Seattle School Board Meeting Sept. 18, 2018 Part 1

And it's my understanding that Yom Kippur starts at 7 16. Ms. Ramirez the roll call please.

Director Burke Here Director DeWolf Here Director Geary Here Director Mack Here Director Pinkham Present Director Harris Here

Director Patu is celebrating her birthday with her family and her children did not look at our legislative agenda.

So we could sing her happy birthday in her absentia maybe later.

OK Pledge of Allegiance please stand or if you choose not to not a problem the Pledge of Allegiance.

We are most excited to welcome and to hear the TOPS School Orchestra this evening.

I would ask directors to leave the dais and sit in the front row so we can enjoy this terrific performance.

Thank you.

While while you're getting seated my name is Stephanie Helixson I'm the director of the TOPS orchestra program.

Five years ago there were four middle school students twice a week being pulled out of band.

And now we have 34 middle school students two periods all day.

So this first group is the concert orchestra.

They're sixth graders and we're going to be playing spires.

¶¶

My name is Lydia and I'm in the sixth grade and I play the cello.

My favorite part of being part a member of the orchestra is everybody in it.

From the violas to the violins to the cellos to the basses everybody is part of a community in the orchestra.

We work together and joke together and that's why I'm thankful for the TOPS orchestra.

Thank you.

This is Frog in a Tree.

We've learned it in the first five days of school, so here we go.

One, two, three.

¶¶ .

While we're switching we have Kaya she's going to speak to you.

We're going to move to the seventh and eighth grade Chamber Orchestra now.

And here's Kaya.

Hello I'm Kaya I'm in eighth grade at TOPS and I've been playing in the orchestra when I started at TOPS in fifth grade.

And when I first started out I knew nothing about the viola.

So I came in.

In the middle of the year so I was playing with kids who had been playing for you know years or months and Stephanie she really helped me like OK so I'm in eighth grade now and now I can play pieces that adults are playing.

I have the ability to I can shift now I can do all of that cool orchestra stuff and Stephanie she's she's really an amazing person.

She's helped everyone out so much and Last year when I was in seventh grade we were going to play a song with the band for the end of the year concert and it was Star Wars.

It was something from Star Wars and it was really hard and no one wanted to play it.

But then Stephanie came up with this really cool idea where we put glow sticks on her bow so they were like lightsabers.

So then after that it was just really fun and everyone loved it.

So Stephanie here she is a miracle worker.

Just everyone keep that in mind.

She's amazing.

So let's hear it up for Stephanie.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Gemma and I've been playing in the Tops Orchestra for four years.

One thing I really enjoy about orchestra is that we get to do difficult things but it's really fun.

And when we did Star Wars I liked how she it was difficult but she still made every bit of the learning that we did really really fun.

The last piece that we're going to play for you is Over the Rainbow and we it's a pleasure to teach at TOPS but I wanted to thank the school board and thanks Seattle Public Schools for supporting the arts.

I don't know if Gail made it here but Gail and Pam are So wonderful at helping us and Amy Schwentura principal is in the back there so we wanted to say thank you to her too for helping this program grow.

It wouldn't really be possible without the parents of TOPS and the administration at TOPS.

So this is over the rainbow.

Thank you so much for letting us play.

...

...

...

...

...

You guys you're not off the hook.

That was awesome.

Thanks for sharing your gifts with us.

Much much appreciated.

Now Madam Miracle Worker tell us a little bit about yourself.

How long have you been teaching how long at TOPS and I'll put a plug in again for Leslie's fantasy.

Every school.

Every student music every day and we will take care of the math opportunity gap.

And if you general public and video land have instruments in your basements that aren't being used bring them on down.

We can get them to folks that need them and we can work on an equity solution.

Yeah and at TOPS we we do have general music for every student and we have orchestra band or general music for all fourth and fifth graders regardless of if they can afford the instrument we'll find it for them.

So I'm Stephanie Helixson.

I studied at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma with my degree in violin performance and music education.

And then I got my master's there in teaching and I taught in Bethel School District for seven years.

Orchestra fourth grade fifth grade sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade ninth grade 10th grade 11th grade and 12th grade.

And then I moved to London.

Had a couple kids moved back and started the orchestra program at top.

So I guess total I've been teaching 12 years and I play professionally with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.

Thank you ever so much.

Thank you very much.

Next up is superintendent comments.

Denise Juneau the floor is yours.

Just waiting for the slideshow.

Is it OK.

OK.

As you know my superintendent update to the board is about highlights around students and family staff and community.

And so.

It's been a really busy and rewarding first two weeks of school.

I've had a lot of fun getting around the district.

I celebrated with Rainier Beach students and Mary Durkin as students received ORCA cards.

This is a great example of the power of student voice and how students can make a positive change in their community.

I also visited Aki Middle School Rainier View and Emerson Elementary's.

This group of scholars just finished an engaging math lesson and they were very excited to get to lunch so we could barely corral them for a picture but but they were it was great learning I saw that was going on.

So that was very exciting.

And I was so impressed with the leadership of all three schools.

There's tremendous leadership in the principal core and what they're doing every day in our schools.

Principal Williams here from Aki knows the story strength and need of each student in her school.

Her use of data allows her teams to provide students with the support that they need.

This is a group that was collaborating over algebra problems and having good conversations about algebra.

Our security team including Mike Wells was highlighted for their good work in collaboration with Seattle police and fire departments on Q13 news.

There is really an awesome group of people working to make sure our students have safe learning environments every day.

They're here 24 7 making sure that things are going well and so just really appreciate the work that they're doing.

I met with Seattle Public Schools lead up team.

This group provides professional development to our building leaders.

Our new principals to the district also get extra mentoring for from this team as well.

And just so you know Seattle is just so lucky to have these types of supports for staff.

It doesn't happen in other districts across the country.

The idea that we have mentoring for new principals.

The PLN's of them coming together the supports that we provide the supports for teachers coming into the district.

It really is a phenomenal support system.

Something that I was really proud to learn that Seattle Public Schools do.

This is Principal Rasmussen.

We looked at classes at Emerson Elementary.

I found a lot of evidence about SOAR which is their theme of show safe on task act as a team and resilient.

She and her team are putting strong systems in place to support all students at Emerson.

While I was there there was a PLN going on of school leaders so I got to sit in for a bit on this PLN this professional learning network of principals learning from each other and they do this they meet periodically throughout the school year and have great conversations left led by our executive directors just about professional development.

Here they were setting their group norms and learning about each other and the work that's happening across the district.

I met this teacher from Broadview.

Broadview Thompson while I was on up in the Northwest Listen and Learn sessions.

She came armed with these yearbooks from actually my middle school in Brownie Montana where she was teaching where she used to teach.

And so again it's just a proof that there's a very small world and a good connection between Montana and Washington state.

And so that was a lot of fun to look through those.

These were the classes that were right after me going through middle school.

I won't repeat what year they were from.

I don't have the picture she kept them so but she has them in her possession.

Community.

I got to visit Quest Field but the Seahawks were not there.

But I did visit with this group of City Year leaders.

Our partnership with City Year is so important to student success at schools like Aki Kurose and I just wanted to show up and thank them for their support and the partnership throughout the years and the good work they're doing in some of our schools.

