Seattle Schools Board Meeting - Dec. 13, 2023

So we will go ahead and get started.

Good afternoon we will be calling the board meeting to order in just a moment and SPS TV will begin broadcasting.

For those joining by phone please remain muted until we reach the testimony period and your name is called.

This is President Hersey.

I am now calling the December 13th 2023 regular board meeting to order at 4 26 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Miss Wilson Jones the roll call please.

Director Briggs.

Vice President Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera.

Present.

Director Sarju.

I'm present.

Director Song.

Present.

Director Top.

Here.

President Hersey.

Here.

Student member Kron Barone.

Here.

Student member Muthaswamy.

All right.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Jones for his comments.

Good evening President Hersey, board members and audience today.

Just want to say hello.

We are at the culminating board meeting of the end of the year and I just want to say thank you for everyone, your contributions as we move forward.

I want to say welcome to new board directors Briggs and Topps.

Welcome to your first board meeting.

We want to make sure that your transition is fantastic.

You get off to a fast start and we're here to support you.

We are looking forward to collaborative conversations and really moving the needle forward.

We are also going to announce a changing of the guard, so to speak, as we elect new board officers tonight.

I want to say thank you to the current board officers, President Hersey, Vice President Rankin and member at large Sarju.

Thank you so much.

What we'll also witness tonight is staff, myself getting our marching orders with the vote on the fiscal stabilization resolution plan.

And this will give us clarity and guidance as we put pencil the paper on how we're going to do our work in terms of bringing forward a balanced budget for 2020, 2024, 25. With the resolution, we will start our costing process.

We will start doing our analysis and then we'll be checking in periodically on those who are projected to be impacted.

There will be monthly opportunities for the board to give us guidance in the next six months six months.

And in addition we're also proactively planning communication tools that will help keep our public informed about upcoming changes that are in a timely manner.

These tools will help provide clarity around the language we use and what changes we will look for and that are going to impact families and students.

First Bell and before we close I'd like to share the latest edition of First Bell with you and for those of you who are not who are unfamiliar First Bell is our monthly news broadcast that shares important information and announcements and highlights of the wonderful work that's happening around our district as you'll see one of the things that makes First Bell so special is how we feature students in its production so I'd like to draw your attention to our latest edition of First Bell.

To draw your latest attention to First Bell.

Hi, I'm Principal Mackey of Cascadia Elementary School.

And the dragons are taking over First Bell.

Hi SPS, I'm Celeste.

And I'm Ria.

Thanks for tuning in to First Bell where we chime in with the news from around the district.

It's a Cascadia Elementary takeover.

Oh no.

Coats and shoes and rain gardens, oh my!

And opened a rain garden on the campus.

Maya has more.

It's not every day that schools receive multiple special gifts in one week, but Emerson students run for retreat when community partners showed the school some love.

Last month, Amazon joined forces with Operation Warm and the Seattle Seahawks and gifted nearly 1,000 winter coats, gloves, hats, and shoes to students at Emerson, Highland Park, and Olympic View Elementary.

Later in that same week, Emerson unveiled new cisterns that showcased the artwork of second grade class and a garden area that provides an outdoor learning space for students.

This is my reporting for First Belt.

Back to our studio.

Dozens of SPS students flocked to the Black College Expo at Rainier Beach High School when more than seven million dollars in scholarships were handed out.

Expo wasn't all about securing the bag.

Attendees were able to learn about historically black colleges and universities, black sororities and fraternities.

It's not only needed, but it's wanted.

In other news, Dr. William Jackson, the principal at Nathan Hale High School, was named this year's Washington State Secondary Principal of the Year.

Jackson was selected based on his justice-centered approach that leads to high engagement in learning and strong academic outcomes.

At Broadview Thompson, K-8 gathered to celebrate the opening of the school's new Family Resource Center.

The center represents how schools and community organizations can collaborate to support students and families who experience housing, food, and other instability.

Hi, I'm Ada, here to bring you some important information.

You don't want to miss these announcements, so get ready for the rundown.

The Right Now Needs Fund is a program that helps SPS students and families meet their immediate basic needs by covering the costs for food, clothing, housing, and utilities.

We'll see you in the new year.

You can learn more about these announcements on our district website.

Back to our studio!

