Seattle Schools Board Special Meeting June 4, 2025

Back to the dais.

Looks like we have Director Hersey and Director Clark online here.

So far we have three sign-ups from the room for public testimony for the budget hearing.

If your name is not on the clipboard that I am holding, including if you signed up online already, you need to put your name on this clipboard still if you're here in person.

Okay.

No, we got two people online and we got Director Rankin.

Right here.

All right.

This is President Topp.

I am now calling the board's special meeting to order at 8.05 p.m.

I'm going to start with the introductory remarks.

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'll call the roll.

Vice President Briggs.

Director Clark.

Present.

Director Hersey.

Here.

Director Mizrahi.

Present.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Sarju.

And this is President Topp.

So testimony sign-ups have been accepted online for those testifying remotely.

We also, Ms. Wilson-Jones has the clipboard, made an announcement if you're here to provide testimony.

If you have not signed up on the clipboard, last chance to see her for the in-person testimonies.

We will begin with in-person testimony and then move through the remote testimony.

We have a general public testimony section during our regular meeting earlier and this hearing will be for testimony related to the 25-26 Recommended budget.

Speakers will have two minutes of speaking time.

As a reminder, written testimony is always accepted as stated on the agenda, and if you're unable to finish your comments, we invite you to provide those in writing.

Once your name is read, staff will begin a timer and beep will sound when your time is exhausted.

Ms. Wilson-Jones will read off the speakers.

The first speaker tonight will be Yana Parker.

Apologies if this announcement was already made, but the testimony timer will be set at two minutes tonight.

So when you do see that red light, it will mean that your time has been exhausted.

We will restart your time here.

We will turn on your microphone so that we...

It just need to be large.

They need to be large as requested.

So you're not accommodating.

Okay again.

Hello.

Good evening.

My name is Yana Parker, president of the Seattle Special Education PTSA.

We believe the board should be asking the district if staff truly understands what it means for schools to have high enrollment of students with disabilities.

But percentage alone, whether 9 or 30 percent, doesn't tell the full story.

The district must consider the supports and services these students are legally entitled to when making staffing and budget decisions.

Is anyone actually considering students' needs or is staffing treated as a math problem and a budget exercise?

Disabled students require numerous legally mandated meetings involving school administrators and educators.

The district assigned school administrators the role of 504 coordinators, yet now plans to reduce those very positions.

How can schools with only one or 1.5 FTE administrators meet those demands?

No wonder we're seeing burnout and leadership shortages.

Enrollment is also being mishandled and handled in a discriminatory way.

Students are denied access to their school of choice and based on solely the district's arbitrary assignments of special education programs.

Students continue to be placed into segregated settings based on the number of IEP service minutes and that's wrong and illegal.

Under IDEA, students have the right to be educated alongside of their non-disabled peers to the biggest extent possible.

And Section 504 guarantees them equal access to the same programs as every other student.

We simply can't just talk about inclusion.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Jess Bertrand.

And then after, Jess will be Chris Jackins.

And if anybody else is intending to provide in-person testimony, you'll need to put your name on the sheet in the back of the room.

I'm going to pause you for just a second.

Sorry, your microphone is not working.

We will let you restart your time here.

So sorry about that.

Apologies, please go on.

Hi, I'm Jess Bertrand, parent to two students at Olympic Hills Elementary.

We're a large Title I school in Northeast Seattle.

This school year we have 486 students, roughly 55% low income, over 60% students of colour, 22% students with disabilities, 8% houseless, 27% multilingual.

We have extended resource, focus and distinct special education classrooms.

We are a vibrant, diverse, wonderful community committed to ensuring all of our students feel welcome, included and loved.

This current budget feels like a continuation of the same failing policies and priorities as last year.

You haven't made any systemic changes to how you plan to operate, rather you delayed repayment of loans.

When SPS reached out last year to ask about well-resourced schools, I was excited to hear that you were focusing on ultimately serving students and families furthest from educational justice.

One thing that was clear from the conversations I was in was that every parent wanted as many resources as possible for their child, like PE, art, music, nurses, librarians, counselors, academic interventionists, and more.

To meet these needs, you suggested closing schools and redrawing boundaries in a rushed and poorly thought out plan.

It lacks clear communication to families and any flexibility.

You talked about how you'd be saving money in closing schools, but not once did you talk about what remaining schools would gain.

