redundancy.

That's our goal.

How can we put systems in place that are redundant?

not only from the application side of the house, but the data center and the infrastructure as well.

When we have power outages here for the past in February, we were able, I'm sorry, in January, that's when we got it, right?

In January.

We actually put in place a failover in Bruceville.

And that's the work that's been going on for about two years.

If we lose power in the main data center here in the JCC, we are able to automatically switch over to Roosevelt and still maintain the services to our teachers, students, and operations.

Right now as part of our strategy moving forward, as part of the Rainier Beach High School that we're building, we have a project to build another data center there.

So we have, you know, three-prong redundancies.

So if this part of the city loses power, we still have services to the rest of the city.

So that, you know, that's our goal.

But yeah, to answer your question, number one killer is the power outages.

And it's hard because, you know, the infrastructure of the city.

Okay.

I think the metrics speak for themselves that this is a highly reliable operation.

I'm thinking about risks and one that sometimes captures the headlines is when school district systems are hacked.

So I'm curious to know what is your mitigation plan or how are you thinking about that kind of threat to the reliability of our technology?

Carlos, I want you to brag about April Marta as part of this.

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of the incident response operations that we have as far as cyber.

APRO has created this incident response plan.

It starts with prevention, basically.

And we do patches every time that we see vulnerabilities that take care of that.

I don't want to go into details to expose stuff, but when I first came here, I was very impressed by the way that they segmented the network and the systems to ensure that they have hacking coming in, it gets isolated right on the spot.

And we have had some instances where they can see it and they stop it right on the spot, which I'm very proud of that.

April Murdoch and her team, they do an amazing job in ensuring that the network is that.

We can have some metrics.

We can do some reporting that we can provide to you guys or maybe a quarterly briefing, you know, how we do it.

But yeah, overall, we do oversee it fairly well.

And that's the prevention piece.

In the case of something will happen.

We have an emergency response very well laid out with notifications, what the communication plan is, how do we notify the authorities, how we...

You're telling too much, the people are going to hear about our strategy.

We do have an association with entities like CISA, which is the government, and they have a K-12 school program that we are in contact all the time to ensure that we are in line with new stuff that are coming out daily if something comes out, and we are on top of that.

Can we go back to transportation?

In my haste, I skipped over transportation.

It was an oversight, not a statement about prioritization.

If you can look at this graph, you see there's an orange line and a blue line.

And orange line is Zoom, first student is blue.

Collectively, we are at or above our our goal of 94%, and we wanna move this to, once again, that same number of 95%.

This key performance indicator is on our on-time morning arrival.

And so that's what this graph is talking about.

And so any questions about where we are, what are you seeing on this metric, on-time arrival?

President Hersey.

Do you have any insight into what caused these dips?

Is it personnel?

Is it construction?

I would imagine if they have the same routes, because I was stuck in traffic yesterday for 45 minutes, surprisingly, when my commute normally takes like 20. I'm wondering, do you have any indication of what is the fluctuation here?

I'll have Dr. Campbell speak to the fluctuation.

I don't think these are big jumps.

They look like it because the way we've graphed it.

Yeah, they're all nines.

But I know that transportation and staffing are the number one, as Carlos said, the number one killers of being on time.

But I'll defer to Dr. Campbell on that.

Thank you, good evening directors, good to see you.

Equipment failure and traffic are the two most common causes of late arrivals, and that could be also a human error, so bus operators are supposed to do a pre-trip check, where they make sure the radio's working, they make sure the doors are working.

That doesn't always happen, and sometimes even if it does happen, something can fail mid-ride, but so those circumstances that are most often occurring, it is that, and then it is unexpected traffic.

I had the same question about transportation that Director had about the HR metric, which is where it's not on time, is there disproportionality?

And so what schools slash students is it affecting?

because that may be about things the city's not paying attention to in certain parts of town.

It might be other things.

So I would be interested in that disaggregated data.