These next two pictures are from my listen and learn session at the Broadview library.

The Seattle Public School Seattle library system helped us and partnered with us to promote this listen and learn tour stop.

As you can see we had a great turnout.

We heard feedback on a variety of topics from highly capable to special education to high school start times.

Just a variety of issues that continue throughout the district that we will focus on.

And I just want to thank those who attended and those who will come to future Listen and Learn events as well.

And just want to thank Director Pinkham for attending this Listen and Learn stop.

No he didn't approve the photo people he says.

But the next Listen and Learn tour is Friday night with a Somali mother's night out.

And so look forward to that conversation.

I didn't approve that photo either.

Anyway we're.

The University of Washington hosted a session of question and answer with their ambassador program to learn more about Seattle Public Schools and the great work that's happening in the district.

They learned that we are a high performing urban district that continues to outperform the state on achievement levels and is really a leader on racial equity in the nation that we have other districts that are looking to Seattle Public Schools around that work and so You know just continue to spread the good word.

Here I am continuing to sing the praises of Seattle Public Schools with KUOW host Bill Radke.

I think that ran yesterday on public radio and I guess this is just part of the Listen and Learn tour as I get out and meet with different communities and different groups.

I just want everybody in this city and state to understand the amazing work that our staff is doing.

So students to serve students on a daily basis.

So I just want to really thank everybody across the city who's been so welcoming and open to conversations around Seattle Public Schools and look forward to continuing those efforts and bringing the good news of Seattle Public Schools to the public.

Thank you Madam President.

Are you wearing a Fitbit to find out how many miles you're putting in.

I am.

Good.

I'll report at the end.

Okay we've come to the portion of our agenda where we hear board committee reports.

Who would like to go first.

Director Burke curriculum and instruction please.

I'll give it a shot here.

So a couple of key things that are have happened are happening in the curriculum instruction realm.

We had our last meeting on September 11th last week.

And a couple of items that came up as part of that.

I'll go through those quickly and then talk about some things coming forward in the future.

We did move forward a bar around technology.

This is a technology purchase for student computers that's around our high school revisioning work 24 credits and in support of the student teacher and professional development and kind of how to get to Our 24 credit vision that's going to be coming before the board October 3rd for introduction.

So watch for that.

We had a couple of other policies that we talked about.

A02 our performance management policy which is turning into be a much larger body of work and Eric Anderson is going to be managing that probably a multi-month multi-committee task.

We had some standing agenda items.

That included an update on 24 credit secondary revisioning process and we got a couple of teasers but the real meat and potatoes on that is going to be October 10th at a work session where we will.

Excuse me.

Yeah.

Getting a Skype call on the dais where we will be learning more about how the course schedules are being presented to schools essentially how we're going to be proposing 28 credits for all of our high schools.

And so that's going to be I know of great public interest as well as for board directors.

Under instructional materials we have a work session on Tuesday September 26th where we will learn also more about our multi-year adoption cycles and some of the policy recommendations for instructional materials under policy 2015. We have we have gaps in how we adopt instructional materials.

Our policies are really structured around textual materials.

How do you adopt a print textbook.

But there's a lot of gaps in how do we adopt a supplemental material.

That's not a full course like since time immemorial or resources for ethnic studies that we might want to adopt district wide or how do we deal with electronic resources that are also not really well covered by that policy.

So that's something that is going to be coming before the whole board as part of this work session to tee up kind of philosophical elements and then it's going to come back to the committee to be worked on in more detail.

We're also going to bring back the policy 2090 that came before the board and I think there's a couple of tweaks that we're looking at for that to get get folks all aligned around that work.

Wow.

I want to put a shout out.

Yeah I want to put a shout out for the ITAC, the Advanced Information Technology Advisory Committee.

They met on Monday of this week and also for the folks that are working on the Advanced Learning Task Force that's meeting today right now as we speak.

In both cases doing some tough work and engaging in really important and detailed processes for us.

Our next.

Yeah I'll stop there.

Our next CNI meeting is Tuesday October 9th and we're looking at potentially changing that date due to availability conflict of board directors myself being one of them.

So it might shift forward or backward by one to two days.

We'll get that figured out and noticed to the public shortly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Mack Operations.

Good evening.

We've been incredibly busy.

So our last meeting was right after our last board meeting which was September 6th and our next one is going to be October 4th.

So we're right here smack in the middle.

At the September 6th meeting we had a good update on the community engagement that's happening around our upcoming levees.

There are three more meetings that you can attend to engage learn from the district about both the operations and the capital levy with this which is BEX V. Thursday the 20th at Mercer Middle School Monday the 24th at Roosevelt and Tuesday the 25th at Meany.

I encourage you to go.

Director Harris and I were at we're able to make the one that was out at West Seattle High School last week.

In our policy discussion we had a great conversation around the student assignment policy 3130 and the lack of definition of space available in that policy policy and how that intersects with another policy on capacity management.

We're going to be continuing to work with staff to figure out the most appropriate way to update both those policies in particular policy H13 is an old letter policy and It needs to be updated to the current reality of our needs.

We also got to see a draft of the facilities master plan update.

The that's going to be coming to operations in the form of the board action report next meeting.

And so you can access that by if you're interested in reading the pretty in depth master plan that's available.

The BEX BTA Oversight Committee meeting also met this past week.

They meet monthly.

Their charge is oversight over our levies that are ongoing capital levies that are ongoing and they're in the process of recruiting new members.

And that advertisements are going to be going out soon.

I hope sometime in the next week or so I believe it's going to be posted.

So if you're interested and have expertise around facilities planning architecture those sorts of things we're looking for some excellent engagement there.

We also had a brief update a committee about the boundary issues that we'll be looking at and making changes to for the 2019 20 school year.

We need to make any of those decisions prior to January because of open enrollment so that families have enough time to react to any changes that are made.

So we got a preview there in ops and then we had a work session on the 12th with a full board that gave five main kind of hotspot areas that have potential boundary changes.

And we also talked a little bit about potential changes to the student assignment transition plan.

So that works ongoing and there's Ongoing community meetings with some of those communities and we'll be working forward to hopefully make some appropriate changes to both support appropriate capacity in buildings and reduce our overcrowding.

Our next meeting is on October 4th.

As I already mentioned we're going to be getting the facilities master plan update having continued policy policy discussion.

A brief update on landmarking and the fiscal impacts as well as another update on kind of where we're at on the growth boundaries processes and what options are coming forward.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham audit and finance please.

All right.

Thank you.

Otter and finance.

We had our last monthly meeting Monday September 10th.

A couple of agenda bars that are coming through.

One actually tonight will be intro in action and that's the City of Seattle Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grant.

It's always nice to kind of accept those kind of things for And I was kind of joking.

I'm glad we put fresh in front of that.

It's going to be fresh fruit and vegetables.

You're being specific.

But thank you for the funding for that.

And you'll see a couple others in the intro today.

The grant for high poverty and high middle school international baccalaureate programs.

I think that definitely will help us closing the opportunity gap as we offer I get funds to offer the IEP programs at Rainier Beach and hopefully expand that to other schools in need.

