Seattle Schools Board Special Meeting July 30, 2025

Director Mizrahi, can you come join us up here real fast?

so this is president top the board recessed out of executive session at 4 40 p.m the special meeting of the board is now reconvened at 4 45 p.m there being no further business to come before the board the special meeting of the board is now adjourned at 4 45 p.m and uh the board will reconvene for a special meeting here in two minutes one minute Perfect.

We have looks like we have Director Briggs and Director Clark on line.

Good evening.

This is President Topp and I'm now calling the board special meeting to order at 4 45 p.m.

Please note that this meeting is being recorded.

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

For the record I will call the roll Vice President Briggs.

She is online.

I see her.

So let's give her one moment here.

Hi sorry I couldn't unmute here.

Thank you Vice President Briggs Director Clark also I believe online.

Yes I'm present.

Director Hersey will be unable to be with us this evening.

Director Mizrahi Director Rankin Director Sarju And this is President Topp.

Good evening everyone.

On our special board meeting this evening we have sort of three main buckets of things sort of the some last minute things for the upcoming school year.

An update on our superintendent search and a strategic plan update.

We're going to begin the evening with an update from H.Y.A. on our superintendent search.

They are our search firm on our superintendent search.

As directors remember we extended the community engagement timeline which will impact the timeline for the leadership profile and the search.

Mr. Ali should be online with us and will walk us through the new proposed timeline and the status of our engagement and next steps.

After our discussion with H.Y.A., we will move to public testimony and then an opportunity to move into a number of action items and will conclude with a strategic plan update.

I have just a few housekeeping items on things that are coming up before we get started.

The online survey for the superintendent search will remain open till August 4th.

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey or attended one of the sessions.

Your participation in this process is invaluable.

I appreciate so much the interest in our community in participating in this process and how much folks really care about public education here in our city.

So board directors again August 4th is when the survey closes.

So please continue to push out the survey to your network to your communities.

And then the next announcement is Director Rankin and I will be holding our monthly board engagement session tomorrow 731 at James Baldwin Elementary at 6 p.m.

I'm told that there will be snacks.

So come and have some snacks and talk with Director Rankin and myself.

Sort of on the list of topics we have our superintendent search, strategic plans, goals and guardrails.

And I'm sure folks will also bring other topics they want to discuss with us.

The I want to announce that the ad hoc budget committee has been chartered and will be chaired by Director Clark.

The first meeting will be on August 7th.

This committee, as we sort of talked about in our retreat, has four goals to really collaborate with staff on developing a budget timeline and process that works for directors.

get sufficient information to provide strategic oversight for us on the budget in an ample in ample time and to inform budget decisions.

So essentially who needs to know what by when it will develop recommendations for the board on improving budget process and decision making transparency.

hopefully to allow for more public engagement on the budget.

It will develop recommendations for the board on a need and scope of analysis on district finances and and then it will develop and recommend board level priorities to guide future budget development process including board training and development.

So those are my housekeeping announcements, and I'm going to pass it over to Mr. Ali now from HYA to kind of walk us through an update on our superintendent search process.

Mr. Ali, are you online?

Mr. Yes, I'm online and accounted for.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Go ahead.

Oh, beautiful.

Thank you, Madam President, and to the distinguished members of the governing board.

Good afternoon.

In addition, good afternoon to the Seattle community as well as the exceptional staff that you have there in your district who've been very instrumental in this process.

So without any further ado, I'll just jump right into the presentation if we can tee it up.

So we don't see a presentation.

Is this something our staff has, Mr. Ali, or is it something?

Yes.

I sent it over to Julie Warth and company.

So they're in possession of it.

They should be able to upload it.

All right.

Just one.

We are going to, this will take about a minute to upload.

OK.

No problem.

Sorry.

No problem at all.

All right.

OK.

It looks like we are up with a presentation, board directors.

There we go.

All right.

Next slide.

Can see it online as well.

OK.

So what's before you, Madam President and members of the board, it's the signature process you've been privy to this document before, as well as your communities also seeing this document.

And so where we are today, we're in the engage and the recruitment phase.

What does that mean?

We're still doing ongoing engagement and we're actively recruiting for a wide range of talented candidates who will in fact exceed the expectations of the community.

And so that's where we are today.

We'll discuss the timeline and subsequent slides, of course, the selection phase, and then begin the transition.

But again, we're in the engagement as well as the recruitment phase of the process.

Next slide.

Engagement sessions.

I know this is a little small, but what you see before you, we kicked off the engagement sessions May 29th, 2025 with our students.

And we will end, it'll probably be the week of April 11th.

It'll be the 11th or the 12th.

We're going to extend the engagement sessions to include the Native community as well as the Black community.

We were on the ground this weekend past with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from the Vietnamese as well as the Latino community.

We did have some engagement efforts with some of your black community members.

But again, we want to capture additional voice of the indigenous community as well as the black community.

So those focus groups, which will be virtual, We'll conclude the week of the 11th.

I put the 12th in there because that's the day that we're shooting for.

We're going to work very collaboratively with the community-based organizations, which was the case over this weekend past.

Again, big ups, big shout out to your staff as well as your community-based organizations who co-facilitated the on-the-ground engagement sessions.

So shout out to all of those individuals who were intimately involved in that.

That's represented on this document before you.

Next slide.

President Ali, I need you for the record to change from April to August.

You said April, so for the record, can you restate the dates?

Okay.

Let's back up one more time.

I'm sorry.

Back up on that slide, Ms. Worth.

Okay.

So we started in May and we're ending in August.

I do apologize if I said April.

So August 12th are the dates that we're looking to conclude with the Native community as well as the Black community.

It is recorded if you want to go back and listen to yourself.

I'm joking.

I'm joking.

I'm joking.

I'm not going to debate you, okay?

All right.

Leadership profile.

So let's talk about the leadership profile report.

This has been a document that we've discussed throughout the engagement, the engagement phase.

We've talked about various elements, but let's kind of unpack what that represents.

And so the overall objective is to define the purpose.

We talk about what goes into a leadership profile report.

Well, it develops not just what the community desires to see and the superintendent asks for it, but it serves as that fulcrum.

It serves as the living and breathing document for which a superintendent would not just use as a part of their interview process, but it helps to set the groundwork for a strategic plan and or strategic implementation for various initiatives of superintendent desires.

So of course we look at desired characteristics.

The focus groups are very essential to the development of the profile, the participation, the summarization, and then of course their survey results.

Now there's been several questions asked by folks within the community if I would be able to provide examples of desired characteristics.

Now, looking at other systems and other searches, it changes.

So I'll just give you some mere examples.

Not that that's the case here, but these are examples that align with what communities around the country have sought with respect to a transformational leader.

Definitely wanted somebody who's bold and audacious and innovative.

Communities are interested in folks who experience, who have a tremendous amount of experience working with diverse cultures, diverse populations.

the uniqueness of communities.

I'm very, very sure we all would agree we want somebody who's student-centered, student-focused, able to prioritize equitable resource allocation and support underserved communities, historically marginalized communities, multilingual, special education, children who are struggling economically speaking.

In some communities, folks who desire people who are connectors, and communicators and able to utilize a measure of authenticity to forge relationships with families and staff and general community partners.

Individuals who are interested in utilizing decision-making strategies that are not just totalitarian in nature or dictatorial, but inclusive and demonstrates a measure of transparency.

So those are attributes, and those are characteristics that communities often desire within leaders.

And I'm very confident once we analyze the data, there'll be very similar characteristics sought in a leader within the Seattle public school system.

This document will include not just the online survey data that we have been collecting, but in addition, any other comments as annotated during the on-the-ground engagement sessions.

A lot of that will find its way into the document, and the board will be very pleasantly surprised.

Of course, the board will have an opportunity to be presented the document.

The community will also have their hands on the document.

In addition, the document will be made available to superintendent aspirants.

Next slide.

So this is the engagement timeline.

This is the draft document because of course it's living as well as breathing.

And so where are we, where are we today?

Today we're providing the board update.

August 4th is the closure date of the online survey.

August 4th, again, is the closure date of the online survey.

And that will be Monday, Monday.

gives individuals an opportunity over the weekend to be able to capture any last tidbits of information.

We did it, allow for an additional extension because we wanted to be very respectful of several community events involving the black community, as well as your native slash indigenous community.

And they asked, Hey, we need a little bit more time.

And so Why not grant the community an additional week or so in order to collect that engagement?

It's fair, it's equitable, and it's also inclusive.

August 26th, we'll preview the leadership profile report and we'll discuss community engagement themes with the board in person.

September 1st through the 15th, of course, to be determined.

We'll then share the leadership profile report with the community, as well as propagating that information throughout the city, utilizing your community list of partners.

The application closes all aspects.

We'll have all of the application documentation uploaded into our system September 15th, September 17th.

HYA will provide the board an update.

We will present the slate, the slate of candidates, the slate of aspirants, September 26th, October 9th through the 10th.

Interview of final candidates, October 13th.

Board discusses interviews and the process therein.

Special board meeting, August 15th and 22nd.

to vote as well as make the public announcement of a superintendent.

