I'd like to welcome everyone here today to our September 7th regular board meeting.
Today was a very exciting day.
It's opening for a lot of our schools and had a great opportunity to visit six schools today.
And I know that Dr. Nyland also visits various schools so today was a very amazing day to watch all the kids come back to school.
So welcome back and Ms. Ritchie roll call.
Director Blamford.
Here.
Director Burke.
Here.
Director Geary.
Here.
Director Harris.
Here.
Director Peters.
Here.
Director Pinkham.
Here.
Director Patu.
Here.
Can we all stand for a pledge of allegiance?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which we stand, one nation, under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all.
At this time we would like to recognize the team read program.
I invite director school and community partnership James Bush to the podium to make a few remarks.
Good afternoon.
So it is with my pleasure to recognize and bring forward Team Read to the podium to join me.
Team Read is one of our great partners with Seattle Public Schools.
The program supports over 350 students throughout the school district at 11 different schools.
Team Read is successful because they also work with 358th through 12th graders to provide leadership reading coaches and opportunities for them to engage with 2nd and 3rd graders.
Please meet Maureen Massey director of Team Read and former reading coach and Franklin High School alumni Kierse Sanders did I get that right?
Who will both provide the board with more background information I wanted to devote most of the time for them to share their direct information and give Kearse as much time to share experience as possible.
Thank you.
Thank you so much and thank you so much for for inviting us here today and for recognizing the work of our reading coaches, the effort of the second and third graders in the program as they strive to become great readers, and all of the SPS staff here at the headquarters and in our partner schools and the Team Read Nonprofits staff who make this program a reality.
It is truly a team effort.
And a special thanks also goes to Kathleen Vasquez, the K-12 Reading Program and Social Studies, program manager and her amazing team for their innovative curriculum development and training support, which also is critical to making the program a success.
So I'm going to take you really on a lightning quick trip back to 1997, which is when Joan Doerr, who was the district's reading program manager at the time, began working with a team of her colleagues to develop the Team Read model.
Pat Sander was part of the team as was Louise McKinney, Charlotte Carr and many other district staff members.
Quite remarkably, 18 years later, the core elements of the model that they developed are essentially unchanged.
And I really believe that that is due in large part to the soundness of the program design and the research principles and beliefs on which it was based.
A solid public private partnership.
A belief in the capacity of teens to be effective inspiring role models, tutors and mentors.
The importance of ensuring alignment between classroom instruction and the work of tutors in the tutoring sessions.
A commitment about providing thorough training and supervision of the reading coaches and a recognition that tangible benefits to the reading coaches, hourly pay, service learning hours and tuition promotes in turn their commitment to their work as reading coaches.
What the planning group in 1997 couldn't have imagined is that there would be so many unplanned residual benefits for our community as a result of Team Read.
And I believe that one of those most important residual benefits is that our team reading coaches are shaped by their experience and it inspires them to continue to serve their communities.
So it's now with great pleasure that I introduce you to Kirsa Sanders who is a former Franklin alum and Team Read reading coach and she is now a member of the Team Read non-profit board of directors.
She always inspires me.
Thanks so much Maureen.
So as Maureen said I'm a Franklin grad so hooray to all the Quakers in the room.
And I was a reading coach 11 years ago.
So being a freshman at Franklin High School there's some things I remember more vividly than other things but I distinctly remember how I felt and the impact that Team Reed had on me.
So 15 year old me was frustrated.
I was disappointed because I had been looking for a job and no one was willing to give me a job.
I was too young, I was inexperienced and I didn't have what it takes.
So luckily one of my friends told me about Team Read and she told me it was a program where I could combine one of my favorite pastimes which is reading with being able to make a positive impact on my community while also getting a paycheck.
And I was like well of course I'll sign up for Team Read.
So I signed up for Team Read and I was a tutor at Dearborn Park and at Brighton Elementary School.
And the 15-year-old me was most interested in getting a paycheck, right?
That was big to me, being able to go buy my own things.
But it wasn't really the paycheck that stuck with me.
It was actually all those other things that I learned through Team Read that are still with me today.
And the first is work ethic.
Talking a little bit about work ethic, all of my friends when I was 15 would stay outside of school after school.
You'd go to the store, you hung out.
I knew I had to be at Team Read for my reader.
So I would get on the 7 bus and go make sure I was at my elementary school Monday through Thursday after school and Friday was my day to hang out after school.
So I learned a lot of valuable lessons about work ethic.
And the second is mentorship.