Thank you, and I am as well, and so the approach we took to it was to actually take our 13 elementary literacy-focused schools and actually ask for students in Zoom to report on those schools specifically so that we could compare because of the number of routes and the, I mean, to sort of crunch that data on a regular basis, Independent of that, we could undertake that, but I feel like we already have a ready-made set of schools, and that way we're both attending to a guardrail and a goal, and supporting a goal, and that's something that I felt like was really important.

We felt like it was really important for our carriers as well to feel like they're participating in our third grade reading goal.

so what we are finding is that, I mean it's still new, we started in January, but we're finding that in some cases in those 13 schools it is outperforming, that is there fewer late arrivals than in our other schools, but that is something that we are going to look at doing and we're gonna use that as a mechanism for doing that.

And that's also, just to point out, many of our literacy-focused schools have their literacy block first thing in the morning, so it's really critical that kids arrive on time.

Okay, so we're gonna jump to strategies.

If we can go to the page around strategy implementation, I'm gonna start out with transportation.

So you all had a chance to read this.

I'll just highlight a few pieces.

First, we work to ensure we're carrying a number of strategic vehicles and drivers.

So that's really to have a backup spare vehicle.

We do daily reports, verifying fleet and driver readiness.

We have transportation staff meeting with Zoom and first student leadership to make sure that we're all on the same page.

The transportation staff work directly with members of the special education department to make sure that we are paying close attention to those specific needs.

and the transportation teams map our late and delayed route data to determine where there are persistent issues to resolve.

That kind of gets at that last question around where are the impacts.

And so these are the main strategies that we are teeing up for transportation.

And so I want to just give you all another opportunity to respond to the strategies.

Are these strategies clear?

Do you understand them?

And do you have any questions about the strategy?

The only thing I noticed missing is any qualitative data.

That probably sounds like an oxymoron, but I mean data about the experience of students.

I have not heard negative reports about drivers and their interactions with students.

this year, possibly not even, I'm trying to remember the last time.

So I don't know if that's because there's been an improvement or I'm just not, I also am from a district where there may be fewer buses.

So yeah, what kind of qualitative pieces are

supporting this data as well.

Thank you for that question.

And qualitative data is critical data.

It's very important.

Anecdotal data matters as does the larger trending data.

That's a great question.

We tend to hear more of those experiences when we have issues and problems.

we have an issue log that is updated daily.

So if there is a challenge with a bus driver or with a ride, that gets reported to us right away and then we have a team of interventionists to work that through.

But what we have not done is actually start to map that in a way that shows the sort of trends or diminishment of those trends.

and I think that's a great suggestion that we actually start documenting that issue log a little bit more formally.

Frankly, the percent of on-time arrival that you see is actually the result of a lot of really great work on the part of Fred and other people to get our two carriers in and really hard work in the transportation department team to get to this level of performance.

And we are now ready to actually start doing that more refined work and to actually say, how are we tracking the human experience on the bus?

We definitely know when that experience is not going well.

And that's something we attend to immediately and take care of.

I will say, and I don't want to imbalance either carrier, but Zoom as a provider does use an app where families do rate their rides.

And then our alternative service providers, because they're sort of ride-hailing services, we also get data on those ride ratings.

We are working with First Student on also getting their similar product on board.

and so the feedback from the Zoom families that are reporting that is very positive, four and five star rights.

And that's on the buses, not just on the cars.

I'm glad you brought up the First Student app, the missing app, if you will.

They promised us, they sat right here at this lectern that they had a working app.

and I believe it's part of the contract and I guess I'm really disappointed that this multinational corporation can't seem to get it together.

We are working on that and I would not say that First Student has not been working on it.

We have been working on it together.

We have a pretty high bar of ADA compliance for apps that our families are engaging in and that is something that we're working on with First Student.

And they are very diligently pursuing it.

And I would say, given that this is a new thing for them to be launching this district, they're doing a good job.

So we will be able to have that on board because we're finding that that's assisting in a lot of data support for us and for families as well.

I'm glad that you alluded to the alternative providers because very randomly the other day I took an Uber ride and that driver was a half skip drive driver as well and so I asked them about what their experience is like and she brought up something kind of there's almost a financial incentive for those drivers to wait until the last possible minute to pick up take a ride, essentially.