And then, of course, we move into the transition phase.

And so that's the draft timeline before us.

Certainly, we want to respect the community and make sure that everyone is aware of this.

We're going to work with your communications team to ensure that we're able to get this out to the community so everyone has their eyes on the timeline.

Any thoughts or questions on this before we move to the next slide?

Okay, next slide.

Director Sarge said praise the Lord, this is a good timeline.

So there you go.

No, I think I know that this has taken a little bit of time to build out and I appreciate this timeline.

I think this is this is reasonable.

And I know that directors hopefully have the calendar invites or in their inbox or will be coming shortly.

So we're saving those these times.

because it is a significant chunk of time.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ali.

All right.

Next slide.

Next steps.

Analyze the data.

We'll analyze the data as presented based upon all the surveys that we've collected.

Draft the leadership profile report.

Present the finalized leadership profile report to the board.

We're presented as a draft.

If the board would like to augment, make corrections, additions, we're more than open.

Again, the objective here is to work very collegially and collaboratively.

One of the most important slides, excuse me, the most important points I'd like to underscore is to share the leadership profile report with the community.

It's extremely important to give them an opportunity to review the document, and to make certain that they understand that their voices were heard and it'll be encapsulated therein.

And then, of course, it's very important to make sure that the aspirants are avail of the document.

In many instances, after reading it, someone may say, Seattle is a phenomenal city, but I might not be the right fit.

And we respect that.

But then others may read the document and say, this is ideal for me, this community, this system, the challenges, the ups and downs, peaks and valleys, this is something I want to do.

I want to get in here and roll up my sleeves and deliver change on behalf of the families of this community.

And so that concludes my update for this afternoon.

I look forward to any questions if there are any.

Next slide.

CHRISTIE WOODWARD- Thank you, Mr. Alley.

Looking to board directors and just we're four minutes past public test, five minutes past public testimony.

So I want to kind of move along.

But do we have questions?

Just very briefly I assume you would let us know if you need anything else from the board at this time.

Oh absolutely.

So having not heard that I feel but I just wanted to confirm we're sort of waiting for the next date where we will be reviewing things.

Let me just say this director.

I want to thank you guys for your patience and also want to thank you for trusting us with this process.

But I really want to tip my hat to the president and I spend a tremendous amount of time with her on the phone as well as working with the staff.

And there's nothing I need.

I mean, you guys have been very responsive.

I couldn't have asked for a much better group to work with.

And again, hats off to your staff.

I mean, we've been moving mountains and really working diligently within your community.

Thank you so much Mr. Ali appreciate it.

All right then we're going to move into public testimony.

We're going to move right along.

So just a quick announcement on public testimony.

Since I've heard that some folks have had some difficulty signing up for public testimony last board meeting we updated our public testimony policies which means that all of our links on all of our websites have been updated.

Oh, for Mr. Ali.

Oh on public testimony?

Okay hang on just one.

No not on public testimony.

Yes.

Public testimony.

Okay hang on just one second.

So we've updated our public testimony policies and that includes all of our links so if you had a link from that you'd saved or you go back to that same link it will no longer work.

We have a new form to submit public testimony on.

In addition the the link for the public testimony sign up has slightly moved.

It used to be at the bottom of the page.

Now it's at the top of the page just so folks could hopefully find it more.

But I know that has been confusing for folks since that is not what they were normally expecting.

You can also on the board meeting page find it on the sidebar.

So just so folks are aware.

Director Sarger you had a quick question.

yeah um first of all it's summer it's not like our you know the the online attendance is packed with hundreds of people so my request is um like we do for a lot of different things is to have an email go out to our families stating that we have a new process to sign up.

And it should be anybody, regardless of their language, should be able to understand what the process is.

We can't expect people to figure it out.

I can't figure it out.

And I've got multiple degrees.

It shouldn't take that.

So my request, and I'm looking at our chief, is to just send out an email so that every family in the district doesn't have to play the game, how do I do this, and end up failing, which is why we only have one person.

So you get to speak for like 20 minutes, because that's about how many people would have signed up.

So so we've now reached the public testimony portion board policy.

I still have to read all this paragraph so it's going to take me just a second.

One four zero board meetings provides our rules for testimony.

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

I have the right to and will interrupt any speaker fails to observe the standard of civility required by our procedure.

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 and pass it off to staff to summarize a few more points and read off the testimony list.

You president top.

The board will take testimony from Apologies.

The board will take testimonies from those on the testimony list and will go to the waiting list if we are missing speakers.

Please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute and only one person may speak at a time.

The board's procedure provides that most of your time should be spent on the topic you signed up to speak to.

Speakers may cede their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called.

Time isn't restarted and the total time remains two minutes.

The timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person.

When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called.

For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted.

Moving into our list now, for those joining by phone, please press star six to unmute on the conference line.

And for everyone else, please do reintroduce yourself when called, as I will miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list.

The first speaker on today's list is Matt Burtness.

Did you understand all that, Matt?

Thankfully I've been born with the privilege of a white man who speaks English so I can confidently say that yes I did.

Thank you very much for asking me if I understood.

It's really greatly appreciated because I think that's really the crux of this issue and I say this issue because I came here to speak about support for immigrant students and that is what I've come here to speak about.

But the crux of our issue in SPS and it doesn't matter if we're talking about the issues right here in this room right now in this moment that I'm talking about.

It doesn't matter if we're talking about the school board search.

It doesn't matter if we're talking about whether Mr. Fred Podesta is our interim superintendent or not.

It doesn't matter who's our school board president is.

It doesn't matter who's elected to school board.

Because what I have come to understand through the joy of what is summer vacation is that.

It's about coalition building and the people the leaders don't matter because they will and they have and they will continue to fail us.

So I'm going to just take a step back for a second.

Thank you again, Director Sarju, for the question of asking and understanding and checking for understanding, because that is at the core of my mission as an educator, to check for understanding.

My name is Matt Burtness.

I am a lifelong Oh man sorry.

I'm a lifelong public educator and defender of public education and defender of children.

And that's what this comes down to.

And this is what I have tried for better or for worse to advocate for in my time with this district.

I want to again thank you Director Sarju and want to speak directly to you for being direct with me and telling me that I have more time than has been given because I'm the only person on the list.

I came with a lot of thoughts and ideas and things I wanted to say, but I'm not gonna say a lot of them because this is the crux of the issue, is that you change the format of public testimony.

You changed it.

I'm not making a criticism of that.

I'm making an acknowledgement of that.

And I appreciate you director Sarju for being willing to acknowledge that not you personally not the school board the district made a mistake in not informing our families of a change.

And that's where so much Oh sorry.

That's where so much of this anger in the community has come from.

And words have meaning and words have power and words can be weapons.

So before you even so graciously offered me more time I was going to use.

the words that I know as weapons, but instead of just using and here's where I want to get into making connections and making text to self connections with my students, because there's a lot of confusing information in the world, especially as it relates to our modern world, because facts are fiction and fiction are facts and you can make anything real if you make enough people believe it.

And we are seeing that in very exceedingly real time in this school board race.

And I'm not here to name names, I'm not here to shame anyone, I'm not here to call anyone out because that's not the purpose of this bully pulpit.

And this is how some members in our community have weaponized this space, the school board meeting space, as bullies.

So I want to thank you again, Director Sarju, for allowing me time, because what I was going to do in my experience as a union member was say, members of the prestigious Seattle Public School School Board, I would like to make a personal point of privilege, if I may.

I think you've got about one minute.

Cool.

Awesome.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you for the call out and for stopping me.

I want to say sorry.

because I have also been guilty of that bullying, and I want to apologize directly to Director Rankin.

I'm sorry, because I have been misled and I have been led astray by well-meaning, well-intentioned people who have good intentions.

I want to acknowledge that.

But impact matters more than intentions.

And I'm sorry that I have weaponized my words against you and spoken out against you because if there's one thing that has stood out to me more, it's how prospective school board candidates have answered the question from the Rainy Day Recess podcast, who are you most looking forward to working with?

And so many of them have said, Director Rankin.

And so many of them have been So many of them have had negative words weaponized against them simply for saying they wish to work with someone who has been misrepresented in the community, who at her core, her values, I know that I agree with because I have seen you stand up and not just dual wield two weapons, two swords and hit, hit, but I've seen you hold up a shield as well.

And that's what we need in this school board, is we need a sword, yes.

But we don't just need ruthlessness, because we need shields, too.

So thank you, Director Rankin, for being a shield.

And I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

And I'm sorry for raising my voice.

I want to acknowledge again that words have meaning and words have power.

I'm sorry, Director Rankin.

I'm going to ask you to wrap up your conversation.

Absolutely.

I have a lot more to say, and I'd be happy to elaborate more later.

But at the crux of the issue, please, people, as you are making and casting your elections in the school board race, please do your research.

Please read.

Please do not believe what is being pushed as an agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you for the consideration.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I got so mixed up in my own words that I forgot to also mention and advocate for the interagency and the issue of interagency in Southwest and Southeast Seattle, where staff members are being investigated, staff members are being attacked privately because they are trying to stand up for their students and I forgot that and I promised, I promised staff that I would mention it and I didn't.