And be sure to tune in for our next episode where more SPS students take over the broadcast.

Can you guess where First Bell is heading next?

Here's a hint.

It's in the center of the city.

Hmm, I wonder where it is.

That's it for this episode.

If you want to learn more about these stories, visit our website.

Until next time, I'm Celeste.

And I'm Ria.

We'll catch you later for First Bell.

Yeah isn't that fun.

As we close out the 2023 school year I'm wishing you all a safe restful winter break.

You all deserve it.

Back to you President Hersey.

Thank you.

We have the extreme joy of having not one but two of our student board members here with us today and I will give them both an opportunity to make comments should they wish.

First going to Director Crone Barone and after that going to Director Muthaswamy.

Thank you.

All right, let me adjust this mic so it's ready.

Firstly, welcome to Directors Briggs and Topp.

I can speak on behalf of all three of us as student board members when I say we are so thrilled to work with you and we're so thrilled to have you here.

Secondly happy holidays in general to everybody and happy Hanukkah specifically today and this week to those who celebrate.

So for today because we're splitting up these comments I'll keep it very quick but I have been receiving a lot of feedback from students in my school recently.

from a lot of different areas.

And to sum it up as best I can, I think the simplest conclusion I can come to is that there is a real need for more engaged listening for our students.

I've felt a lot of students who've come to me with concerns with things that need action with just thoughts about how things could be going better in our school and in this district.

It's all kind of boiled back to down to we want to be heard and we want to feel like we're being seen and I know that this is the goal of this board is the outcomes of students and how students are feeling is a huge part of that and I think that as leaders it is our duty to be those active listeners and show up at schools and show up in these spaces in our communities and engage with students and engage with staff and engage with families as much as we can, as much as possible, which of course we're all very busy people, but it really means a lot.

especially in times like these when there are so many things happening in the world that are deeply affecting and harming so many of our students and so many of our students are in the process of healing for many different reasons and it got me thinking about this quote from bell hooks which where she said rarely if ever are any of us healed in isolation healing is an act of communion and I think that taking that kind of wisdom into how we run this, we oversee this district, how we work with our community, it is so, so very important that we do it together with our students.

And that's the feedback I've gotten so far in these past couple months and I'll hand it over to Ayush.

Thanks, Luna.

And I just want to start off by giving that same welcome that Luna gave to Director Toppenbriggs.

We really are so excited to have you on this team and to work with you on student-centered policies and the policies that this district needs to create student-centered, student-focused outcomes that we want to achieve.

I don't have a lot tonight, but as you all know, today is board elections, and we as student members do not get a vote in that process, so I wanted to give my two cents now.

There are 700 million different things that pull our attention as the board.

There are 700 million different ways to get distracted, but we, as the board, have one job, and that's to make sure that kids in Seattle have access to high-quality education.

Yet there are kids in our school who can't read at grade level, can't do math at grade level.

I mean, there are kids in our schools who can't read at all, and that's to no fault of their own.

It's because this district is failing them.

So when you go and make your decisions, when you go and vote for board leadership, I ask you to please be cognizant of who's going to keep us focused, who's going to keep this train moving because quite frankly the stakes are too high to get derailed.

Thank you both.

We have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.

First, let me be the third or fourth to welcome our new school board directors.

It is so exciting to have you here with us.

I could not be more thrilled.

And tonight marks our first board meeting together on the dais, and I am excited for this board to get to work.

and to my colleagues, thank you for your partnership over the last two years.

I have served as board president.

It truly has been one of the distinct honors of my life, even though I have not been on this planet for very long.

We will move into our election of board officers immediately after tonight's consent agenda, and our 2024 president will preside over the remainder of the meeting.

We have transformed the way that we do business as a board in recent years, and as I now deliver my final president's report to you, I'm optimistic about the work that we will continue to accomplish for our students.

We move forward with significant challenges, balancing our budget for the next year, building for a sustainable financial future and delivering outcomes that our students deserve and as we just so eloquently heard from both of our board members.

But we move forward into a new year with strong leadership team of this board and our student members and Superintendent Jones.

Our success together would be fueled by the strength of our collaboration and focus.

So again, just thank you for joining this work.

When I stepped into this role two years ago and before that as vice president, it's hard to believe that I've been in leadership on this board for three out of the four years that I've served, I think I had the same feeling as when I stepped onto the board at all, not fully understanding what I had gotten myself into.