I ask for instead a proposal that does include school closures.

However, to close schools, there should be a plan, both short and long term, to truly consolidate and integrate schools together, thus meeting the needs of all students without adversely impacting students furthest from educational justice.

Integration should be well thought out in all aspects considered for impacted families, like flexibility in school choice, after school care, staffing positions, special education needs and supports, just to name a few.

As stated in our letter delivered to you and signed by families by Olympic Hills, John Rogers and more, you're rebuilding schools without a plan to integrate surrounding schools to support the larger capacity of the new buildings, which further exacerbates low enrollment budget shortfalls and confuses families and erodes trust.

Close schools, but do it right.

Do it thoughtfully and provide all impacted parties, both families and educators, a transition plan to get us to the other side.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

My name is still Chris Jackins, box 84063, Seattle 98124. General comments, five points.

Number one, the budget book has a valuable, nice layout.

Number two, the hearing feels early and rushed.

Number three, I have a written list of some possible typos.

4. There was a $4 million change between budget postings.

5. Schools can and should be kept open.

On the general fund, three points.

1. The current district funding model forces schools to compete with each other.

2. Please increase general fund use of capital fund interest.

Number three, the superintendent's cover letter states that federal funding makes up 6.5% of the general fund budget.

The budget book cites 5.3%.

On the capital fund, four points.

Number one, the Memorial Stadium project is a mistake.

Number two, please halt the use of artificial turf contaminated with forever chemicals.

Number three, how much are Federal Inflation Act dollars?

Number four, anticipated revenue from local taxes on pages 172 and 171 don't seem to match.

On the Associated Student Body ASB Fund, budgeted athletic revenues are up by 46%.

On the Debt Service Fund, this is the headquarters debt.

A previous board president was instrumental in settling the district with this debt.

The same person recently suggested that the mayor appoint board directors.

I disagree.

Please amend the budget.

Thank you very much.

There are no additional sign-ups from people here in person to provide testimony.

So we're going to go now to those who signed up in advance to provide online testimony.

If you could mute until your name is called, we can hear you in the room if you're unmuted on your device.

The first speaker today for remote testimony will be Michelle Campbell.

Michelle, if you could press star six to unmute, we will be able to hear you.

Not seeing Michelle's number online, so I'm going to move on to the next speaker.

I will come back around.

Again, you'll need to press star six to unmute on the conference line.

The next speaker is Manuela Sly.

Also not seeing Manuela online.

I'm going to go to the next speaker, Samantha Fogg.

Hello, can you...

We can hear you.

Hello, this is Samantha Fogg, co-president for Seattle Council KTSA.

As I looked at this budget, I was frustrated.

We are, once again, not seeing changes to the weighted staffing standard.

We're not seeing alignment of the budget to student outcomes.

And I'm wondering how we will meet our goals, how we will improve access to courses.

Our high school students this year faced a limited number of electives.

And in at least one of our schools did not have access, many students did not have access to second semester 10th grade history because we did not assign enough teachers.

The students who did get into the class were 40 students.

But students who didn't get into the class were assigned to things like life activities, walking.

When they apply to colleges, The colleges see what was offered.

They don't see that students tried to get more rigorous classes.

They don't see that students who wanted to have French for four years couldn't have it because your budget didn't reflect the needs of your students.

They couldn't see how the offerings were cut back.

I think that having an audit That looks at how your budget reflects your espoused vision and values and aligns with outcome and whether it meets the needs of students is really important.

We may not be violating any laws, but we are not serving our students to the best of our ability, nor are we supporting our principals and our educators to the best of our fiscal ability.

They need more help.

Our students need access to classes.

We need to focus on getting our students the education that they need.

Thank you.

The next speaker would be Kristen.

I'm sorry, your name is cutting off on my screen.

Kristen Echinger-Loconte.

Kristen.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Okay, great.

My name is Chris Dineck and I'm a parent of a fifth grader who's been at Cascade Partnership since second grade.

I've been on our building leadership team for the last two years, and this year I was on the BLT Budget Committee.

Most of my comments are around Cascades specifically, but I assume that they will work for other schools as well.

in terms of the budget process not being perfect.

Pascade has three service delivery models.

We have the virtual option, which is an online mix of scheduled live classes and asynchronous, a K-8 parent partnership, which my son attends, and the K-12 virtual option, which is asynchronous to the imagined learning platform.