And I'm sorry, I know I'm breaking policy, I'm sorry.

But I cannot leave this pulpit without saying that I stand with the interagency staff and students.

Please listen, please meet with the interagency staff and students who do not make any changes without listening to their community.

Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're going to move to the next person on the testimony list.

Go to staff here.

Yes.

They are online, and we have the next person on our testimony list.

Our next speaker is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins box 84063 Seattle 98124. There's also always a signup list at the meeting also.

On the action items on the agenda all items except one appear to be proposed for both introduction and action at the same meeting.

This tends to limit due diligence on these items.

On proposed instructional site relocations from the Roxhill annex.

If the site is being closed for instructional purposes state law requires a school closure process with formal public hearings before the vote board votes.

On the contract for an interim superintendent two points.

Number one Mr. Podesta is very talented and should be fairly compensated.

Number two.

But the board may need to consider ways that a single person can do as much as multiple employees.

I have one example if you can get a close up of a can of spinach with Popeye on it.

Thank you Mr. Podesta.

On written testimony to the school board is the district failing to provide written public testimony to board directors who remotely attend a meeting.

On the August 5th primary for school board elections three points.

Number one I believe that voters should favor candidates who oppose school closures but this requires some effort by voters to figure out candidates actual positions.

Number two opposing school closures has become the in thing but all current board members voted to start a school closure process.

Number three when the process blew up reactions ranged from willing writing a strong op ed against closures to embracing a smaller number of closures to those who still believe that schools need to be closed.

Thank you very much.

All right.

That concludes public testimony for the evening.

Thank you so much for coming out here.

We are going to now move into board action.

So we have six board action items and then we will move to a staff presentation at the tables on on the strategic plan.

So the first item approval of the twenty five twenty six collective bargaining agreement motion.

Yes I am the substitute motion maker for ease of In person versus remote.

OK.

Action item one.

I move that the board of directors approve the 2025 2026 collective bargaining agreement between Seattle Public Schools and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 and authorize the superintendent on behalf of the board of directors to execute the agreement in the form attached to the school board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the terms of this agreement.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

And we have I believe Tina Mead at the dais to give us a brief explanation here.

Good evening or good afternoon.

Tina Mead Director of Labor Relations for Seattle Public Schools.

The contract that collected the successor CBA that we're asking you to vote for and to approve is a one year agreement which essentially is a rollover of the previous CBA with no substantive language changes except for the wage rate.

A one year wage rate which is the implicit price deflator of 2.5 percent.

The implicit price deflator is essentially the state's cost of living increase now.

Granted it sounds as though it's a cost of living increase.

Unfortunately the prototypical state model doesn't fully fund that.

And so there as the board action reports indicated there is still some impact to the budget and an increase to the structural deficit unfortunately.

But it does give a cost of living increase to the employees the work groups there.

Looking to board directors for questions.

Director Rankin.

This might actually be a question for Kurt Buddleman's office but this you know we knew this contract was coming.

So is this a change to our projected budget or was this assumed already in the budget that we approved.

So I don't see Dr. Buddleman but I think acting superintendent Podesta can answer.

And I can answer that and Dr. Pritchett can answer.

Yes it was.

Everybody answer it.

Yes.

The IPD is what is calculated into the budget.

Great.

Thank you.

Other questions.

All right.

Thank you so much.

And I'm going to ask staff for the vote.

Vice President Briggs.

Aye.

Director Clark.

Aye.

Director Mizrahi.

Aye.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

Director Sarju.

Aye.

President Topp.

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Moving on to item number two motion.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Vera Vera Vera.

Thank you.

Vera Mobility and the two interlocal agreements with King County as attached to the school board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent to implement these agreements.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

I think we have Steven Richard at the podium to present shortly and then we can move to discussion.

Yes.

Hang on just a second.

Do we have a microphone on or is it not working.

No hang on just a second.

We may need to do a quick replacement or see if it's.

Check check check.

There we go.

Thank you.

The Washington State Legislature has authorized school districts to use stop paddle cameras on school buses to detect vehicles illegally passing while students are boarding or disembarking.

From 2017 until 2022 our contract with Vera Mobility Seattle Public Schools to obtain a percentage of the tickets that were verified.

We would now like to continue and expand that project.

While we cannot be sure of the exact dollar amount this program will bring in we can report that neighboring districts such as Issaquah and Bellevue have had great success bringing in hundreds of thousands.

More importantly Varia mobility has data to support that this is an effective deterrent for future offenses.

Ninety nine percent of drivers who were issued and paid a violation did not receive a second.

Because there are no upfront costs associated with implementing this program I hope you will approve this motion so that we can have cameras installed and active for the 25 26 school year.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay, questions from board directors?

Director Sarju.

So we don't have paddle cameras on the buses at the moment?

Currently, no.

Okay, so this is about contracting with this company to put paddle cameras on all of our buses.

Correct.

every single one right yes there was a smaller amount previously in years past and it generated a certain amount of income but we found that districts who go with 100 coverage have much have much better success

I just want to make sure it's not just for certain neighborhoods.

So I want to know that it's all buses everywhere.

First student and Zoom.

You are correct.

Got it.

OK.

And I just want to add, if I may.

Go ahead.

That generating income is really not the primary goal of this.

The primary goal actually is to prevent motorists from violating that stop sign.

It's very, very important.

Our students, people, when they're pull around a bus.

The visibility is not great.

Our children are often running across the street.

So really the intention is to support just as with school zone cameras and in some cases stoplight cameras to really reinforce those very important traffic safety measures.

If we broke even or even lost a little money on this it would be worth it because we would be ultimately protecting the lives of our students.

But any of the state law requires that any income that we do receive is to be reinvested in student safety.

In the past we have used it to pay for crossing guards which are another important part of our safety infrastructure and ecosystem.

But again the primary purpose is to prevent people and in a In a trial run back in 2017 they found that over the course of 117 days on just 10 buses I think is the figure there are about 800 instances of people pulling around those stop paddle cameras.

So we know that it's something that if there's not you know if there's not a sense that there's going to be an outcome people will violate that law.

Thank you.

Thank you director Campbell.

Questions from other board directors.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I see I was going to.

So the money you said a portion goes to SPS and looks like the rest of it goes to King County District Court and sheriff.

As well as the contractor yes.

And the contractor.

OK.

That leads me to a question that I'm happy to hold if it's not appropriate to answer this right now.

But that we also have, in terms of student safety and accessing, getting safely to and from school, We have in the past had a contract through King County to issue tickets for school zone speeding violations.

My understanding is that we haven't actually collected that in a long time because there's nobody at the county staffed to look back through for violators.

The county.

Look back through for violators and issue the ticket.

That seems also like I mean I know of a couple kind of hot spots where there have been collisions with students and it is almost always involved speeding.

Can we get that back or could some of this go to bringing that back up or is that just a whole other thing that I should just not ask about right now.

I think that's outside of my wheelhouse and I'm happy to look into it.

OK, just the connection between if this is also in some kind of relationship with the county, and we have this other pre-existing relationship, they had provided the staffing to look through the tapes to flag people for tickets.

My understanding is they no longer do that just because of a personnel issue.

So that might be an opportunity also, again, not to generate revenue, but to help keep our students safe.

Pass it over here to Acting Superintendent Podesta for a moment.

I believe that's a municipal function but either way we'll get the current data on it and follow up.

Unless Council Narver who worked on it from the city side cares to elaborate.

Good afternoon, Greg Narver, general counsel.

These are separate programs authorized by separate statutes.

So the school zone cameras are operated by the city.

Oh, they are operated by the city.

Okay, okay, okay.

That's a city function and I'm going back to my duties at the city attorney's office.

Okay, then the city doesn't check them anymore because they don't have the personnel to do it.

I don't know the status of the city's efforts there but that's a city installed program.

And again there's a requirement that the revenues from that go into the safe routes to schools program.

This is a separate authorization to school districts to have the paddle cameras on the stop signs on school buses.

And our contract with King County is because we of course don't have our own court system or prosecutors.

We need an enforcement mechanism.

So there's one interlocal agreement interlocal agreement with the county for sheriff services.

to catch the violators and then a separate ILA with the prosecutor's office and the district court to pay for the costs of processing the infractions for motorists who can test them.

So the money generated goes to maintain facilitating identifying

As Mr. Richard said some of the money goes to the vendor the contractor who operates the cameras.

Some goes to the county for the sheriff and the district court and prosecution services.

Some comes to the district and under statute the money coming back from the district needs to be devoted to student safety and getting to school safely.

Correct.

OK.

And is that by statute the are there are there restrictions by statute on the money that comes back to the school district or is that how we have determined.

That's a state law requirement.

OK.

Great.

Thank you.

OK.

And sorry.

Yes.

You're right Michelle.

And if I could add one more thing and we have some folks here from Bear Mobility but what they do is they take a screenshot.

They verify to make sure that it's a valid violation that they have all the necessary information which would be license plate information before they send it on to the King County Sheriff.