When I first joined Team Read I thought I was just going to go there and work with the students on their reading but it was actually a lot more than that.
I realized the second and third graders were looking up to me.
They were looking to me to model how they should interact with people.
What is it like to be a high schooler?
What is it like to be a teenager?
How should I act?
And because I saw them looking at me for that, I started changing the way I behaved so I could set a good example for them.
So I learned quite a bit about mentorship.
And those are things that have stuck with me even after I left Team Read.
From the time I was 15, I had a job.
I worked through community college.
I went to Seattle Central Community College.
I worked through the University of Washington.
I graduated top of my class at Foster School of Business.
And I now work for Deloitte Consulting in the Strategy and Operations Group.
So it's amazing to be able to bring it full circle and be on the board of Team Reed.
And I'm super passionate about what we do and what we do for our tutors and the students.
But most importantly, the lessons that you get out of it that aren't surface level, right?
All those residual effects, they're real.
And I've experienced it and 16,000 alum in the city of Seattle have experienced it.
And I hope more people get the opportunity.
So I couldn't resist the opportunity today.
We're in recruitment mode.
So I actually brought down a large stack of Team Read reading coach applications.
You're all welcome to share them with any teenagers that you know who you think might be interested in working for Team Read.
So Anya has those.
And again, thank you so much.
I would like to invite all the directors and Dr. Nyland to please take a photo with the Team Reed group.
And also for this evening for our student presentation, I would like to welcome the Eckstein Senior Jazz Band led by the Director of Bands, Mr. Mo Escobedo.
Eckstein Middle School has a robust music program.
More than half of the students at Eckstein participate in an ensemble which include concert band, jazz band, orchestra, choir, vocal jazz, jazz combo, And Chamber Orchestra, Eckstein Middle School feeds into nationally recognized music departments at Roosevelt and Nathan Hill.
Thank you so much for being here with us.
And after the photo, I would like the directors to please sit in your seats so we're going to be able to hear the math.
Thank you.
¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Well, I made him on the corner.
It was full and warm rain.
Yes, I made him on the corner.
It was full and warm rain.
He said, come on in here, baby, and tell me what.
Avoid using all capitals.
It was late at night this evening, and I hear the telephone.
It was late at night this evening, and I hear the telephone.
I keep celebrating for you, baby, because I feel so old to go.
It is my pleasure.
It was Brooke on vocals.
On tenor, it was George.
And you also heard from Javier on the trumpet.
We have one more piece for you.
That last piece was called Deedles by Frank Foster.
The next piece is called The Chicken.
And it's gonna start out...
Let's see with the whole band kind of a little bit of a soul gospel thing going on in front and then the bass player will continue it just like Jaco Pastorius.
This is gonna be an uh on the bass, uh George on the tenor, on flute we're gonna hear from Brooke and we have a little combo ensemble in the middle.
This is called the chicken.
¶¶
¶¶
¶¶
¶¶ .
¶¶
Isn't this amazing?
Thank you so much.
That was really amazing.
It's actually going to motivate us to really get our meeting going.
But before we do that I wanted everyone to actually say your name and what grade?
Nathan 8th grade.
Jacob 8th grade.
Faye 8th grade.
Yuji 8th grade.
Eli 8th grade.
Abby 8th grade.
Cole 8th grade.
George 8th grade.
Brooke 8th grade.
Sydney 8th grade.
Abby 7th grade.
Anna 8th grade.
Damias 8th grade.
Julia 8th grade.
Mathob 8th grade.
Roberto 8th grade.
Liam 7th grade.
Ben 8th grade.
Tim 8th grade.
Mary 8th grade.
Anna 8th grade.
Daniel 7th grade.
Amina 7th grade.
Nick 8th grade.
Thatcher 8th grade.
Toma 8th grade.
Anna 8th grade.
Kyra 7th grade.
Sylvie 8th grade.
Rachel 8th grade.
Tim 8th grade.
Hans 7th grade.
Javier 7th grade.
Solomon eighth grade.
Isabella eighth grade.
Audrey seventh grade.
Emma eighth grade.
Dylan eighth grade.
Ailey eighth grade.
Theo seventh grade.
Nicholas eighth grade.
Grace seventh grade.
Thank you so much and I also want to thank you Director for doing a wonderful job and you guys are so talented.
Thank you, really appreciate that.
Thank you.
I just want to say you guys are brilliantly talented beyond your years.
Thank you.
Okay.
All right.
Oh, really?