And so I would be interested in knowing what is the qualitative data that you are getting from the students, knowing that there is a financial incentive essentially for drivers to wait until the last possible minute to decide that they're going to pick up a student.

They've been very reliable partners and very good to work with, and they and Ever Driven work together, I mean, sorry, both of them work well.

Ever Driven is also a partner that we use frequently with our students with IEPs, so I think they both serve a great purpose independently, but that has not proven to be a problem for us, yeah.

add, and correct me if I'm wrong, Marnie, but we work to get consistent drivers for the alternative transportation, so it isn't quite the same model that the typical ride hailing where, because the consistency is important to us, and From their perspective, it's a regular account that they can service, so that generally works for us.

I don't think we often find ourselves, perhaps for new arrangements or ad hoc arrangements, find ourselves where our bride is being bid for.

It's more of a consistent arrangement.

and there are drivers who prefer that.

And so you may have had a driver for whom that's not the preferred client, but we have quite a few drivers for whom that daily ride with a student is actually the thing that they're committed to.

And so it's actually really been a very good model for us.

All right, let's talk about the strategies and human resources.

And there are five essential strategies that we're working on.

One is ongoing one-on-one deep dives around school roster, knowing of retirements, resignations, et cetera.

And that's how we plan for looking at field rates.

That's one of the strategies.

Annual planning that supplements that, just making sure that we're looking at that late winter so that we're trending in the right direction so we can tee up types of recruitments.

Data inputs that we talked about around that drive the overall staffing plan.

We're looking at site-based training for school-based teams that are led by principals so that they're invested in the process.

and then we're also looking at training of our ARE graduates on the next steps for applying.

And ARE is the Academy of Rising Educators.

That's our home-grown program for really making sure that educators and that are parents can move into roles that are certificated.

These are the strategies, you all had a chance to read them, but there's also one more piece, I forgot, there's another sixth strategy around.

We are aggressive in terms of partnering with schools and filling vacancies.

And so before we were, during my tenure we were a little passive, now with Dr. Pritchett and we're moving that to a much more aggressive posture.

So these are the strategies that we're looking at for fill rates.

I think I neglected to ask this before, but strategy's probably also an appropriate place.

These are classroom teachers only, right, that we're looking at?

traditional classroom teachers only.

So we're not looking at the auxiliary, we're not looking at special education classrooms.

I think we can extrapolate that these are also hard to fill positions.

So from nurses to classroom teachers, there's across the board.

So Sarah, come on up please and make sure I'm saying the right thing.

But this isn't just teachers.

Go for it.

So first the metric is about teachers, but I'm gonna say that special education teachers are teachers, so they're not separated out.

So we're looking at all teachers.

This particular metric is not necessarily talking about the other staff that are in the building.

So this is really about do we have certificated classroom teachers teaching students on the first day of school.

would you say we are doing these activities?

Yes.

Yes, this actually goes around.

I think somebody's not on mute.

Anyway, this actually is something that we do.

So a lot of the work that we're doing in all of these areas apply to all of our positions within schools.

but in particular we're really looking at what are we doing with our teachers.

We know that our paraprofessionals are a place where we seek out new teachers.

So we've started to build relationship with some of our outside partners, City Year and City University to start talking about how we can improve upon the quality of teachers that we're getting in.

They're helping us with some work around identifying substitutes through recent city year graduates who may be interested in becoming teachers who have already worked in schools that we traditionally are seeing higher sub unavailability rates, you know, in that.

So we're thinking about all kinds of creative things around different positions.

This just happened to be particularly to teachers, but we do have other strategies that are specific, particularly for our IAs and paraprofessionals where we're seeing significant shortages.

Okay, last but not least, in terms of strategies for technology and systems availability, Carlos talked about the fact that we're setting up a new data center as part of the Rainier Beach School Building Project, and that's really to increase our reliability and have the redundancy there.