So the goal is that everything that goes to the King County Sheriff needs to then be validated so that it can be issued as a citation.

And as Greg Narver said then if someone wants to contest that violation then they will work with the King County Prosecutor's Office but their mobility makes sure that those those events those instances are valid before they send them along the way.

And we also will watch that data to make sure that we're seeing you know that those those events are being vetted and following through on with the King County Sheriff's Office.

Questions from other board directors.

Look for staff or call on staff for the vote please.

Hang on just a second, get a working microphone.

Our microphones are not cooperating this evening.

Director Clark?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Aye.

Director Sarju?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

President Topp?

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Okay.

Item three on the agenda, Director Rankin.

I move that the school board approve the relocation of the Interagency Academy Southwest Campus currently located at the Roxhill Annex to an acceptable Southwest location and approve the establishment of a new Interagency Academy site at Allen T. Sugiyama High School.

I further move that the school board approve the relocation of a Bridges program site from the Roxhill Annex to Chief Self International High School.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

And we have Dr. Campbell at the podium.

Thank you and good evening board directors community members.

We also have Principal Willingham online if if Principal Willingham if you can come off mute and come on camera.

So I want to acknowledge and recognize the great leader leadership of Principal Willingham with interagency.

And is Devin Gurley also here.

OK so Dr. Torres Morales is out of town so I told him that I would bring this forward and respond to any questions I have been part of some of the planning around this.

So essentially we know that the old Roxhill Annex and good evening I can see Principal Willingham.

There have been some issues with the facility not feeling like a place that feels like it has all the supports and services that our students and staff need.

So this is something that we've been working on to find new spaces for our wonderful students and staff who are at those locations.

We did look at the possibility of moving our Southwest interagency students to a location that was not in the Southwest and that was clearly something that was going to be challenging.

We looked at several options and Southwest Youth and Family Services is currently the place that we are looking at.

We are working with them right now.

on what how that contract would be established and making sure that we have the right learning spaces for our students.

We did tour Southwest Youth and Family Services last week with staff members from interagency as well as staff members from our capital team.

They were very excited about that location and the possibility interagency as you know is often aligned with agencies throughout the city in order to give students access to additional services and support.

So it's a it's a good alignment location.

Our Bridges students.

Those are our students who are working on independent living skills and gainful employment skills are 18 to 22 year old students.

ideally are in spaces where they are independent of the K-12 environment.

We have located a place on campus at Chief South High School that enables them to have an independent space but also has access to public transportation work sites things that our students are utilizing regularly.

And they also have access to things like hot lunch and and other services that are available on that comprehensive school campus.

So those moves all of these moves we believe are going to be in the best interest of our students and staff and we've worked met with staff members actually interagency staff and Bridges staff have met with and talked to students and families as well about these upcoming moves and we've done some phenomenal work and Principal Willingham and her team in the last few weeks have really reached out to staff members to make sure that they're fully informed of these moves.

Thank you so much Dr. Campbell and thank you for joining us.

Principal Willingham looking at board directors for questions.

Director Rankin.

Can you please confirm because it's been the source of a lot of back and forth and questions about the presence of accessible bathrooms at the Chief South location.

Yes, so there are.

And not just the presence near them, but like for them.

Correct.

So there are several solutions right now.

The intent is to provide a bathroom specifically for students, but that is going to take a little bit of transition time, but that is in the plan with the capital team.

But we do have an accessible bathroom to support our students that is available very close to where they will be located with the intention of actually building out that facility and space for the students.

So when they first get there at the beginning of the school year they'll need to go from the portables into the high school building to use a bathroom.

Correct.

And one then eventually will be provided for them in the portables they don't have to do that.

Correct.

How long do we think that period of time is.

I don't know the exact time frame, but we can certainly find that out.

I think the idea is to expedite it as quickly as possible.

My understanding is the portables are already plumbed.

I'm not a plumber, but I also know it doesn't take a ton of time to install a toilet and a stall.

So I would hope that that could happen as quickly as possible, especially because the plumbing is already there.

And then the second request, I know Students in Bridges program deserve their own place to be.

They're not high schoolers.

They finished high school.

They're transitioning now from school to independent adulthood.

And so I really want to, this kind of goes to the bigger issue of what we're being presented with right now is a logistical problem.

And it is following the policy based on use of space.

And there's nothing in here that actually has to do with meeting the needs of our students.

And so the bigger issue that's not just for this bar, and I will be approving this because I have been to the Roxhill Annex building.

I don't quite understand why these programs were moved to that building to begin with after it was deemed unsuitable for elementary students.

And so I don't know how that happened.

So I am supporting this because I think this is a better solution.

It's still not the solution and we need to have very clear conversations about not where programs move to, but what they are and who they serve, and make sure that we're building sustainability around them for bridges, for interagency.

I mean, it's not just that interagency has a history of working with other organizations.

That's literally why it exists, is interagency with another agency.

And they actually used to be at Southwest Family Services.

And then they got moved to Youngstown Cultural Center, and then they got moved to Roxanne.

I don't know why.

And so that's great that they're moving back to Southwest Family Services.

I also would be, would really like to know more information about why that partnership what caused the move in the first place, and if whatever caused the move is going to become a problem again.

I don't know.

Maybe there was a change in organizational leadership, and now this is another possibility.

But I would like to understand.

Again, I will vote to approve this, but I still would like to understand, and I will keep asking if we don't get an answer, what happened with that relationship in the first place that caused that move, and make sure that whatever that was is is being fully addressed by our end.

So that either that becomes the new permanent home, because that is a really good location and organization to partner with, or that we are thoughtful about where the permanent home may be, that we don't just keep, I mean, I know it won't be the exact same students, but those hurts kind of carry forward.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yeah thanks.

Thank you for that and I have noted that question and I will say that we are establishing a comprehensive planning team with capital with program services and then enrollment to do the very thing that you're talking about which is to create a more mindful process.

So for some of these services and programs that are they're not exactly aligned with a specific school building but we want to make sure that it doesn't feel like they're always having to row from place to place and find some available corner.

in a school or in the city.

But that also goes for some of our preschool programs and some of our special education services so that we actually have a logic that prioritizes our students for whom we want to really do some of the most thoughtful care work.

And even possible future option programs that are actually alternative educational experiences to a standard neighborhood school.

OK.

Thank you.

Director Sarju.

My comments are an extension of what Director Rankin, a couple of the points that she landed on.

Terms like acceptable vague time periods, my experience with that has been, I'll just use the interpreter situation.

It took months of me throwing a hissy fit to have interpreters at every meeting.

I'm not comfortable with vague language.

When I think about a child or a young adult needing to use the bathroom, somebody who has a physical disability, our track record makes me believe that they're just going to have to hold it because they won't be able to get to the bathroom in time.

And so I need specificity.

When are basic functional toilets going to be accessible to these students.

There should be a definitive timeline for that.

None of us would accept an out of bathrooms being out of service here with a vague timeline of when we might be able to have a bathroom that's not a porta potty.

And so I'm expressing a little bit of frustration because I feel like sometimes vague language is intentionally used to avoid accountability.

I'm telling you what my feeling is.

And my feeling actually matches what has happened in the district.

So what I would like to know is a definitive timeline.

We should be able to know, and really it should be done before school starts.

Thank you.

Let me be clear.

Functional toilets are currently available.

In most of our schools that have portables we don't have toilets inside the portables.

Students do go inside.

Where the portables are located is adjacent directly next to and I don't have this the footage but it's a very short walk.

to adaptive restrooms that are part of a classroom that provides more intensive services.

So those toilets are available to students right now.

The ask from the staff which I think is a reasonable ask is could we also provide some additional restroom space that is specifically for our Bridges students.

That is what we are currently building but there are currently restrooms available to our students that are I mean there are a number of restrooms throughout the building but that are specifically adaptive that have some of the equipment and tools and features that some of our students will require.

Those are currently available.

I don't think that we would move them without it.

Acceptable Southwest location.

I appreciate you calling that out.

Our goal is to have that contract in place.

I think that we want to make sure you know that that is ready to go but we are moving forward with haste on that so that it is ready to go by the start of the school year.

So I appreciate the urgency though.

Can I go back.

to the bathroom.

No, we're going to take just a brief moment here.

We've lost the ASL interpreter, so we're going to wait for a moment and get the ASL interpreter back on.

Looks like, can we, can we?

I'm here.

Can you guys see me?

Yeah.

I've got a blue backdrop.

All right, and it looks like folks online can see.

All right, Director Sargi, you had a follow-up question.

So is it not possible for you to give a date?

I think what I'm struggling with here is I don't get the sense that What I'm struggling with is the inability to actually say, by the third week of school, the request will be handled.

Because when you don't give specificity, you can just drag it out.

And so what I'm, I don't go to school there.

I'm not in that building.

I don't have a lot of confidence based on my own personal experience when we're not being specific.

And so is it, why is there a struggle to say our plan is to have these bathrooms done by a certain date?

I'm sure that there is a date.

I just don't know that date.

I will find out from our capital team and email it to you all.

Okay, thank you.

I just was not prepared to identify that date tonight, but I absolutely get that date.