Whole Child Whole Day initiative coming up New England Center for Children and Bronx Academy dealing with our students that may have IEPs or SPED needs will be introduced tonight.

We do.

Have coming up some state auditor requirements that the auditor finance will be addressing.

Also encourage you we will have a work session on a budget next Wednesday on the 26th following the BEX meeting.

If you want to come there and definitely provide your input or not your input but to see what's going on there and then provide probably input afterwards too if you see some comments that are needed.

We did also have our quarterly audit meeting before our last board meeting and I did provide a brief update there but I'd also like to make the official announcement now.

Board procedure 6550 BP internal audit requires announcement of completed internal audits as audit and finance committee chair.

I am announcing that at the September 4th quarterly audit and finance committee meetings the Office of Internal Audit presented three internal audit reports of Franklin High School.

Hazel Wolf K 8 school central administration supported schools.

All findings and recommendations are discussed at a public audit finance committee meeting and complete reports available online at the office internal audits public web page.

Click on departments and services under directory tab then click on internal audit.

Coming up our next audit and finance meeting will be October 8th and the one in November will be November 5th.

Please attend if you can.

Thank you.

Director Geary legislative.

Not much change from our last meeting in that Director Mack and I will be attending the WASDA Legislative Assembly on Friday and Saturday.

And I believe that the list of potential positions have been forwarded to the board members and if they have any input that should be forwarded to us.

Immediately or as soon as possible as we will be asked to start participating in creating the annual agenda for the Washington State School Directors Association.

And then with that behind us we will be moving forward to put together the Seattle Public Schools legislative agenda and we'll have more to report on that as we move forward.

Thank you.

Last but hopefully not least the executive committee report.

You will see a couple of bars that the executive committee has moved forward one for introduction that we'll talk about later that has statutory frameworks on it.

So read that and we'll get there.

And we have a in favor and a opposed piece.

Under the statute.

So I'll leave that one be.

It's about gun safety.

We also are changing the way we are setting up our contracting.

That's fairly self explanatory and it's actually bringing our policy back to where our practice is and it's respectful of our teachers.

And last but not least with a huge sigh of relief and thanks we move forward the bar for the collective bargaining agreement and.

I cannot begin to convey my thanks to our staff and our teachers for working as hard as they did to get us to where we are.

It was a huge lift.

People lived here in the building staff and union reps and we averted a strike.

And I think we did what we needed to do in a fiscally responsible manner given what was laid at our doorstep by the legislature.

Driving in this evening I heard a very interesting KUOW interview about McCleary funding and encourage you to dial it up.

And with that we are at the consent agenda.

Do I have a motion.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second that motion.

Do directors have any items on the consent agenda that they wish to have taken off and addressed in the business portion of the meeting at the end of the action items.

Director Mack.

No.

Going once.

Going twice.

Three times.

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

Aye.

Since we are running ahead of schedule time check is 4 50 our public testimony does not start until 5 30. Let's have our board reports.

Individual directors wish to report out.

After public testimony you'll have another chance to address the issues that were brought up in public testimony.

Who would like to go first.

Director DeWolf have at it.

Thank you President Harris.

Good evening.

Just grateful for a new protocol that we're using here at the board and just want to echo as well and just recognize that we're on the treaty land of the Muckleshoot the Squamish and the Duwamish and grateful to them for allowing us to live work and reside here.

Was really grateful last week to last week.

Just last Friday.

Just last Friday was really grateful to attend Monroe Correctional Facility to visit the Black Prisoners Caucus on their monthly education themed night.

Had a really incredibly moving discussion meaningful and we really talked a lot about equality and equity and certainly the ways that our schools are can often be part of perpetuating the school to prison pipeline and was able to really share some of the work that we're doing To address that in our own schools and look forward to going back in November to their educational summit.

Also on Monday was really grateful to attend a welcome luncheon with Superintendent Juneau Director Geary as well as other SPS staff and leadership both for a visit to the tribe and learn more about their educational work but also as a as a welcome to Superintendent Juneau.

And to my District 5 and Washington Middle School families.

I have received and read each of your emails regarding Washington Middle School.

First want to apologize to offer my sincerest apologies for the ways in which the last couple of weeks have greatly and negatively impacted your student and your family.

I know speaking frankly that we we have definitely recognized our missteps and places of improvement.

And while we may have hurt your trust please know that SPS immediately got to work addressing issues with Principal Butler Janolfi.

While I recognize that one PTA meeting cannot solve all of the issues and the incredibly important work that we have ahead of us to restore trust.

It is a start and I will work with the Washington Middle School families to come out and visit for a listening session as well when it's appropriate.

I heard about three to four remaining issues that I'll definitely be tracking around highly capable world languages passing periods and gym access.

And we'll continue keeping abreast of that work and any developments and any any other communications that I can report out to those to you and your families moving forward.

I'm already just as working working with Director Mack and just generating some ideas around ways in which boundaries and the ways that it relates to enrollment might be one possible way to start thinking about this issue in a more substantial way.

So we'll look forward to those work sessions coming up as we Talk about boundaries just considering some of the enrollment numbers at Washington Middle School.

And outside of that on Thursday I'll be attending the African-American Male Advisory Committee and looking forward to the first meeting of the year and greatly looking forward to our resolution today hopefully in support of initiative 1639. So thank you.

Next up is Director Geary.

Hello everybody.

Good evening.

Wanted to echo some of the points that Director DeWolf made.

My thank you to the Muckleshoots and really such a privilege to go and spend some time with them and hear About all the work and priority that they are doing around education within their tribe other native communities and even the communities they're opening up their programs to the extent possible.

They shared some of their ideas and some of the develop the curriculum development that they have done to incorporate Just native learnings within the state common core curriculum and it was fascinating and just really hopeful in terms of how we can blend cultures into more what we call our academic offerings.

And so I appreciated the opportunity to be there and hear about that and see the possibilities in terms of us all moving forward.

Also felt very honored to go out to Monroe and meet with those men.

They were so thoughtful and articulate and deep in their concern about doing what they can from the correctional facility To stop the pipeline to prison and to give more opportunity to young men the young men that they see themselves in.

And they invited us all every single board member to come and meet with them during their educational meetings which I think are once a month.

They invited us to come back repeatedly.

They very much wanted to help us work on our definition of equity within our district and really just got right to it.

Even as Director DeWolf and I were talking they got up on the whiteboard and started writing down the different comments that we were making that the other men were making.

And my I just left there with just such a profound respect for them to be taking that opportunity and to recognizing that one of them said that it took them longer to come to understand what their purpose is.

But they were there and even in that very confined situation saw the hope for the future of others and were willing to put their time and effort into it.

So I hope we all respect that and take the opportunity.

To go visit with them and take them up on their offer to help us in our work because we definitely need that.

Have been spending some time and I'm going to let Director Burke talk about what we were up to this morning but just really I do feel the definite sense from so many partners in our city.

You know you hear all the time we are such a city of wealth.

We have so many opportunities.

How can we partner around that.

And so spending my time thinking about that in a lot of different ways because how can we make the wealth of opportunity in our city available to our students Where they're ready to receive it because some students thrive in a comprehensive high school setting and maybe that's where we need to make it and some of them thrive in smaller alternative settings and we need to make the opportunities available to them there as well.