But, as I said a few weeks ago, as we said farewell to a couple of our board directors, I had the benefit of being able to watch three presidents operate, right?

President Pullen at the time, President Hampson, and before that, President Harris.

This job is not one of leadership as much as it is one of vision and direction.

What I can offer only to whoever will handle this gavel for like the two or three times that you get to do it throughout the career, what I will say is that the temperament and measurement that comes along with this role is one not to be taken lightly, not because this person is the leader of the board, but rather this is the person who sets the tone in the boardroom and if we are doing our jobs right the tone that we set in the boardroom will ultimately end up in the classroom.

As a teacher, as an educator, as a person who looks at this role not just as president but as a board director in general as one of great responsibility All I can say is thank you to not only my colleagues, but to our city that have allowed me to occupy this role for the past 24 months.

When I got elected to this role, it was a few short days after my 30th birthday, and I just turned 32, shocker.

and as I head into the next phase of what my service will look like, very excited to get married at the end of the month to my beautiful queen of a fiance.

All I want to say and reiterate is that our kids need us more than ever, more so during the pandemic, more so than during the pandemic, more so than before and more so than I would argue any other time in this district's history.

we are at the precipice of something great because now for the first time that any of us can remember I'm sure we are squarely focusing our attention on students as opposed to adult issues.

That is new bold innovative and I am excited to continue that work.

With that being said I remember a few months ago weeks ago at this point we drew pictures during one of our things and I told you to keep them in your drawer.

I'm sorry, y'all weren't here, so you don't have them.

I'm sure we will find an opportunity to color.

But use this moment of transition to remind yourself of what you drew.

And for me, this still reigns true today and mine is gratitude.

So I am incredibly gracious and incredibly thankful that y'all have been able to trust me and support me in leading leading a group of leaders in their own right.

So as we continue to move forward together again, I know I've already said this five or six or seven times, but it is truly the emotion that I hold closest to my heart, the one I wake up with in the morning and the one I go to sleep with at night, and it is extreme gratitude.

So thank you very much.

We will now move into our other reports for tonight.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

We will now move into our other reports for tonight.

Do we have an ad hoc policy manual review committee report?

Take it away.

We do.

We just had our final meeting of the 2023 year.

What day is today?

Last week.

And we have finalized our tool and used it to evaluate the 1000 series, which is governance board governance into some different categories.

I'm not gonna spend a lot of time talking about it.

Materials are online, but I am excited that we have reached that point.

And in January, we will be providing, probably as an informational item, just an additional point of reference to a regular board meeting agenda, what that final tool looks like, although you can see it now in meeting material packets.

and from here we get into making recommendations on actual, so we've scored and identified the policies as to how they exist now.

The next phase is making recommendations to the full board on where we need to go with them.

to help us maintain our work and keep focused on outcomes for students and stay committed to our purpose and make commitments to each other too that we can all follow and stick to that will help us advance our work.

So more to come in January but that's an exciting point to have hit in the committee there.

Do you want me to do a quick legislative update as well?

As legislative liaison, our legislative session begins January 8th, I think.

Is that Monday?

It's going to be fast and furious.

It's known as a short session because the budget for two years was set by the legislature last session.

So it's 60 days.

There are bills right now are in prefiling so if you want to you can go to the state legislature website and see bills that folks have prefiled because all those sessions starts on the 8th.

When it starts it it kicks off.

There's no sort of warm-up of like, well, what should we talk about this session?

That work is happening now.

Legislators have been meeting in various caucuses and having pre-legislative session conferences around different bills discussing.

There's a lot that's sort of floating and in the air right now, and it starts to get very refined, and people really hit the ground running in January.

So there's still sort of a bit of a recovery from the COVID period where the legislature tried to limit themselves somewhat.

The floodgates are kind of open, and people that have maybe been holding things back don't want to wait any longer, and so I expect things to move really, really quickly.

Luckily, we have a lot of great staff following legislative stuff and also a lot of partners that do bill trackers.

So Washington State PTA, WASDA, the School Director Association, both have bill trackers.

You can look and follow specifically bills that have to do with K-12 education.

Those are both really helpful tools.

Yeah, things are going to move fast.