Yeah, so I think that's, yeah, that highlights the problem with vague language.

Right, and so when you bring that here, and not you personally, but you force us to ask specific questions.

So I just want to point that out.

All right, and thank you.

Yep.

I just want to say I appreciate I know that I'm excited about the possibility of interagency being at Southwest Youth and Family Services.

I appreciate the movement from staff to respond to both community and the board and saying, what can we do better here?

And this is my community, and I'm excited for that partnership and that alignment.

So thank you.

But looking at other board directors.

Otherwise, I'm going to turn it over and call on staff for the vote.

Director Mizrahi.

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Aye.

Director Sarju?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Clark?

Aye.

President Topp?

Yes.

This motion is passed unanimously.

All right, moving on to item number four.

Can I have a motion?

I have a blank where there's a four.

OK.

It's not.

It goes to five.

But I move that the school board approve awarding refuse disposal and mixed waste recycling collection services contract to Republic Services for RFP 052501. Is there anything else I need to say legally because that's not it's not on my immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

All right.

Thank you.

And we have Frank Griffith at the podium who will present.

Good evening.

Frank Griffin Director of Facilities Operations.

So before you we have a contract for refuge and recycling for the three year cycle.

We went out with an RFP.

Republic Services was the low bid but also provided additional services that we were interested in.

One of them was the capacity just to handle the entire school district the ability to respond to special pickups the ability to provide dumpsters when we had special events or needed them for construction.

Additionally we were looking for dumpsters that were rear loaded to where custodial staff could load them from the loading docks reducing OJI injuries.

So there were a lot of things that we were looking for that Republic Services provided.

I would take questions.

Questions from board directors.

Thank you so much.

And I'm going to look to staff for the vote.

Director Rankin.

Aye.

Director Sarju?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Clark?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

President Taup?

Aye.

This motion passes unanimously.

Item number five, Director Rankin.

All right.

I move that the school board approved the 2025 2026 compensation bulletin for nonrepresented staff as attached to the school board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and authorized the superintendent to take any necessary actions to implement the document.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

We have Dr. Sarah Pritchett at the podium to present.

Good afternoon.

Again Sarah Pritchett assistant superintendent for human resources.

As a reminder the compensation bulletin defines the compensation parameters for nonrepresented employees.

The change this year to the compensation bulletin includes edits to what we would say is IPD or cost of living that edit is or that change is going to reflect the 2.5 percent as stated as set by the state.

This would also continue the two furlough days for our 260 employees and one furlough day for our 230 day nonrepresented staff.

It also suspends the ability for nonrepresented staff to cash out their vacation as well and that continues again for the third year.

Questions from directors.

Director Rankin.

Sorry I'm just trying to confirm who all this covers.

Is it just building leaders.

Nonrepresented staff.

So building leaders are represented by pass.

Oh OK.

Primarily people who work in the John Stanford Center.

Thank you.

And is it.

Sorry that I'm not remembering.

Is it typical one year or are we doing one year now to kind of mirror.

We make adjustments every year.

Thank you.

Any further questions.

All right.

I'm going to call on staff for the vote.

Director Sarju?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Clark?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Aye.

President Topp?

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Item number six.

I move that the school board authorize the board president with the assistance of legal counsel to negotiate an employment contract with Fred Podesta to serve as interim superintendent until the appointment of the next district superintendent or June 30th 2026 whichever occurs first.

The negotiated contract shall be presented to the board for approval.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

Great.

So I will be introducing this bar for action.

The this board action will allow me as board president to negotiate a contract with our acting superintendent to continue on as interim superintendent while we continue our search for a superintendent.

How many times can I say superintendent in one sentence.

Acting Superintendent Podesta has been really great in filling in here as we've needed him and is getting ready for the upcoming school year and I'm grateful for his continued leadership.

This would allow me to try to negotiate a contract and then we would bring it back to the board for approval at our August meeting and I will take questions from board directors.

Director Sarju.

I don't have a question but I have a request that it all that the negotiation include the board president and the vice president.

I think having another voice at the table will ensure that all of us are represented and I'm saying that for a specific reason which I do not need to identify on the record but my request is that it include two people.

I am more than happy to have Vice President Briggs join in the conversations and the negotiations.

I heard a request, not an amendment though, is that correct?

I don't really get this whole Roberts business.

So is it an amendment or is it you just do it?

If you want our vote as a board to be authorizing the board president with the vice president.

Okay, that's what I want.

We need to make an amendment.

Okay, don't make an amendment.

I mean, we're all in public and I believe Gina.

Okay, well, so let's do, let's just follow the formal, because Greg's getting ready to come up here.

He's gonna see, we're gonna see if we have properly noticed this, I guess, to allow for this to happen.

Can we make a small amendment?

Yes, I would reintroduce the motion.

I think if we withdraw the motion in its current form, reintroduce it with the motion language, adding that it will be authorization to the president and vice president with the assistance of legal counsel, who I should specify will be outside counsel representing the board.

That's not my role and that those people will be empowered.

The purpose of this vote is to make sure that The full board has authorized a smaller number of people so we don't run into issues with the negotiation sessions.

I think if the motion is reintroduced with that extra name that that covers it and if there's a second and then that will be the motion that the board votes on.

All right.

So let's go to Director Rankin here.

We don't we don't need to vote to withdraw the other motion right.

We can just.

Okay.

So I. An amendment has been presented.

Therefore I move that the school board approve or no sorry the school board authorized the board president and vice president together with the assistance of legal counsel TO NEGOTIATE AN EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT WITH FRED PODESTA TO SERVE AS INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT UNTIL THE APPOINTMENT OF THE NEXT DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OR JUNE 30TH 2026 WHICHEVER OCCURS FIRST THE NEGOTIATED CONTRACT SHALL BE PRESENTED TO THE BOARD FOR APPROVAL IMMEDIATE ACTION IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE DISTRICT.

SO CAN I MAKE ONE GOT TO HAVE A SECOND REAL FAST.

SECOND.

I apologize to Vice President Briggs.

I just voluntold her.

Are you okay with that, me doing that?

I did not consult, sorry.

Yeah, no, I'm part of my job, I'm all good.

Okay.

Thanks for checking.

Just so we don't have to do something else, because she might have said, you don't get to boss me around.

No, you totally get to boss me around, Michelle.

So we have a motion and a second.

Other questions.

Yes.

I have well.

So the.

The current acting appointment is under the contract that was issued to or agreed upon with Dr. Jones that terminates September 3rd based on his notice of resignation.

So what is our timing for when a contract would come back and is there opportunity between now and then to or is this the opportunity to discuss anything we might want to see in that contract as the board.

So I think the goal would be to bring it back per the bar on our at our August 27th meeting.

I think that if there are specific things I think getting them to director Briggs and I would be extremely helpful or if there are items that you would like to talk about that you think would be important.

Sure.

So I just for full transparency I was making notes for myself and then I just decided making notes for myself that ended up being five pages and I did email them to the board earlier today and they're printed out for us today and I think are being added to the meeting minutes if anybody wants to have them.

But my.

The thing that I want to make sure we address is that our expectations for Mr. Podesta that this isn't like it's not like things are going super swimmingly and he can just sort of be a caretaker until somebody new steps in.

Like there are some things that we need to make sure happen regardless of interim permanent etc etc.

And so in so this my notes are just stating what I believe we heard from the community and I think are continuing to hear although we'll get an update from H.Y.A. about the priorities of our system.

And then we have already adopted goals and guardrails that help us evaluate the effectiveness of our system in aligning with what we've said.

We.

Trying to we have no we got we got OK so say you're getting your house ready to sell.

You want to paint the shutters.

You maybe want to replace the porch get some cute flowers and stuff.

But if you don't make sure that your plumbing doesn't leak and your electrics up to code it's going to be hard.

It's going to sit on the market for a long time.

So that's my analogy.

So I would like to make sure that for the progress that we were elected to the leadership we were elected to provide the progress we need to make as a district and the the best potential we have to set an incoming superintendent up for success is we need to do some plumbing and wiring checks and maybe looking at the foundation.

And those are things that can and should happen now.

We shouldn't say well we'll just wait for the next superintendent because we've to be quite frank squandered a lot of time over the last couple of years on will they won't they do these things and we haven't gotten very realistic about problems that have to be solved.

We're not like a legislature or a city council where we can say well maybe let's think about new revenue or maybe we don't get to do that.

Other people authorize how much money we have to spend and we have to figure out how to serve students within it.

We can keep advocating that that increase but we have to deal with what we are given.

And we got some I almost swore some serious serious things that we need to do to best our students in our community and to make sure that a new suit that we are creating conditions and a stable transparent scenario for a new superintendent to come into so that they can be successful.

And so I just want us to be so in my notes here I've been doing a whole bunch of reading and research real transformational change of a school district takes like six to eight years.

Now some people might say oh but you voted for this thing in 2021. All we did was vote to think about it.

We've done a lot of thinking about it and as proven in the audit that was done by an independent firm in December of 2024. Change didn't happen.

We talked about change.

We didn't enact much change.