Most students come to Pascade because the neighborhood schools have failed them and their families.

Pascade is a wonderful place, but it's a big sacrifice to give up school's childcare.

Some students stay the rest of the school year and then return to their original schools, and others stay until they age out of our programs.

We value all of our students equally.

Our models are complementary, not competitive, but the budget process is competitive, and that has made things very uncomfortable for the adults working at our school.

Each of our three programs deserves to survive and thrive and deserves not to be pitted against each other.

It's reasonable and practical to share some costs like a building, a principal, an office staff, and a social worker that we desperately need but don't yet have.

But the accounting decisions around this should be made by people who are experienced with accounting, not teachers and counselors and principals and parent volunteers.

Our budget committee's top priority was to retain our current staff since this is the bare minimum we need to staff our school at the enrollment we expect next year.

The purple book projects that we will have 392 students next year.

Our May 1 FTE count is 530. That's 138 students that this budget doesn't plan for.

We're starving all three of our programs because projections don't take cascade enrollment patterns into account.

We are hurting our staff by forcing them to fight for scraps, and we aren't putting students first.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Katie Kennedy.

Katie Kennedy.

Katie, if you're online, please press star six to unmute.

Okay, can you hear me now?

We can hear you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Again, my name is Katie Kennedy.

I'm a parent of a Mercer Middle School sixth grader and a ninth grader at Cleveland High School, and I am giving testimony right now regarding Cleveland High School.

As I understand it, SPS lifted the enrollment cap that was placed this spring on Cleveland High School's incoming fall 2025 freshman class.

Thank you.

Now, though, the budget is based on February enrollment projections, but our anticipated enrollment is within 20 of the incoming class last year.

We are looking at being short three teachers, 0.2 FTA the counselor, and one assistant principal.

We are losing teachers and staff who are members of the community now and have the experience and training to operate efficiently within the Cleveland system.

This is a short-sighted move and doesn't serve the students who will start at a school in the fall that is short-staffed.

When we can avoid that problem by acting now, please adjust the budget now to reflect updated enrollment.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Louise Wackerman.

Louise, if you're online, please press star six.

I'm not seeing Louise online.

I'm going to go back through one more time.

There were three people who signed up for, oh, is that Louise?

Oh, no, actually, I think I see Michelle Campbell.

Are you online?

Yes, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

You can go ahead and provide your testimony.

I think you're now muted, so if you could press star six, it will unmute.

Can you hear?

We can hear you.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, great, thank you.

Hi, my name is Michelle Campbell.

I'm a parent of a third grader in SPS.

I also serve as the co-secretary on Seattle Council PTSA.

It was a long day, and I'm going to show up a little messy tonight, a little unprepared.

But I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with the 2025-26 budget.

That's kind of a huge understatement.

I urge the Board not to pass the budget as is.

I don't know where you go from there.

Maybe circle up and decide what you need before passing this budget.

It's not okay.

I agree with Director Briggs and Rankin and Sarju that an immediate special meeting should be called and board members should call for an immediate forensic audit.

It's unbelievable that we're at this point.

I pulled up a couple of resolutions that I just want to read, and this is why I think the budget should not be passed.

Adopted in December 18, 2024, resolution number 2425-9, the superintendent is directed to prioritize ongoing solutions that support improving student outcomes in the development of preliminary We don't have any of that.

As I understand it, it's the same budget.

No work to the weighted student staffing standards.

No adjustments.

to align with student outcomes.

We're not even aligning to our values as community.

Additionally, passed in November 15, 2023, SPS policy 0060, financial planning and budgeting.

I don't see alignment with number six, number seven, number eight, number 11, or number 12. And I'm just a parent here, but I think you need a presentation that any parent can read and can clearly see how all of these items in 0060 are completed.

Your time is exhausted.

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

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all.

Just please don't vote for the budget.

Thank you.

Bye.

There were two speakers who signed up.

I'll do one more check if there's anybody on the phone.

I don't think there is who signed up.

Manuela Sly or Luis Walkerman.

And double checking.

It looks like we've heard from those who wish to speak in the room.

President Topp, that is all of the sign-ups for the budget hearing.

I appreciate everyone coming out to the budget hearing, providing comments this evening.

We will have another budget discussion at our retreat, but as there is no further business on this agenda, the meeting stands adjourned at 8.27 p.m.

Thank you, everyone.

Ooh.