And then also with the governor's seat opening up, lots of folks are shifting around and towards for their personal journeys where they're headed.

So attention is in a lot of different places, and it's going to be quick.

So we're going to have to...

just really be ready to be nimble and remain focused on speaking with clarity and one voice when we talk to legislators and supporting staff and making sure that we are at the table for conversations that have to do with K-12 and getting data and stuff shared really quickly.

So I love legislative session.

so I'm actually excited but it's going to be you know if you blink you're going to miss it so yeah more to come.

Thank you Vice President Rankin any additional liaison reports this evening?

Go for it.

Thank you, I'll give the BEXPTA Oversight Committee update for the month.

Director Song and I both sit on that committee and we had our meeting, was it last Friday?

And one really fun thing, I'll call it fun, it's fun for me, that this committee, that oversight committee now looks at our bars, the ones that are all in our consent agenda today, all the construction contract ones, capital related ones, and they kind of go through them and give comments, ask questions and kind of just look at them for, I think, just to offer their insights as professionals in the industry and ask really great questions and help us as we listen there.

And I know that everyone here probably loves reading these and I'm sure you all pay real close attention to them.

And you probably have questions too.

So this is a great opportunity for us to get this clarity on these ones really fast, because I know we're going to move on here, but I want to just highlight in the bars today that are, again, in our consent agenda, One of them is like, for instance, the BTA five awarding consulting services contract is for the clean energy project planning.

This is obviously really exciting at the clean energy resolution that we approved almost two years ago now.

This is to continue the work on that.

It's for six planning to meet city and state requirements, but also to meet the clean energy resolutions requirements.

So that is to hire a consultant there.

And so again, to in a part of a complete or Moving forward with the work that we've approved, one of the other bars is about acceptance of King County priority higher grant funding.

And that is that's money to administer the priority higher program as part of our as part of our student community workforce agreement for the Alki, John Rogers, Smontlake and Asa Mercer Rainier Beach projects.

So that is $100,000 to facilitate that.

And part of that is also to get a 0.5 teacher to get contractors into our classrooms so students can hear more about these professions and get interested in those.

We also had the approval of a budget transfer to execute the guaranteed maximum price for Asa Mercer.

We all know this was approved years ago now.

Since then, prices have gone up, so we need to move more money into that for increased conditions.

Mostly a lot of it is not just inflation, but they've discovered some moisture issues and there's going to be mitigation there.

that needs a little more money.

And lastly was the X5 Distress School Grant K3 class size reduction, final acceptance of the construction at West Woodland.

Interesting, like you'll see, as we all probably know, this project was completed two years ago and we're just seeing the final acceptance.

So, you know, it's it's slow process because there's a lot of checks and checks to go over with that.

But the Department is thinking of hiring a closeout manager because these things are taking a long time to come to us for that final approval process that is required.

Anyways, there's a lot going on in the committee.

It's really insightful every month and happy to be bringing this report.

Thank you very much.

Any additional liaison reports?

Director Song.

The city of Seattle has wrapped up its budget process and there's a two-year budget planning.

So this is just an update to the budget.

But there were two items I think of relevance to our school district.

One is a investment in the startup costs related to the school zone cameras.

The school traffic committee has done a really wonderful job of engaging the Seattle Department of Transportation and trying to get more speed zone cameras installed.

This is paramount to the safety of our kids as they're going to and from school.

So it's very exciting to get that investment from the city.

The other update to the budget is a small change to the jumpstart tax which will raise $20 million in revenue that has been earmarked for mental health supports for youth in Seattle.

And I had a brief conversation with the Department of Education at the City of Seattle.

They don't have a plan quite yet for how they will be spending the $20 million, but they're currently working on the process for how they will spend a huge amount of money and great investment in the mental health needs of our students.

I think we can all agree as we're talking to students and families and educators that our students really do need mental health support in order to be successful at school.

I'd also just like to take a moment of personal privilege just to thank President Hersey for his leadership the last two years.

I remember being a new director just two years ago and he really went out of his way to help me get up to speed and make himself available.

I think the board president is very much about setting the vision and the tone for the board.

But I think something that President Horsey really did was set the tone for the relationship between the president and the superintendent.

I know that was one of my priorities when I joined this board, seeing how we had turned through eight superintendents since 2000 that our school district really deserved the stability of having a superintendent that would stay more than two three years.