And yes I'm referring to student outcomes focused governance which is by the way just a Kleenex to tissue for board governance aligned with best practices.

So we as a board need to make a commitment to doing our job for real.

And we need to authorize and allow Mr. Podesta to make some big changes both with budget alignment with staffing with with I mean we don't staff evaluation all kinds of things or we're just going to continue on and our kids can't afford it and I can't stomach it personally.

I can't last up here another two years not doing the things we say we're going to do.

which yes as Michelle said is maybe the point exhaust me exhaust us all so we don't have to make any changes.

So based on the real commitment to change that has to happen.

We need to get really serious about some we don't want if we don't expect Fred to fix everything but we as a board should provide direction about here's the priorities and we even though he knows he's in the role temporarily we need to make sure that we're all in alignment about what kind of moves can and can't happen because we also don't want Fred to take you know any leadership to go down some road irrevocably where a new person might come in and be like oh my gosh that's not how I would have approached that and now I can't do that.

But we do need to say yeah our organizational chart does not make any sense does not align.

We need to address that.

We you know there's tons of outstanding reviews and audits and recommendations that have been made to this district that have not been implemented.

Not everything is going to still be relevant but some of it is a really good starting place.

on getting us to a place of function.

And so there's a lot that could happen.

I am and I am expecting that January from the timeline January would be the earliest we'd have a permanent superintendent.

I don't I don't know starting and they would still need a long period of transition.

Maybe maybe they would come at the end of legislative session.

Maybe they're in contract somewhere else and they would come in June.

The timeline doesn't matter as much as the clarity about what we need to see happen and what we as a board are going to commit to doing over the next school year.

So I don't know.

There's there's there's notes here.

I don't know how to.

know I don't think we need like a line by line you will do this this this but an agreement about the scope of what it means for Fred to be the interim superintendent.

And then the technical question that I have that maybe Greg is for you is we are legally required to evaluate the superintendent annually and to have an adopted evaluation instrument.

So what does in a time where.

We have an outgoing superintendent an interim and then we're going to have an incoming hopefully before the next school year.

What's our obligation to the evaluation and how do we work that with an interim.

That's a really good question and I'll tell you it's one we've already started batting about in legal.

I would encourage the board to take that up with the outside counsel who will be advising the board.

I can't tell you there's a crystal clear answer.

I can also ask WASDA.

We're not the first district to have this happen.

Right.

It's we recognize it's an issue we'll need to sort it out.

Part of it is just.

lining up the timeline.

But you're absolutely correct.

It's a statutory obligation and we can't just pretend it's not there but it does make it difficult to implement when there is this transition underway.

I do not have an answer for you right now.

The last thing I will say is that as we directed as a board in 2023 and then again in 2024 in December we need a real preliminary budget that does not look like the last three years budgets.

We need a real preliminary budget with structural changes to it in January.

no matter when the superintendent comes on.

So that is something that I wanna make sure is clear in whatever agreement is that budgeting for 26, 27 starts now.

That can't wait.

And I assume some of that is work that we'll be doing in the ad hoc committee.

Well, we're talking about, no, not really.

Well, we're talking about timing of when to do time.

Yeah, but I think that timeline is part of it.

Is related, but I will say that it is standard practice and something we have demanded.

And then not held people accountable for.

We've got to have a preliminary with a variety of scenarios January.

If we're going to have anything real.

And so yeah we can't just hold on that till they have somebody else.

Other board directors.

All right call on staff to call the vote.

Yep.

Vice President Briggs.

I. Director Clark.

I. Director Mizrahi.

I. Director Rankin.

Clarifying question.

My comments and questions is the next thing to do is look at the contract as presented, or do we need to do something in between now and then to?

I think we're voting, and I think it would be that Director Briggs and I work on the contract language to bring before the board.

Okay, that's, I don't wanna vote yes without making sure that that was not just me just talking into the ether.

It was a real thing.

Yes.

Director Sarju.

Yes.

President Topp.

Yes.

This motion has passed unanimously.

All right, we're going to move to the last item on the agenda.

We're going to move to the tables, which means we're going to take a quick five minute break.

So we will be back at 615. And the last item we will hear from staff about the strategic planning process.

We're showing back together and have our update draft strategic plan process.

I am I am excited.

I read through the slides.

I am I'm ready.

I'm prepared or as prepared as I'll ever be and I'll pass it over to Acting Superintendent Podesta.

So should we if everybody's read the slides maybe we should go straight to questions.

We know we are the last thing between everyone here and And a beautiful summer evening so we'll be quick but tell us to slow down if we need to.

I'm going to kind of go back over the process a little bit and describe where we are in it.

Ask Eric Gersey to drill down into some specific uses of the data that we're gathering and walk through an example of how this will manifest in some specific strategic actions and then also describe other just another plan from another district that also employs policy governance and has kind of worked on a strategic plan.

And then we'll ask Chief Redmond to talk about the engagement the staff engagement associated with this plan anchored in the stakeholder advisory group task force.

that you I know support us creating and then how that will be augmented with other potentially with other types of engagement.

So and let's see if my jinx on this thing has been resolved.

For some reason I always have trouble.

So what we're trying to do is just give you a status that we're probably at midpoint maybe a little bit past in this process so we just want to describe what we've done give you some we're not going to go too deep into the substance of the information we learned but giving you some top level findings and then where we are in the process and what to expect going forward.

We good to remind ourselves so why are we doing this.

You know it's good to always have a map if you're trying to get somewhere you know have a have a direction and a focus and to remind yourself what the priorities are.

Seattle Public Schools is not.

an enormous organization but it's big and complex enough that we're responding to things all day every day and having a North Star that reminds you so what's important you know how do you how do you make decisions how do you allocate resources.

What what is going to guide us today.

We've highlighted the aligned resources with priorities I think some of these Questions came up on the diocese in the previous conversation.

The structure of the strategic planning work that we're talking about released one of the aspects of the technical work is looking at our baseline state of how we allocate resources now.

We all know we have resource issues and financial realities we need to deal with.

So we just think that we really need this plan to show how we're going to reallocate resources how we're going to work with a structural deficit and kind of diminish resources because what we're all expecting is better student outcomes with perhaps fewer resources.

So the all important question is You know what are you doing with what you have and is is every effort we make the highest and best use for the resources that we have.

So that's why I put a box on this slide just to remind ourselves that that is the punch line.

The other bullets are the why and the punch line is so.

So what's the answer going to lead you to do.

So we again the you know typically strategic planning processes start with identifying vision and values and the board has done that work in concert with the community and that's what's led to the goals and guardrails that we're using to guide this work.

What we've been working on in the spring and right now through right now is identifying our current use of resources.

We're developing what we're calling a fact base about the current state of the district and that we want to understand kind of the potential rates of return for the way we're allocating resources now.

We're moving into a step where based on those findings and the goals and guardrails we're having staff identify priorities that you know what are the priority areas that we need to focus on that will lead to the strategic work that we intend to do.

I should have noted this in an earlier slide but we're thinking the final deliverable as a draft strategic plan understanding that we need to be flexible and agile as new leadership comes to the district and the board.

So we want to make sure that whatever the timeline is for these transitions that we give leaders a toolkit to make the changes that are going to ultimately support students and achieve the student outcomes that you all have identified in concert with the community.

So in terms of process again we started this spring on a diagnostic analysis that identifies resources that are in place identifies looks at our org structure the coherence of our strategies.

We say we've been doing things and identified priorities over the years.

This is really a kind of a truth check that are we allocating resource the way we think we do and then why our partners in ERC are really helpful as they can help us benchmark that data against districts across the country.

So are resources aligned with the goals that we previously stated and are they are there big variances between how we do things and how other districts do things and what learning can be made by that.

Staff have begun in several sessions looking through and walking through those resource allocations and kind of the questions that they all raise and have led to facilitate discussions about so what would our priority areas be.

in terms of how we allocate staff how we allocate resources how we're organized to to start thinking about.

So where are the priorities.

I think in that this will be a little bit of an iterative discussion because I think we may identify some gaps that will we for for whatever reason staff sees this is a high priority that is not immediately easy to map back into the goals and guardrails.

So we may have a discussion.

Is this something.

you know how do we adapt how do we understand how any of the staff priorities support the goals and guardrails or is there something that we just need to all clarify.

We're talking a lot about our finances that's implicit in this that we need to think about allocating resources.

The goals and guardrails don't actually say a lot about finances per se.

They talk about equitable distribution.

And so those are things where we might identify things that hey from a staff level this is really important but we really want to have a transparent discussion with the board if we see any kind of misalignment so we can talk through that.

And then the kind of identifying these priority areas will then will be enhanced with actual strategic initiatives and work that that we can lead to real projects that what are the actual tasks what are the actual organizational changes we made need to make what are the resource realignments we need to make to achieve those goals and explain to the board and the community why we think that will be successful and why they can be measured in the interim goals and guardrail metrics that we're also talking about.

And so again it's just worth reinforcing the hierarchy of this that we're starting with goals and guardrails that that is the broad vision.

The board has been very clear about the direction that they expect staff to follow and what they expect to see with regard to outcomes for students.