And so coming up with creative ways to braid all of those opportunities Together to respect our business partners our community partners to reach our students because you just really when you're out in the community you feel that everybody wants to do their part and how do we within our resources be the conduit to that and take advantage of what they're offering.

I've heard from my Thornton Creek families and we'll be meeting with a group of them tomorrow morning and invite any other group who might want to sit down to talk about what's going on there to help them look for ways to move forward.

I'm happy to say that even with some of the difficulties that they're all experiencing that I do hear that the students are doing great and I hope we all hold on to that as we move forward in trying to resolve the issues and the difficulties That the adults are having that we keep focused on the kids.

I continue to have my Tuesday morning coffee meetings usually from 8 to 9 30 at Zoka on Blakely behind the university village mall.

I did change it this morning and so keep an eye to Facebook because there are times when I have to shift it for one reason or another.

Anyway have a great week.

Next up Director Burke.

Thanks for teeing that up.

I'll I'll express a little note of appreciation for our string guests from TOPS and the way it was introduced harkened back to my days in middle school at Hamilton where we didn't have an orchestra.

And so the strings played in the band.

So I got to play oboe music.

As a violinist because it was about the right key but maybe not quite as inspiring as some string pieces.

So it was a little bit of a flashback.

Of course I never got good but yeah.

Still it's amazing.

We had a.

A really good I want to jump into the work and kind of both highlight and shout out to staff for the work that's been going on.

We had a work session on boundaries last week where I think that we know that we've got some boundary work to do that is coming forward for basically the Student assignment plan for the you know essentially the end of this year November December timeframe.

So we've got a few months to work out any of our trouble spots and what I heard from directors and staff was a series of options and also a commitment to figure out how to do that work and get out and do authentic community engagement.

So thank you for that.

We are working towards solutions and two of the ones that are in my region that are front of mind are the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School in Licton Springs capacity challenge and then also what's our long term planner in Green Lake Elementary School which also has a capacity challenge being co-located with two language immersion schools so they get to their own unique challenges of trying to balance enrollment.

Special thanks to Mary Margaret Welch Kyle Kenosha and Michael Tolley who met with with me and Director Harris to help really dig deeply into the work around science and the intersection between science STEM math CTE technology.

Instructional materials adoptions.

There's a really complicated set and policy.

There's a really complicated and interesting set of constraints that we're all trying to work within to move the process forward in service of kids but also to stay within our guidelines and be fiscally responsible.

So thank you again for the time that you shared and the candor that you shared with that as well.

We've had good conversations with staff.

I had my meeting today with some of my colleagues around BEX 5 planning a little bit of a deeper dive into some of the capital projects and how we want to prioritize them and both the facilities and the technology.

And then just also just this morning Director Geary and I had the pleasure of meeting with some some folks from Boeing their workforce development staff.

And they've been a long term partner in our CTE work and they've essentially they've employed dozens of our students over the last few years and work with schools and districts really all around the state helping them understand how you know what curricula pieces make sense where the employer can employers and workforce partners can be of benefit and helping bridge things with OSPI.

So it was a really really positive conversation around how we can collaborate on the work that we're doing within our SMART goal around high school revisioning and CTE and also around our CTE plan.

So that was a really fun and exciting meeting.

Some of the hot issues.

I know that transportation has been a challenge for some families and so I want to also extend a heartfelt apology.

The highest form of trust that our families Put in us is the health and safety of their kids and that's not something that we take lightly.

So when buses miss routes or delayed and parents don't get the notification we recognize that's a big deal.

I had a highly respected person within central staff that told me once you don't mess with people's kids.

And it's true you know we we owe it to those kids and to those families to do right by them and so know that staff is working on that staff has made it a priority and it's going to get better and better and better as it does at the start of every school year.

Upcoming meetings I have I'm excited to have my My chance to join Superintendent Juneau on her Listen and Learn tour Monday September 24th at North Seattle Community College.

It's on the district calendar.

There's a Lincoln community meeting.

That Principal Metzger is holding October 1st that's also on the website under Lincoln High School.

And then my community meeting is Saturday September 22nd at Green Lake Library 4 to 5 30 p.m.

also on the calendar.

Thank you very much and hope the rest of school year proceeds even better than the start.

Director Pinkham.

Good evening.

Comments from me.

I kind of regret that at the last board meeting I forgot to announce that there was an event put on by the Urban Native Education Alliance with their Native Warriors athletics program.

They actually had Billy Mills come and do a fun run with the students on September 9th and students ran around Green Lake and plus we had Youth category which is 11 and under and then what we call it teens but 11 is over under 18 then adults and then we also had elders category and we had actually an elder there that was probably over 70 that made the trip around Green Lake and then each each one got the for the categories that were the top two finishers got Fitbits so they can continue their exercise and monitoring their health.

So thank you to Billy Mills for coming out for this and this was the third annual and it's done usually around September the first of September and helps all suicide prevention for our families and children.

And also just want to announce UNEA is continuing with their Clear Sky Native Youth Program tutoring from 6 p.m.

to 8.30 at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Tuesdays.

It should be in the Commons area of Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and on Thursdays in the portables and then the gym as scheduled and needed.

And in relation to the Billy Mills with again for those I may know he is the only American to win the 10,000 K in the Olympic gold.

So the gold medal and no other American has won that and he's the only one to have have won it.

And there's also a documentary that's out now encourage people to go see called 3100 Run and Become.

It's just about How exercise and running can really help somebody really discover who they are and it features different cultures and how they view that as being part of who they are as a people.

Thank you to the TARPS Orchestra for their performance.

Listening to the Over the Rainbow actually kind of remind me of Iz's Native Hawaiian singer and his version.

And so it was great to hear.

Shout out to Karen Reed who helped facilitate our retreat this past weekend and helping us with our communications with the central office staff and appreciated being able to share how we myself I guess I'll speak personally just myself may want to communicate when I communicate with the board or with the central office staff that are going to the same call and go what's the best for our students.

And thank you to Brent Jones for the race and equity that we finished that day out with.

It's much appreciated that we make that a top goal for our school.

I also want to help emphasize as far as communications that sometimes you get so reliable on email that sometimes it's best to just grab that phone pick it up and call someone as emails can get lost or might not get delivered and that we make sure we keep our community involved that they know what's happening.

Because for me one particular situation where a family felt they're being ignored.

Hey I'm sharing my concerns.

I'm not hearing anything.

So the more we we can and I'm responsible.

I'll admit that I didn't respond to the family either.

I said OK let me go check and a couple of days gone by and say I haven't responded to this person and they said hey.

What's going on.

So the more we can make it clear if it's something we're waiting on hopefully just short little email or phone call.

Hey thank you for your concern.

We're checking on it now we have to do ABC or whatever we have to do and we'll get back to you when that's resolved.

So just having that for our parents I think will help build trust in that transparency so we're not they're not thinking we're behind the scenes doing something else.

So let's do our best to communicate what's happening.

I got to join the listening session with Denise at Broadview Library.

It's definitely great to get out there and the most turnout was more educators that were there to kind of see what Denise had to share and what she had to say.