DOTS is also upgrading the telecommunication network infrastructure to improve reliability and redundancy once again.

And then the telecommunication systems team now has a real-time backup of the critical geo-node services database that houses our telephony and directory and voicemail data.

And then lastly, we have a process in place for new laptop, iPad issuance and improved device processing and accountability.

So these are all strategies that are contributing to the system's availability and I know you all had a chance to read that.

So any questions about the strategy or comments about the strategy for technology in our system's availability?

Okay, so thank you directors.

Taking notes, we'll take all these things into consideration.

This was our first guardrail presentation opportunity.

These happen to be all green.

Just to dampen your expectations, the next guardrails are not going to be green.

However, we're still collecting data and so we're seeing the trends and we're not shying away from describing gaps when we have them in the system.

That's part of what our brand is, that we want to be transparent.

We want to always be in a mode of continuous improvement.

These metrics happen to be metrics that are going to be more maintaining metrics than maintaining and sustaining metrics.

The other ones will probably be more looking like some of the goal-based metrics.

With that said, love to hear from AJ.

Thank you for sticking with us.

I know it's late where you are, because it's actually late here.

So back to you and President Hersey.

Okay, I believe that we are going to have the questions up on the screen.

AJ's been doing some real time evaluation for us.

So just give us a second and AJ, when you see him, take it away.

The primary coaching I would offer is that there were a lot of technical questions that it would be helpful to ask in advance.

And there were a lot of questions where board members were expressing their opinions about whether they agreed or disagreed, liked or didn't like some of the performance metrics.

And again, I would generally encourage those conversations to be had in advance so that you can spend your time when you are together today is really digging into the performance data that's in front of you.

This is a unique situation since it's your first time out, but for future guardrail monitoring reports as well as future goal monitoring reports, I would really just encourage you all to have as much of those type of conversations where you have opinions about the interims or you have Other technical questions, I encourage you to get with your superintendent in advance as much as possible with the idea that when you are all together here, you can focus as much of your attention on what is the strategic direction that we're moving in and what's working and not working with the strategies that the superintendent has selected.

and so we didn't really get deep into that conversation.

We saw a few examples of those.

And so you see, I think there's one particular question that stands out that's line 21 that really is emblematic of that type of question.

And so that's what I would encourage for the board is just as much as you can get the technical questions and the questions about the interims themselves out of the way in advance, have the more strategic conversation the conversation that's really digging into what is the ongoing performance of the school system in these areas, that you can focus on that when you're here together at the dais.

Any questions that you all have for me?

Any questions, directors?

Yeah, I would just highly recommend that we take this document and we'll make sure that folks have it and just dig into it.

We haven't done a progress monitoring.

I'm not making any excuses for anybody, including myself, but AJ, I would love to find a time just to, I think like having regular refreshers on appropriate questioning is probably going to benefit this board.

So I will loop with you and figure out like what's the best way to go about doing that.

And as is always, it is super happy to visit with folks one-on-one just to support you as you are preparing for board meetings, thinking through what are the things that are really going to help you have an insight into where is district performance in the areas of your guardrails.

And so to the extent that anyone desires that level of support, just know that it's the joy of my heart to make time to provide that.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Thank you very much, AJ.

Any other things from directors on this piece?

Go ahead, Director Summers.

I just want to express my gratitude to Dr. Jones and your team for doing this work because I know a lot of work was put behind this and I think you can tell my enthusiasm around this guardrail.

I think this is wonderful work.

Thank you very much.

Well thank you and back at you because this was the board's adjusted guardrail number two and you all had the foresight to put it in front of us and so this looks like teamwork to me so thank you so much.

Thank you everybody involved.

Thank you AJ.

Okay, we will come back to the time use evaluation during our next regular board meeting when we have the evaluation prepared for our April meetings.

Before we adjourn, are there any other takeaways directors would like to discuss regarding our time use?

Rest in peace, Harry Belafonte.

Thank you for that.

There being no further business to come before the board, the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 7.48pm.

Thank you very much.

Have a good night.

Get home safely.