We're using that in.

in concert with this diagnostic tool which is giving us.

So what are we working on now what's working and not working and where are resources aligned and what has been successful or not with other districts where are we seeing correlations or not between our current strategies and kind of overall performance in a.

a model that is neutral and not built on the way we write budgets but that really gives us a clear kind of school based picture of how we allocate resources.

Those priorities will live lead to a kind of a menu of strategic initiatives that will continue to talk to the board and that's depending on the timing of our leadership transition.

that is a great way to think of it as a menu that you know depending on the timing the new administration is on board they have choices that they can finalize and refine if we need to get further.

The budget doesn't wait for anybody so we have decisions that we have to make and we'll try to do what we need to do but retain that flexibility for incoming leadership.

So I think I'll at this point turn it over to Eric kind of walk into a little bit more detail unless Director Sargi wants to ask a question now.

Well how many more slides.

A handful.

OK.

A handful.

Is that like five.

It's 10, that's two handfuls.

So I just want to point out.

Very different than a handful.

Okay, I'll just, I'll try to keep my question in my mind.

Eric talks twice as fast as I do.

Okay, go, go, take it away.

His 10 is my five.

I will try to keep up with the promise speed.

So thank you Mr. Podesta just to kind of talk through this is an example framework of how the various components that we just went through hang together kind of in a coherent plan.

and what it looks like in another district.

We chose Charlotte Mecklenburg intentionally because this is a district that leverages a similar governance structure as Seattle Public Schools and in fact Director Rankin in attending the Council of Great City Schools Conference has sent us their work back as an example for us to hold up and consider.

And if you were to go on the website and look through Charlotte's plan you'd notice it's not perfect but it's an example of a way to structure a plan and what they actually do is they have sequenced initiatives over five years where you can see exactly when in that time span they'll be implementing various initiatives and they report out on an annual basis both as a district and at the departmental level how they're aligning across those initiatives.

So this is just an example of how the framework hangs together based on the preceding components.

So what progress have we made towards filling in that chart and developing those components?

We've started again with our diagnostic analysis, which is going to provide us with, again, a shared fact base.

And based on that diagnostic analysis, as Mr. Podesta mentioned, we've begun to develop priorities.

And I'm going to kind of walk us through how we've done that in a second here.

in alignment with the priorities that are beginning to emerge.

We have some strategies that are either underway or that we're considering and contemplating and we're lining those up with the draft strategies and we're beginning to see how that all sort of molds together in the theory of action which is the glue for the plan for how we believe that we can achieve the outcomes.

that the board has charged us with pursuing.

And we're not doing that in isolation, but we're doing that in conjunction with the community through targeted questions and input opportunities.

And Bev's gonna go through a little bit of what that's looked like to date.

On the next slide you can see we've referenced the diagnostic analysis a number of times thus far.

Well what exactly are we talking about.

We've had three really deep opportunities to interrogate a set of questions that we think are vital for equitable resource distribution and for the future of Seattle Public Schools.

We've worked as Fred mentioned with the third party that works with school districts across the country and what that's allowed us to do is not only look at compare ourselves against the state of Washington and against longitudinal trends over time but also to look at how other districts across the country are allocating their resources and where there are similarities and when they're where there are differences and that's not to say the differences are bad but we'd want to know why those differences exist.

There's a series of questions on the screen here that together form again that shared fact base.

We will be bringing back to the board in a work session that we are currently scheduling answers to these questions.

So we all as a governance team have that shared fact base.

And we're also going to be creating a publicly public facing document that's we're close to finalizing so that the community can see sort of where we are with regard to our resource distribution.

We're also going to go into an even deeper dive on some of these questions with specific content tailored for the ad hoc budget committee.

The board has asked to sort of understand in greater depth specific components of the budget and we're going to get into some of that.

So as we begin to address the questions on the previous screen about resource distribution across time, people, and money, there are sort of a set of what we'll call emerging findings that are coming to the forefront of our analysis.

And these emerging findings are connected to the goals and guardrails and are shaping some of what we're seeing.

And all of these emerging findings have very specific resource components and are probably unsurprising to many directors, community members, students, staff, because these are based on reality.

So it shouldn't be surprising.

But we have just to kind of briefly walk through the findings, the sort of human capital and educator distribution across the district has variations based on years of experience that educators have.

backgrounds of educators the evaluation levels that educators are receiving across the district and how that's distributed in our schools the sort of second emerging finding regards student course access and performance so what courses are students accessing based on in school factors across school factors and individual student level factors.

The third third finding is related to school level coherence and where there are sort of non-negotiables and areas of autonomy in schools.

So where are we seeing similarities and not and to the extent that those are deliberative or not.

The fourth emerging finding regards sort of our structural the fact that we again have a fiscal deficit and that there are some structural revenue and expenditure challenges both now and in the future that we're facing.

And finally that we have some challenges with strategy implementation and organizational incoherence.

And part of that as has been mentioned tonight is due to how resources are distributed across the organization.

sort of done a little bit of a deep dive into professional development is one area where there's sort of resources scattered across the organization that could be leading to some inconsistencies in the student and staff experience.

So again, we started with those questions on the slide before this.

These are some of the emerging findings in response to those questions.

These findings are beginning to shape a set of priorities that we can kind of see on the bottom left here.

The data suggests that there's a variety of priorities that are beginning to emerge.

We know that there are priorities that live outside of the data, and the data is a good starting point.

We wanna take it seriously.

We wanna be really intentional about how we look at it, but we wanna go beyond the data through working with our community, conducting other qualitative engagement efforts, looking at previous studies that have been conducted as Director Rankin referenced that may bubble up some priorities and then consolidate those into some draft recommended priorities that again, as Mr. Podesta has mentioned, will continue to iterate on.

Just to take us back one slide we can see emerging finding two variation in student course access and performance.

I'm just going to kind of talk us through how that finding could lead to a potential priority in alignment with the goals and guardrails as one of those priorities that come from the diagnostic analysis.

Again, one of the emerging findings is that there's variation in student course access and performance.

We've made some progress in this area over the last several years, and this slide has a lot of words, but the core theme is that there's still disparities that exist, and we want to begin to unpack why some of those disparities exist.

One way that we've looked at that is just looking at the math this is this is one example it's the math pathway across Seattle Public Schools if if you're interested in AP calculus and we're not saying all students should take AP calculus but we're saying all students should have the opportunity to take AP calculus if that's something that they're interested in, and there shouldn't be barriers in place for them to do so.

This is one snapshot.

There's many different ways to look at the data.

It's not longitudinal or cohort-based, but it's a snapshot of a particular year, and we can see significant barriers and disparities across race, ethnicity that emerge and actually widen across the pathway to AP calculus, and that points us to a potential priority, which is in sort of that middle box around coherent rigorous and differentiated academics another potential priority around setting a clear academic vision and implementing it those are slightly different entry points into similar priority areas around teaching and learning and we've worked to understand what some other best practices are in districts to address some of the disparities that are widening that we might see and we've sort of begun to unpack key questions so that's just pulling back the curtain a little bit on the work that we've been doing as a staff to shape some of the priorities.

And we talk about potential priorities and potential actions because we don't want to do this alone.

And we want to be working alongside key stakeholders.

And I'm going to pass it over to Chief Redmond to share a little bit about how we've been doing that.

All right.

Michelle, I know you have a question.

Come on.

I have three slides.

I promise.

All right.

some connection points.

So before you, whether you're looking at your printout or whether you're looking at the screen, speaking about the stakeholder advisory task force which the board asked us to put in place, we are happy to say that that representative group of students, staff, families, and community members did have its first orientation meeting.

this past July 15th, and we've tentatively scheduled some additional meetings for them to meet monthly to advise or give input on priority setting and how we engage on this particular plan.

We may need to bring them together more often or longer, just depending on how long we stay in the transition phase to a new leader, so they are poised and ready.

When we started working with them during this orientation session, I want to say that we use the goals and guardrails, as has been mentioned, and I want to say as our firm North Star.

This was not a chance or a space for us to reinvent those.

Those have already been established.

So we wanted to make sure that that was a clear point a clear base of knowledge for them as they begin to really get into or will begin to get into this work.

We certainly appreciate those who did attend and were able to come to this initial meeting felt like it was well received.

The lived experiences and expertise of our community will be critical as we continue to move into the strategic plan.

Moving on to our next slide.

Other possible ways as we're continuing to calibrate through transition we're not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves.

Want to make sure that we're being flexible but some additional ways in addition to the task force could be community surveys could be community listening and learning meetings as well or understanding sessions as well as utilizing community focus groups to really vet the plan as it comes more to life.

and then moving on to our last one and then we'll get into questions and comments as we're looking ahead.

We want this particular draft to become that roadmap or that guideline for the next person coming in knowing that we want to plow out some ground and be ready for someone to come in and take this and make it his her their own and we look forward to bringing more information to the board as we as we move forward through this particular process.

Again engagement incredibly important.

This is our first foray at really putting the task force out there.

The connection points were important so that when we come back together they'll be able to dive more into work rather than still try to do a lot of way finding.