And I was more the observer there but just watching the interaction from Denise and those that are attendants was amazing.

And which makes me feel like yes we made a right choice bringing her on to lead this district.

To the Loyal Heights community just one FYI that first weekend it was an error that the playground gates were locked.

They were meant to be open and they will be open and if you find them locked let us know because as this new year goes on we may have just some miscommunication that hey we make sure that this is community space for on the weekends.

So to those that went there that first weekend was locked sorry but they have been informed that we make sure that access to that playground remains open.

Also just on a quick note again happy birthday Betty Patu if you're going to take the time to watch us.

And enjoy your birthday and time with your family.

My next community meeting will be September 29th at Broadview library from 10 a.m.

to 1130. And I do have the other one scheduled in October which actually kind of be encroaching on Jill's area.

So because the Northeast library is the only space is all defined.

And then I think I'm actually back to the Northeast for November as well.

But those meetings are posted on the website.

Come out, share your perspectives and ideas, and I'm here.

Katsyaga, thank you.

Director Mack.

Good evening again.

I appreciate everyone else's comments.

I don't want to repeat thank yous and all of but everything that was was brought up by echo.

So thank you for going before me so I don't have to repeat things.

I did.

I don't think I mentioned in my committee report that our next work session for the BEX V levy is on the 26th.

May I maybe I did mention it but I want to mention it again because that's the work session in which we're going to be narrowing down the project list of the major.

Sorry.

I would love to do your correction for you Director Burke.

So Director Burke had said that his work session was on the 26th when in fact his work session is on the 25th.

So.

Two days of work sessions if you'd like to join us we'd love to have you.

And the work around BEX and the facilities master plan is really really intense and I want to give a big shout out and thanks to all of the staff and the community members that have been helping support that effort.

And I want to express personally how frankly disheartened I am that the needs of the list are far bigger than we can put on the levy.

And that we are going to be making Sophie's choices when we come down with that final project list that every single one of those projects should be on the levy because they're great needs in this district and students all deserve to have a great learning environment.

And it's impossible for us to be able to do that.

And it's something that emotionally I'm really struggling with because I want to be able to do it all and I can't fix everything.

But we are going to be making some big strides and I believe touching every area of the city, focusing on safety security, really focusing on equity and really making sure that we do the critical projects so at a bare minimum we don't have rain falling down on kids' heads.

So I'm excited for that work and that we're moving forward in that process.

I'm really grateful to all of the Heart and soul that is going into helping develop that.

I was really grateful for our retreat that we had as a school board and with staff this past Saturday morning.

We talked about communication and I think it was really really for me it was really really helpful to get more clear and start the conversation about how we can be more effective working together as we move forward.

And I just really appreciate staff taking the time to be with us and So thank you.

October 4th is my opportunity for the listening learning tour with Superintendent Juneau.

She's coming to Ballard High.

It's hosted by most of the most if not all of the parent groups.

Some are PTAs, some are PTOs in my district, which is Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia, down to Belltown.

So I'm really looking forward to that evening together.

I hope you can make it.

Shout out.

Please come.

I know you maybe you just decided to attend the October 1 Lincoln meeting a couple days before.

There's a lot going on but the what Director Pinkham was saying about keeping community involved and communicating.

I have noticed that our email is not as flooded as it has been in the past which There are some major issues and I'm hearing them and seeing them and hoping we can come to resolution and support changes on those.

So I continue to support and advocate for sending emails sending communications when issues are happening.

And I'm I'm grateful that I don't think we have quite as many as we've had in the past.

Like I think there are definitely problems we need to address them.

And I do feel like there's a little bit less of them this fall than there has been in the past.

So I think that's, there's the ones that are happening are real and meaningful, but there's not as many of them.

So I'm just not getting quite as many emails and I'm really, I think that's a little bit of good news, but the issues that are on our plate, I'm looking forward to those resolutions and I'm definitely hearing Hearing those concerns and will do what I can to support those.

I think that's all.

So thank you.

Okay last but not least my next community meeting is this Saturday three to five at the Southwest Library.

Then on October 10th we have the superintendent's tour in West Seattle at Youngstown Cultural Center there on Delridge also known as the original Cooper School.

Students are invited from 6 to 640 and everyone else from 7 to 830 it will be a rocking good time.

Next up is October 20th another community meeting at the Delridge library and I believe it's the third Weekend in November it will be on a Sunday at the High Point Library.

I renew my challenge.

We will have lasagna at one of the three meetings.

Staff is more than welcome.

We have terrific community conversations.

We brainstorm solutions.

One of the really beautiful things that has happened out in West Seattle in South Park is that PTSA's are working together PTO's are working together to support each other.

Everything from donations to auction assistance to combining up for race and equity training.

And I noticed on social media the other day that up in the north west corner of our district one school is hosting interview training for the rest of the region.

We'll put something like that together out in Southwest as well and we'll make a party of it.

Board directors are most welcome at the community meetings.

The lasagna is good.

You just have to play your odds.

And I'm competing with Director Burke this time.

So I want to shout out to my friend Jesse Hagopian.

He has convinced Macklemore and Michael Bennett of Seahawks fame to donate teaching for black lives to every high school and middle school social studies and English language arts teachers and South Seattle Emerald has done a lovely write up on this date.

It is a beautiful thing when our homegrown talent Pulls off such a feat.

My thank yous the Saturday retreat much appreciate staff coming much appreciate Karen Reed facilitating and much appreciate Brent Jones and your leadership on helping.

Assist us with our menu of opportunities for professional development on equity implicit bias structural bias etc.

It was a good conversation.

It was a shorter retreat than most which I think all of our families appreciate.

And no one's whining up here because we're all big folks we took these jobs.

But it comes at a cost and it's one we need to remember.

Because we stand with and on the shoulders of others and need to stay healthy both staff and board.

And to that end and about the email.

Rant started.

When you email folks who are working hard who are trying very hard to come up with solutions please make them constructive emails.

I absolutely appreciate the frustration and frankly white hot anger when your child has been standing on a street corner and you don't know that because their bus didn't come.

But folks please have a little decorum and understanding.

It is not fun and it is not fair to have rocks thrown at your head when you are working on solutions.

And it doesn't invite collaboration and I think we all want collaboration.

Rant over.

We are five minutes away from public testimony.

We're going to take a stretch break.

Don't go far because we need to start it on time.

Thank you.

This is the first step.

This is the second step.

This is the second step.

you

We need you back up here please kind sir.

Thank you.

Okay we have reached 5 30 p.m.

and it is time for public testimony.

I am going to read the information on the big screen and remind folks right at the top of this that we do not take comments about individual personnel.

I have to rule you out of order.

Please do not do that to me.

Also public testimony will not be taken at this time for proposed resolution number 2018 19 4. The school board will afford members of the public an opportunity to express a view opposite that embodied in the proposed resolution when the board addresses that item on the agenda.

A sign up sheet for public testimony opposing resolution 2018 19 4 is available at the back of the room.

The rules for public testimony are on the screen.

I would ask the speaker be respectful of said rules.

I would note again we do not take public comments on items related to personnel or individually named staff.

