School Board Meeting 1 18 2017 Part 1

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All right.

I would like to welcome everybody to the January 18, 2017 regular board meeting.

I would also like to give a specially warm welcome to our student representative from West Seattle High School, Macri Dysart.

Ms. Dysart will have an opportunity to provide comments regarding her school later in the meeting.

Ms. Ritchie roll call please.

Can somebody sit in for Ms. Ritchie?

Okay.

I think she is helping us with our guest today.

We have a choir who is going to perform for us shortly.

So Erin Bennett is going to step in.

Thank you Erin.

Not a problem.

Okay.

Director Patu.

Here.

Director Pinkham.

Present.

Director Harris.

Present.

Director Geary.

Here.

Director Burke.

Here.

Director Blanford.

Here.

Director Peters.

Here.

Thank you.

If everyone would please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right I would now like to turn it over to Superintendent Nyland for tonight's recognition.

Well we are definitely privileged to have a kind of a once in a lifetime recognition tonight.

So I want to thank Tom Redmond for bringing to our attention one of our long, long, long, long, long time supporters in the district, a student of Seattle schools and a long time supporter.

And so it truly is our honor and our privilege to recognize an outstanding A citizen for our community and a great supporter and a great friend.

So with that I will turn it over to Tom Redmond to do the introductions.

Good evening directors, Dr. Nyland.

Tonight we are awarding the, for only the second time in the history of Seattle schools, the citizen service award to Mr. Kenny Alhadiff.

He's been a dedicated lifelong supporter of Seattle schools.

He's a graduate of Brighton Elementary which is now Martin Luther King Elementary, Sharpless Middle School, now Aki Kurose and Franklin High School where he's a founding contributor to the school's alumni association and a member of the school's hall of fame.

For the past 50 years he has contributed his time and funds to support district needs and initiatives.

He's been involved in most every levy and bond election campaign since 1966. He served as co-chair of the 2007 school closures task force for the board.

He was middle school PTSA president, keynote speaker at many of the MLK junior holiday Assemblies keynote speaker at in-service days at a number of our schools with the topic, the value of being a teacher.

He's passionate advocate of early learning and public education.

I'm going to go on a little bit because it's worth reading every single bit of this.

He has funded a number of district work projects such as the painting of Stevens Elementary Exterior When we really needed the funds.

The new signage for the Brighton Elementary building after it was renamed Martin Luther King Junior Elementary.

And recently the Franklin High School theater program working with the drama department to strengthen it.

Graduate of Washington State University, member of Board of Regents for 13 years, twice serving as its chair.

Served tirelessly to establish a Washington State University Department of Education program.

Co-chair of the Martin Luther King Jr.

Holiday Commission.

Founding chairperson of the Alliance for Education and its A-plus awards for teachers program.

For 25 years he's been the board president of the Northwest School for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children.

He and his wife Marlene founded the El Hadif Family Charitable Foundation, serves a variety of important causes in our community.

Public education is the key component of their foundation.

For 50 years Kenny El Hadif has never said no to this district when we needed help.

Please join me in congratulating the recipient of our citizen service award, Mr. Kenny El Hadif.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It was very kind of you.

Thank you.

I'm here tonight first and foremost because of my magnificent wife Marlene who saved my life, made my life, directs my moral compass and is my soulmate.

But I'm also here mainly because of Missa Makapani.

That was second grade.

She was from Hawaii and she taught me how to do the Hawaiian dances.

But more importantly, she made me feel okay about being a little fat kid in second grade who didn't get picked for softball.

She gave me some belief and hope in myself.

I'm here tonight because of Sam Miller, seventh grade African-American science teacher who blew every stereotype left in the book away.

And helped a kid who liked to sing and dance learn the value of science.

I'm here because of Jerry Baylor who dragged me from the football field which I wasn't very good at at Franklin and put me on that stage in Music Man.

I'm here and I think you're here because of those men and women who made that immaculate choice to become a teacher.

Who had a fire inside their soul and their gut that said I'm going to make a difference.

And through the years the difficulties and the complexities of the job sometimes makes that fire dim.

But that fire, that fire can't go out if you ignite it.

That's why you're here.

You're here to stimulate those men and women to lift the souls and hearts and beings of those kids.

Now it's complicated and there's rules and there's regulations and there's difficulties but at the end of the day it's about that connection, the belief those kids have, the lives that will be changed forever for generations and your empowerment of them, your acknowledgement of them, your unabashed Demanding sense that they will succeed and that the fire in them that brought them to that choice will burn bright and strong is why I'm here today.

To receive this honor is a big deal to me.

Because this school district is a big deal to me.

Because these teachers are a big deal to me.

Because those kids, this nation, the hopes of our future are a big deal.

And what happens here and happens here and happens here matters a lot.

It isn't mundane.

It isn't regiment.

It is the explosive opportunity that kindles the human spirit.

And so I am honored.

Thank you.

I'd like to invite the board down to greet and congratulate.

Thank you so much for that inspiring speech.

So tonight we have Ms. Melton and the Pathfinder K8 choir here to perform for us.

And at this time I would like to invite my colleagues to take a seat in the audience for the performance.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Ashley and we are Pathfinder K-8 choir.

Hi my name is Coco.

I'm in seventh grade and the first song we'll be singing for you is Cantate Canticum by Douglas E. Wagner.

Cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate, cantate.

Let your songs ring out.

Let your songs ring out.

Avaid using all capitals.

Avaid using all capitals.

Avaid using all capitals.

Hello, my name is Galaxy and the next piece we will be singing for you is a Hebrew folk song.

Avoid using all capitals.

Avoid using all capitals.

Hi, my name is Taryn and the last song that we'll be singing for you today is Autumn Gives Your Hand to Winter by Keith Loftus.

¶ Leaves of gold, red and brown ¶ Glories fast, now light and bright ¶ Living branches bare Watching other hearts return to stone.

Wicked skies, restless, restless.

Silent skies, hear with hearing.

Avis from the summer long since month.

Whistlers of the cold to flight have come.

Clouds of morning, clouds of tears.

Clouds of anchor, clouds of fears.

Sun and moon stare, wispally reach.

Remembering the passing years, the passing, passing years.

A ploy to the eyes, a duet, having shared forever.

On to the start of virtue,

Thank you all very much.

That was truly beautiful.

So I'm going to pass the microphone around and ask all of you to just say your first name and what grade you're in.

I'm Ashley and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Taryn and I'm in seventh grade.

I'm Maylee and I'm in seventh grade.

I'm Galaxy and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Ada and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Cyan and I'm in seventh grade.

I'm Nina and I'm in sixth grade.

I'm Miranda and I'm in seventh grade.

I'm Coco and I'm in seventh grade.

I'm Milo and I'm in sixth grade.

Thank you so much for sharing your voices with us tonight and thank you also to your music teacher and your accompanist.