So thank you so much for your time and we're opening for questions and comments and I know Michelle was eager but I heard microphones popping on across.

Okay.

Where's the camera?

Right in front of us.

Okay, so some of you may have seen me like frantically circling stuff.

I'm going to do my best to be succinct and connect threats.

However, I will admit that I have a little frustration.

I'm not yet currently hotter than fish grease, and I don't wanna get there.

First of all, great presentation.

It is a validation to me that I'm actually not crazy.

And that the things we've been saying are actually true, because I'm assuming you didn't put lies and falsehoods in this slide deck.

So I just want to start there.

I appreciate the detail, the transparency, and the honesty.

I wanna go back to a board meeting where, and again, I'm gonna preface this by saying my comments are not meant to demean or whatever is proximal to demeaning a group of colleagues.

But if we're being honest and transparent, there was a board meeting where a quorum of four board directors believed it was okay to go from failing 66% of black boys to failing 50%.

Remember that, the 2% over five years.

I was hotter than fish grease then.

That is not a standard that I want for black boys in my community, and I do not believe it's a standard that my white colleagues would accept for their kids.

So that's thing number one.

When we think about getting to what Chief of Staff Eric pointed out, to students being able to successfully take AP and IB classes, it starts in third grade.

It actually starts before then.

It does start in preschool, but we're not going there.

That is going to be how I end my career, is starting with the youngest citizens once again.

But if we, and I believe that this board can make amends and say, you know what, we're not going to accept failing 56% of black boys in this district in five years.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

And if there's no will, then that's going to stand.

And that will be a statement to the African American community that we believe it is okay to fail 56% of black boys in this district so when they get to high school, hashtag not our fault, that they can't take and compete in AP and IB classes.

That's what we're settling on.

We have an opportunity here with this.

You all are calling it a strategic plan.

I would like for us to think about it as a strategic focus.

And I'm not just throwing words out there.

Strategic plans get made and then they sit on a shelf.

Because if, in fact, this district were deeply leaning into its strategic plan, we wouldn't have a statistic of failing 66% of African American boys.

Would anybody like to challenge me on that?

Like if we were really leaning into that, and so let's not play games here.

Is this strategic quote unquote plan actually gonna be something that's implementable, and then is there gonna be a will and a way to implement it?

I don't need an answer for that, but I would like us to consider given that we are hiring a new superintendent, that we think about the work we're doing now as sort of laying the groundation and the foundation for that individual to be able to decide whether they want to do a strategic plan or a strategic focus.

that this is a thing that's happening because strategic plans often don't they just don't go anywhere.

But if you have a focus and people are assigned to certain parts of that focus work gets done.

And so you don't have to change anything really with this we just need to sort of conceptualize it differently.

I do not want to hand a new superintendent a task that says we're OK with failing 66 to 56 percent of black boys.

I'm going to keep saying that and come when I'm done I'm going to be at the Blonde podium because that's going to be my work.

I will not settle for a Seattle Public School Board to believe it's OK to fail even 40 percent.

Going from 66 to 56, we've left a whole bunch of kids behind, because there's no focus on those kids.

We need to figure out both and.

And so as you all do this work, which again, I'm going to state it for the record, I'm excited about this.

I feel like for the first time in a long time, you all are sitting here presenting us real information.

Information that we can digest information that we can think on information that we can form our thoughts and ideas for plans around that's progress.

I want to state that for the record.

I haven't been excited about this role in a long time.

And I feel like for 17, the next 17 weeks, I have something to be excited about.

I'm gonna begin to count Wednesdays starting in August, because it will be very many less than 17. But my time is done.

Well my time will be done but I'm going to go out still advocating for the same things because I I don't want to leave here believing that a quorum of four believes it's OK.

To fail 56 percent of black boys in this district.

I can't live with that belief.

I have to believe that my colleagues will make a shift a mindset shift that it's not OK because we wouldn't say it was OK for what is currently the dominant culture of kids.

We would not say it's OK to fail 56 percent of white kids in our district.

The parents wouldn't settle for that.

And so I'm speaking for the voices that often don't get heard.

That's who I'm speaking on behalf of not for some might say yes Michelle you're speaking for but I'd like to think I'm speaking on behalf of.

So congratulations.

I think we are making progress.

Maybe it was the vote tonight to install.

Interim superintendent.

Can we just drop the interim superintendent Podesta.

That's what he's doing.

The interim doesn't matter because we expect him to do his job and do it well.

But I'm excited for what you're going to bring to the table this point forward.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I am wondering having been through various iterations of various community task forces mostly as a community member because they sort of disappeared COVID and after.

So this is exciting.

But my question is I had.

put in an email and if I got a response I missed it so apologies for that but I would like to know what the methodology was for selection and if a little bit more about demographics of the composition in terms of not just race and identity but if they're elementary representing parents of elementary kids I mean they're not all going to be parents I assume but just what what experience are we capturing here.

And yeah how the selection was done.

And then I do not believe that board members should be voting or participating members of the task force but I do believe it is valuable to have a board member there periodically just to.

I think in past times when there is a task force sometimes there will be one or two board members actually assigned to the task force.

I don't think at this point that's that's I'm not asking for that but just if there's a time where it seems like hey we're going to have this conversation and you know reach out to president top and say is there somebody who's available or would you like to come.

I think that would be great just to add to that you know our kind of check in and oversight of what's what's happening would be nice.

And then the most damaging thing when these task forces happen is when you're on a task force and you leave and you feel like it didn't matter.

And usually, in my experience, that comes from a lack of clarity around the scope that people are participating in a task force with a different idea than what it's actually being used for.

Sometimes that's not the case.

Sometimes it was just a check the box thing and people say on your way.

So I am interested in what we I mean I see the purpose and the role here and I think that's great but I would like clarity on if there's a scope in any deliverables or if they're just a sounding board like what's kind of what are we expecting from this task force.

So you don't have to answer that now unless you have the answer, but I would like to know kind of methodology for choosing the composition of the task force and then what their charge, what the expectation actually is.

We have all of that in a document that's coming your way.

Perfect.

We could send it right after this meeting, but we were hoping I think one day in the forecast to the board to get that out.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, no rush.

And then just to add on to what Michelle was saying, we've got four seats up for the board.

the power of the board and the importance of a board is that individuals may come and go but the direction of the board is what is supposed to be sustaining and consistent.

Doesn't mean that direction can't change but what i i am also like michelle very excited about this this feels tangible this feels like real progress this feels like you know those of us who have kids in the system and have been advocates for a long time the emerging issues they're not emerging that's what we know those are things we know and experience all the time but it is really validating and important for us to see that from an outside perspective.

That it's not just anecdotes.

It's not just people with chips on their shoulders.

It's not our imagination.

An outside entity is coming in looking at the landscape and they have identified these things.

And they've also been identified before.

by other search firms or task forces or whatever.

So I am excited and my, I'm not going to say biggest fear because that's kind of dramatic, but I hope desperately that we can look back on this moment as the real turning point for Seattle Public Schools and not just another time where yep they did that 12 years ago.

They did this task force they did this thing and then a new board got elected and it got trashed and nothing changed because that has happened so many times.

Yeah so what I was going to add to that was Michelle talking about strategic plans sit on the shelf.

They do that if there's no accountability.

And that is our job as a board.

And so for everyone on the board, anyone hoping to be on the board, if you're not excited by this and if you're not willing to hold people accountable to it, step aside.

Don't run.

Because this is the work.

This is what we need to do to turn this around for the students of Seattle Public Schools.

And we have the people who have the heart and the willingness and the commitment to doing this and please let's not just throw it away.

I would want to know leadership stability has been an issue that has been raised but I think I'm the longest serving member of the cabinet.

The board has completely turned over a lot.

In my time at Seattle Public Schools the underlying goals that you all articulated in working with the community have not changed that much.

So I think this is about discipline discussions about how we do things not what we're doing.

And so and that's a huge step.

You know I think we have clarity of purpose.

Organizational change is very difficult.

It takes an enormous about a discipline.

That's what we need to do.

We need to stay focused.

Do what we say.

And we need to honor commitments to each other and keep our eye on the ball and not get distracted.

That seems to me is the key to what we and I think we can certainly have change in leadership.

We can have a lot of changes but The underlying foundation the message is the same one that was also developed with the public process in 2018. So we're and it can be done.

It's not impossible.

So it's just now it's go time.

Yeah.

All right.

Other questions.

I appreciate the update I think we'll continue to have updates at our meetings so we we can know that even though we are in a leadership transition we are continuing to do the work and that developing the strategic plan and the budget and all those things I will just say I have heard from some folks who attended the first stakeholder advisory task force and they really appreciated it.

They thought it was a very productive conversation so thank you.

I appreciate us getting that off the ground.

um but with that i think that concludes our second board meeting of the month i think we had kind of three goals this evening get ready for the upcoming school year we did that with some intro and action items have an update on our superintendent search specifically the timeline piece i think that's that's important and then the update on the strategic plan but there being no further business on the agenda the meeting stands adjourned at 6 55. thanks everyone