The majority of the speaker's time must be spent on the topic he or she has indicated they wish to speak about.

Each speaker has a two minute speaking time.

When the two minutes have ended please conclude your remarks.

You will have a yellow warning light for the last 30 seconds.

Please read the testimony list.

Thank you.

First up for public testimony we have Christine Shigaki followed by Jasmine Ariana and then Gregory Miller.

We are here to bring attention to Washington Middle School.

Washington Middle School has continuous school improvement plan that's not in alignment with what the school is offering nor what is being practiced today.

Washington is a unique school where there are two divergent groups of students that need to be serviced at the level of education that meets them where they are and at the same time challenges them.

Student body numbers have changed recently due to the reopening of Meany and the new West Seattle HCC pathway to Madison decreasing allocated funding to Washington Middle School.

At the start of the year it was expected by students and families that courses offered last year school year would be consistent with this year's course offerings sudden changes occurred in course offerings in world languages math and music.

Inequities and offerings of world language is an issue at Washington as all other middle schools offer these courses.

Coursework needs to be in alignment with other district middle schools.

These inequities affect Washington middle school seventh and eighth graders as other schools offer world languages to meet requirements.

In fact sixth graders in other middle schools around the district are given this opportunity to take world language classes where at Washington they are not.

I understand that there also has been approval by the district to allow online math classes at Washington Middle School in coming years.

This is not acceptable as middle school kids are not ready for this modality of education and need direct person instruction.

All coursework should be calibrated equal across the district including HCC programs.

Our South End middle school students deserve to have equal education opportunities equivalent to other schools in our district.

As you consider approval of CSIP for 2018 2019 please support our new principal our staff and students with our unique and challenging situation and by giving additional assistance to Washington Middle School during this critical transition period to ensure Washington CSIP can be achieved.

Thank you.

Many of the Washington Middle School parents have reached out to all of you with their concerns about the schedules and coursework that have been altered without the community involvement or collaboration.

Washington Middle School is a diverse school community and its diversity is present even in the 8C student population.

Over 40 percent of the students participate across all grades from different race and ethnicity as categorized by Seattle schools.

This would be a perfect school for Seattle Public School to showcase equity.

But we seem to always be at the short end of the stick when it comes to critical programs to ensure and grow academic rigor.

Instead of getting the funding to provide the adequate programming that is needed for both programs to flourish our administrative staff is placed in a precarious position to choose between the two programs in the school.

How is this equitable.

As a parent of the two children's of this program I'm reaching out to you the board to start looking at the south end school with the same lens as the north end schools.

But the continuous school improvement program for Washington Middle School as I quote from your website highly capable school students our largest program group We support them to rigorous course offerings with high school classes in world language physics chemistry biology algebra geometry.

But due to the inadequate budget and without any school community engagement involvement and any notification prior to open enrollment the Washington Middle School world language for seventh graders has been removed.

Instead an additional ELA teacher has been hired.

The current eighth graders are being processed to do online language.

One of the reasons I'm standing here in front of you is that Washington Middle School has a Spanish teacher that was assigned to teach seventh and eighth grade school students due to difficulty in finding French and Japanese teachers.

The principal has decided to drop the world language option for all seventh graders.

A decision made without community involvement instead of providing new electives like forensic drama and debate.

I request adding Spanish to reduce other class sizes especially since the Spanish teacher is part of the school.

And the other thing I just want to quickly say is many school has hired a French teacher last year Washington and many collaborated together for the French and Japanese.

Why can't the school board request that we do the same collaboration.

Thank you.

I'll add to the comments mainly echoing them.

Continuity is a problem that the language courses that seem to be offered at the beginning many families took that option and are finding that they can't complete the language they expected and it will impact scheduling in high school.

There's a problem that.

Excuse me.

That the proposal of online classes is really done without any knowledge of what these online classes are.

I can't imagine a 13 year old taking the first online course of their life in Algebra 2 but that was proposed.

Fortunately that doesn't seem to be the policy but I would like to know a lot more about these online classes before submitting my kid to them.

And I heard earlier transportation we have opted out of the bus.

We can't rely on it to get us to school in the morning on time.

I have little else to add.

I think my colleagues have said it well.

Next up for public testimony we have Melissa Westbrook followed by Chris Jackins and Hugh Kim.

Good evening about the CSIPS.

I suggest that board members pick out three random grade level schools and just compare the plans.

There are very striking differences.

About the teachers contract.

I just like to note that in the bar below where it says equity analysis and talks about all the items in the contract for that work.

The next line is the MOU was not taken through the race and equity toolkit.

I thought that was what we were going to be doing all the time.

I also just want to say I went to the Washington Middle School meeting and just two words not good.

You're going to continue to see problems.

I also want to speak up as a member of the Information Technology Advisory Committee about Naviance.

I first want to say I like and respect Mr. Perkins and Mr. Krull.

But I went to one of the sessions about Naviance and there are still things that are not right about this rollout.

It's not easy for parents to find the opt out at the source and in fact it initially wasn't even there.

Two it is still not clear about the data sharing with other companies.

What companies will see the student data?

Is it only the companies whose services the kids are accessing or all of the partners that Naviance has?

At the session I was at the presentation did not tell parents about data sharing.

It said there was no selling of information but it was up to one parent to ask Do they share data?

That should have been in the presentation.

And months ago I asked about the data fields and was told it was only going to be five of them.

And it quote from staff there's no option for students to provide more information in order to get further access to information in the application.

At the presentation there's 15 lines of data including parent data.

What changed?

I'm also uneasy about forcing students to identify gender.

It may not be a lot of students but some students are gender fluid and it may be uncomfortable for them to check a box.

Lastly parents are not able to see surveys that their students take.

I think parents deserve to know what personal questions their child may be asked using this platform.

Thank you.

My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4. On the annual approval of schools on the SEA contract and on the grant for international baccalaureate programs four points.

Number one the posting for each of these actions includes the following disclaimer quote an accessible version of the document may not be available unquote.

The public is directed to contact the district for further information.

Number two to comply with the spirit of a court settlement.

The district should be producing documents readable by computer programs for the blind and those with impaired vision.

Number three instead the district is now routinely not posting certain documents for anyone in order to be able to claim that is providing equal access.

Number four.

If the district applied the same strategy to ADA access at schools all entrances would be nailed shut and people would be instructed to call the district to be hoisted up through a window.

Please provide proper access to district documents.

On policy 2151 interscholastic activities.

Four points.

Number one a couple of years ago the board adopted an action to accept an anonymous athletic program grant.

Number two one condition of the grant was that the district would not publicly disclose the name of the funder.

Including to school board members and the superintendent.

Another condition required that matching district funds be spent in certain ways.

Number three recent news articles have noted a series of high profile student and coaching transfers at schools.

Number four.

Do you ever wonder if board policies might be benefiting a billionaire sports club owner using Seattle Public Schools as a farm club to the detriment of other district priorities.

Thank you.

Hugh Kim.

Sarah Emily Davis.

After Sarah we will have Brian Terry followed by Julie Van Akron and then Emily Wheeler.

Hi I can tell you that you love our children and I thank you very much.

I am the Manila folder.

That has a lot of information in it and I only have like two minutes to explain.