And so I think President Hersey and Dr. Jones for really creating that consistency and stability that we need.

And that has been, I know, a very strong close personal working relationship and I think has really set the tone for our board for how we also engage with Dr. Jones and his team.

So thank you very much, President Harsey.

Thank you.

Any additional board comments or engagement for us to discuss tonight?

I got a call today from the Washington State School Directors Association with the executive director Tim Garcho and to ask he asked me if well he wanted to know how I felt about him appointing me to the WASDA government government to government task force, to which I gratefully accepted.

So I will now be the district to represent, well, there's two of us.

And this is a seat formerly held by Director Hampson.

And there's another director for our district, Megan Jernigan from Shoreline.

So yeah, it's really exciting.

That task force is tasked with creating a reference guide outlining all state and federal requirements of school districts with regard to working with tribal partners, including but not limited to the Every Student Succeeds Act tribal consultation, government to government memorandums of understanding since time immemorial curriculum, and tribal compact schools.

Anyways, it's, I think, a one-year appointment, but really honored to do that and represent our students there.

Congratulations and thank you for letting us know.

Any other comments, engagement?

I promise it's super quick, I just forgot.

The King County Council recently passed something really exciting that's gonna be great for our students.

It's a cultural access bill.

It added a, I think it's a tenth of a percent, a tenth of a cent, so it's a slight, teeny little increase in sales tax that's gonna yield millions of dollars that will go towards increasing access for students to arts, cultural and science institutions in King County.

I testified in support in a personal capacity, but I'm really excited about this additional resource for students in Seattle Public Schools and our neighboring districts in King County.

And thank you to the council.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Okay.

Fantastic.

Thank you very much.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

Board procedure 1430BP, and I'm very excited to read this for the last time, provides the rules for testimony, and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I will summarize some of the important parts of this procedure.

First, testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and, if applicable, the waiting list, which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium.

And only one person should speak at a time.

Listed speakers may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers.

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the testimony list or waiting list.

Those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or waitlist.

The majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about.

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

As Board President, I have the right to and will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by Board Procedure 1430BP.

A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting.

Staff will read off the testimony speakers.

Those on the testimony list today I'll call you to the podium or for you to unmute if you are on the conference call line you'll press star six at that time so that we are able to hear you.

Today's first speaker is Henry Jones our invited speaker from Nova High School.

My name is Henry Jones.

I'm a representative of Nova High School.

I'd like to first thank the school board for holding their ground on September 27th in support of transgender youth across Seattle Public Schools as I and many others appreciate the ability to be our true selves wholly and safely.

Nova High School aims to be intersectional with our accommodations which is why we have the school's accessibility committee which aims to ensure safety and accommodations for all students at Nova such as fidget toy cleaning and ensuring fidget toys are in every room, staff trainings, buying and providing wheelchairs and building a map for students of resources across the school.

They have done an accessibility audit and have found numerous inaccessible parts to the building such as students in wheelchairs being unable to enter the building if the elevator is broken.

I understand that Nova's building in particular is quite old and so therefore no improvements can be made to our structure which is why I request that in the next BEX building improvement cycle that we would have the district perform improvements that are more robust than simply following the ADA requirements.

and for disabled students in particular to possibly have input on what robust means.

Thank you.

The next speaker is E.R.

Alvarez.

E.R.

will be followed by Alex Wakeman-Roos and then Chris Jackins.

Hello can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Thank you.

My name is E.R.

Alvarez and I reside within Board District 4. It has been the privilege of my life to serve Seattle Public Schools for the past nine years and I am deeply saddened that I must now share the following disturbing information in this public forum.

The district's hiring, retention, and compensation decisions have left Seattle Public Schools without a demographer or a senior enrollment and planning analyst as school closures loom.

This means no one currently employed by the district is doing the work of long range population forecasting and projection planning.

Let me repeat that.

No one currently employed by the district is doing the work of long range population forecasting and projection planning as school closures are imminent.

To be clear, a salary offer was recently extended to the successful interview candidate for the senior enrollment and planning analyst position.

A queer, non-binary person of color with a doctorate degree and a documented disability accommodation.

But the compensation offered was $20,000 less than their predecessor, a straight cisgender white man without doctoral credentials or disability accommodations.