What I'm talking about is the inequity of the PTSA funds funding full time certified staff members within buildings.

If you look at I'm not using school names I'm using numbers because I teach at one of Mr. Burke schools which you brought up their name and I love you very much.

So if you look at number six there's a million dollar foundation and there's also a line item that says self-help of almost $150,000.

There's no PTA information with that which makes no sense.

If you look at number 38. It says that there's 148 no PTA but when you look at the other page I presented the foundation is on the SPS website that goes straight to from the website to the foundation where they can raise private funds.

If you look at number 49 last year there was an incidence where there was a displacement of a teacher and within a week's time the PTA and the foundation that's tied with it funded the full time full time teacher and that was not fair or adequate equitable to the whole displacement process.

If you look at 62. There's a projected fundraiser of four hundred and thirty three thousand dollars.

All these things I have highlighted and if you look at the very back the PTA as the national resolution show talk about the resolutions and there's also resolutions from the board about getting PTA funds not to fund certified staff.

Good evening.

Back in 2013 the WAC was updated to mandate that we find and serve underprivileged students in our highly capable program.

Unfortunately despite the mandate our program remains highly exclusive.

Today a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as highly capable.

This leads to segregated classrooms that send a clear message.

White students are more capable and more deserving.

This is institutional racism.

Last year when highly capable underprivileged students applied for advanced learning they were almost all rejected because the service model would not meet their needs.

For this year's process please ask your staff to identify students in accordance with the WACC and then adapt the service model to meet the needs of the identified students.

It may seem like short notice to do this now but the fact is we have had five years to solve this problem.

During that time we have created two task forces, reached out to the community countless times and spent many hours discussing solutions.

Instead of waiting forever for a perfect solution we need to move forward now with our best solution so far.

Once we act we can learn from the results and continue to make improvements.

By making these changes today we can finally end more than three decades of institutional racism in our schools and send a new message to our students.

All of you are capable and deserving.

Thank you.

Hi I'm the mixed race daughter of working class immigrants a future Washington Julie Van Arken and I'm a member of the Advanced Learning Task Force.

I'm actually supposed to be upstairs right now with the rest of them fixing all the things that he was just talking about.

But I thought that this was even more important.

Today you're supposed to approve a bunch of continuous school improvement plans and I just wanted to report that these plans do not necessarily reflect what's going on in schools.

For instance the Washington CSIP says parent engagement is aggressively sought.

However the reality is much different.

The Washington administration changed the names of a bunch of classes from HCC to honors without telling any parents first, making the students wonder if they were even in the right class.

When I emailed to ask about this, I was told that the old names were not compliant with FERPA law.

So when I asked if district legal counsel was consulted about that, well, that's when I stopped getting email replies.

Anyway, I assure you that parent engagement was not aggressively sought.

The Washington CSIP also says that there are high school classes in world language.

However, as a September surprise, no students are being allowed to start world language classes and there's no commitment about what will be offered in the future.

So I ask that if you approve a fantasy CSIP that states that Washington is offering high school world language classes that you also help to make that a reality.

Thank you.

Hi.

Emily Wheeler I'm also a parent.

I'm also a parent at Washington Middle.

Sorry.

And I was at the PTA meeting last night and yes parents are very upset.

The principal came in.

A lot of changes were made.

There was not very good communication about why or how especially with the foreign language being removed.

There was also there were probably 15 to 20 different changes made.

It's really hard for The parent community and the students to come to school on the first day and have that many changes to their school program from bathroom policies to the phone to the backpack.

You know some of the details the students are very frustrated with.

They're not allowed to go to the bathroom in first period or sixth period.

They're middle schoolers.

Come on.

But the bigger issue is the funding and the teacher support.

Why foreign language was removed.

We have not gotten a good answer on this other than Two teachers quit.

Well replace them.

We don't understand this.

We also have overcrowding in our classes.

We have over 41 kids in a geometry class.

This is ridiculous.

We really need the school board to support Washington Middle School.

It's a very diverse school.

It's a very strong school but we need your support.

We can't have 41 kids in a math class.

We can't lose our foreign language when everybody needs to be learning foreign language.

We can't we should be starting in fourth grade not seventh grade and now eighth grade or ninth grade.

So we'd like to be a world-class city that teaches our kids foreign languages.

So if you guys could figure out what's going on at Washington Middle we're not getting answers.

We don't understand what's going on.

So that's our request to you guys.

If you could please help us please support us please help it be more equitable so everybody can have a foreign language as well as music and less than 35 kids in their classes.

It's ridiculous.

Thank you.

This concludes the signup list for this public testimony this evening.

Thank you.

And to take board comments from what we've heard at public testimony Director Geary.

Thank you to all the parents who came and spoke.

While you coming to speak to us about the inequities of our district I'm I'm happy and that you are here and that you care about this.

It is a lens that has not always been shared and so thank you for that.

The Washington to the Washington Middle School parents.

I want everybody to be clear that there is a consequence to this that I'm not sure that the Washington Middle School administration understands and that is that if the students at Washington Middle School Especially those in the highly capable program have any plan to go on to Ingram's IBX program.

They will have to have managed to get three year or four years of world language by their third year of high school.

And I raised that because it was an issue that my son ran into when he went into the IBX program for different reasons.

So.

I don't know if you know that.

I don't know if your administrators know that.

But it is a pitfall that you will you potentially will fall into if you decide to do the IVX program which is a fabulous program.

So I highlight that to everybody that there are consequences about these decisions that Aren't seen.

So this is a problem and it should be solved so that we don't end up with a bunch of kids who are not properly advised and or are told they can't be part of a program that we offer.

That's a really fabulous program.

Thank you.

Other questions comments concerns responses to what we've heard at public testimony.

Director Mack.

It's almost a year since I got elected to school board and I love working on policy and that's our role appears that we look at policy which is forward thinking and the administration of what happens in buildings is delegated to our superintendent and staff and the influence or authority I have over those things to make changes or dictate I think it should be this way.

It's just it's not something individually I get to do.

As a board we help set policy and work collaboratively to move things forward.

We started the advanced learning task force some time ago to work on the policy and procedures of advanced learning and highly capable so that we can create more equity across the entire district.

There's a resolution that I was a sponsor of.

Around having advanced learning at all high schools and one of the gaps that I see in the work that's going on right now is clarity around the scope and sequence for our programs.

Director Geary just mentioned that the pitfall that will happen in trying to get into the IBX program if you don't have the three years of language.

There's also you know if you're if you're in the HCC program and you're working two grade levels ahead continuing what is that exact scope and sequence going forward is that the same is that the same offering at each of our Of our middle schools in those programs and that's a question mark in my mind.

I have I personally have a question mark around whether or not honors course equates to the same course that is being offered at the other HCC middle schools.

So that's still a question in my mind.

And I I raised these questions because I'm concerned about as you have pointed out the equity of offerings.

I also agree that 40 kids in a classroom is really not OK.

So I'm hoping some of the things that you raised tonight can continue to be worked on.

Thank you.

Director Burke comments questions concerns about the testimony you've heard tonight.

I want to echo my colleagues gratitude.

When you share your feedback and truths with us it helps us make the system better.

I appreciate the use of the CSIP as a communication vehicle.

I think that's been the intent behind it.

It's essentially a tool for governance of schools and I think it's also important to recognize that Washington Middle School That as a new principal inheriting what came before and being able to deliver to it are two different things.

But I think the dialogue that's been started and the commitments that's captured in that CSIP is a really important place to find agreement.

So I just because that is a building based document finding that you know using that as a vehicle to get on the same page is really a great way to go.

Thank you to Ms. Davis for your data the roadmap your color coding very cool makes it a lot easier to get through it.

The Advanced Learning Task Force I want to also restate for the record that it's not an easy thing for us to take on because there are a lot of great ideas about how to make improvements.

And I think any of them many of them in isolation or together could work really well.

But our challenge is unintended consequences.

We do something here.

It might have some unintended consequence elsewhere.

So we as a board made a commitment and the staff has made a commitment through the advanced learning task force to do that work.

Do it thoughtfully.

Do it in four stages where we have checkpoints where we reach agreement on vision Where we reach agreement on what's the program description.

What are we what sort of services are we providing.

Third step where we reach agreement on how we assign how we identify and assign students.

And then the fourth one is how we actually take it and build it in at the system level make it institutional.

So I appreciate the urgency.

I think that is one of the things that's been driving us.

I appreciate the suggestions and I just want to restate our commitment to staying true to that process and I hope people hold us accountable for it.

And then my last point I want to publicly state support for our work in Naviance because I think it's a really really powerful tool.

But we do have to provide mechanisms for people who are not comfortable with it.

And that means full disclosure of what potential risks are versus the benefits of the tool.

And then I have a request for staff to take aligned with the testimony that came up.

We have a policy that's coming through CNI policy 3 3 2 3 2 parent and student rights and administration of surveys.

And if staff could do the confirmation that our Naviance implementation is compliant with that policy around parent and student rights if there are particular surveys that are provided through online tools that would be a request to consider that make sure that all of our all of our pieces are covered.

Thank you again.

Director DeWolf and Director Pinkham.

Thank you President Harris.

Thank you again to the Washington Pendle School families for coming out and voicing your concern.

Certainly really critically tracking now the world languages thing will work with our team and figure out the ways that we can come to a resolution on that.

And then just wanted to mention too about our buses.

I know that folks particularly mentioned that a couple of times during testimony and just knowing that we are having Some issues around filling some of those positions so we are working on ways to working with first student to address those and those should be resolved shortly.

And then just wanted to elevate one thing that I'll be carrying with me from from today's testimony that all of you are capable and deserving is an incredibly important value statement we can share with our students.

So thank you for that reminder of that work.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you.

Washington Middle School students and parents thank you for coming out here and sharing your perspectives.

And I'm sure you were probably at the meetings that they had to continue to share your voice and let the building the principal know this is what we need.

And as Director Geary shared that if there is a pathway that not often the word language may limit our students as they go on.

Share that as well say hey this is why we need these programs and if it's in your CSIPS let's make sure we persist with it.

So I would have concerns if there are new courses that are being offered that are taking students away from these world languages and that's why they say well we only have 10 kids enrolled or that want it.

Well how many of those kids may be in those new courses you're offering that would have taken Spanish.

So the kind of questions to ask so we make sure that Students are getting the courses that they're expecting and especially now if they come with 24 credits for high school how this may impact even that.

So thank you for sharing your voice but continue to do that and so that any building level decisions you feel like you're involved with.

So if you can get involved at that level do so as well.

You know we're here we're hearing you and how we can maybe help out as far as policy we'll do what we can.

Online courses that was mentioned as well.

You know what we can do with that and not necessarily limiting it but seeing again how that's going to benefit our students and not necessarily take away.

So that's something I definitely would like to see more information on in regards to Naviance.

Thank you Melissa.

Let us know that yes it is a great tool that we think we can get things out of but if we're got parents and families that are afraid of what information that's going out there.

And if they they got to make it obvious how to opt out.

And I know it's probably just a play in words.

She mentioned it.

They may say no we're not selling data but are they sharing data.

Maybe we have to watch what questions we do ask.

And so then parents may find out OK maybe I will opt out even though this is not selling it.

Are they sharing it.

Appreciate there are also comments about looking at the CSIPs and at the various grade levels and see the difference amongst those.

And thank you Sarah Davis about.

Yeah looking at our schools and what the impacts that they have as PTAs or other foundations can help maybe fund one school and in that achievement gap then gets more obvious as schools that have the funds can do so and we actually get looked upon like Seattle we can raise all this money and schools over on the other side of the state wonder boy look at the Seattle can do.

But even just within our own school district we can see that impact that it has.

Brian thank you again for your comments and things I think with Denise you know here we know we've been talking about the EOG and how we can do that.

And I think one of the things that Denise said excuse me if I'm misquoting you is that we've been talking about a lot now let's do something let's get those actions in and so we can see that gap starting to close versus yes there are these issues.

Let's get the work done.

Thank you.

Last but not least the tension between being a board director and addressing constituent services and concerns and respect for policy and respect for our staff is fraught with peril.

We have two employees as the board of directors.

Our new superintendent and the internal auditor.

I probably step into the weeds more than any of the other board directors because it's always my go to place to jump out in front of it.

It's very difficult to know how to assist when to assist and work a problem in collaboration with our staff.

One of the things that comes up in retreats when we have really good Candid conversations is I've got seven directors with seven emails with seven priorities etc.

I could argue some of that certainly.

But the role of a board director in a situation like Washington Middle School is fraught with peril.

It's not that I haven't read every single comma and period of your emails or that I haven't listened to your voicemails.

And please don't call me at 11 o'clock at night.

Tacky.

I appreciate your anger.

Spent a lot of time out in the seats there looking this direction.

I believe that our staff and Superintendent Juneau know that we have a problem and that they are working very hard to fix it.

We had senior staff I think nine out at the school last week offering assistance and that's the model we need to have from the John Stanford Center offering assistance to our hundred and four schools.

They're working through issues.

We are listening.

I often joke that I should just come up here and put a roll of duct tape you know keep your big mouth shut Harris because it's not time for you to weigh in.

We have to respect the process and our staff's collaborative efforts and we have to respect Superintendent Juneau's authority here.

And it's really not easy to keep my big mouth shut but I'm gonna and I'm going to trust the process that we're going to work it through.

Nobody along the walls here is suggesting we don't have issues that we need to fix whether it be transportation a dearth of drivers the distress at only having one company Bid for our bus contract because we have no place to park those buses and let me again abuse folks of the notion that Seattle Public Schools ever had their own buses and bus driver workforce.

We have not.

Not only do we not have enough money to fix our schools to build new schools to appropriately staff our schools to appropriately pay our staff.

We sure as heck don't have enough money.

To buy a bus force.

So hang in there with us.

I understand your anger and your frustration.

But throwing rocks at people that are working hard doesn't get us there.

If you have constructive solutions let's hear them because we're on this team together.

It is now 6 05 we will be taking a break.

We will reconvene at 6 20. Thank you so very much.

We appreciate your presence.

We appreciate your voices.

We appreciate the trust that you have.

given us for your children.