The message received is clear.

If you are a straight cisgender white man Seattle Public Schools is hiring.

I humbly request that the board's monthly personnel reports be amended to include all promotional roles and non-represented base salaries for transparency, for accountability, and for racial and gender pay equity.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Alex Wakeman-Roos.

Alex, it looks like you're unmuted on the conference call line but we're not able to hear you speaking yet.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Alex Wakeman-Raus.

I'm a parent of a first grader at Dunlap in Rainier Beach and an SPS alum.

and part of a movement called Altogether for Seattle Schools.

We're about 100 folks strong representing over 60 schools.

Welcome new board members and for all of you and Superintendent Jones.

We really want to acknowledge and appreciate your leadership during this really difficult time.

We understand how seriously you all take these responsibilities.

And our comments and feedback now and previously and in the future are truly in the spirit of collaboration.

We all come from a deep commitment of wanting to help SPS end race-based opportunity gaps and ensure all Seattle students receive high-quality education.

Again, we want all of us to succeed together because in the end it's for our kids, it's for our communities, it's for our future.

We urge you to amend the board resolution on the fiscal stabilization plan to give the district clear guidance as they begin this budget process.

Number one, the resolution directs the district to explore steep cuts, many of which will have significant student-facing impacts.

But there's nothing in this resolution language that directs the district to regularly and authentically engage students' families and school communities.

We need transparent, accessible, two-way engagement that's coordinated through the district.

Number two, the resolution should state that significant budget proposals need to be co-created with families and school communities.

We believe students and families are closest to the solution.

Number three, the resolution should require that all budget proposals go through SPS internal equity analysis.

We know you have a firm commitment to equity, but this should be written.

We also urge you to not make any final binding budget decisions until after the legislative session has ended in March.

The state has a significant budget surplus.

We need to advocate for these funds now.

We know our budget deficit is long-term and structural, but these one-time funds can give us time to thoughtfully, authentically communicate and engage and actively listen to engagement with our families and our schools to solve this problem together.

We ask you to partner with us to advocate to the state that they amply fund us.

Thank you for taking our recommendations into consideration today.

I appreciate your time.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins Chris will be followed by Nolan Jones and then Janice White and Sabrina Burr.

My name is Chris Jackins box eight four zero six three Seattle nine eight one two four on the eight point six billion dollar iPad device PK2 refresh purchase.

Two points.

Number one the report states that the quote technology will enable educators and students to think and to take ownership of their lives unquote.

I believe that they already think and that they already own their lives.

Number two at a meeting on well resourced schools a woman noted that her math professor husband favored letting kids use pencil and paper to do things like drawing triangles.

Please vote no and instead use the money for physical books and educational materials.

On the clean energy planning project does the district really need to hire a one million dollar consultant.

Were there any other bidders.

On the Mercer project please do not increase the guaranteed maximum price by 1.7 million dollars.

On the fiscal stabilization plan three points.

Number one the report changed some wording on page two.

The presentation did not make the same change.

Number two resolution should clarify that loans would involve district capital funds.

Number three please drop school closures as a topic for the plan.

The current resolution will harm schools.

Please vote no. on authorization to accept proceeds of lawsuit settlements three points.

Number one board policy 1 4 2 0 requires posting this action three days in advance.

This did not occur.

Number two asking a board to ignore policy is a poor way to start a new board's first meeting.

Number three instead please vote at a future meeting.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Nolan Jones.

Don't have enough room up here for all the toys that I brought for everyone.

But anyway, my name is Nolan Jones, and I'm a software engineer, and you guys may recall me from last month, but for the new members, I'm Nolan Jones, and also known as the Keyboard Guy.

I've invented the best keyboard that's been done in over 150 years.

Yes, this is true.

And the thing is, if you look at these toys here, this is a Nerf ball for three plus.

This is a t-ball for six and under.

And this is Princeton if you play tennis.

This is for children that are six years of age and younger.

But the current keyboard that we're using, known as the Cordy keyboard, was never designed to be used by young children.

and the optimal age for children in terms of learning new ideals, optimizing their brain, is between the ages of six months and seven years of age.

With the Cordy keyboard, you could never get a child of that age to use it.

And we're missing a great opportunity of learning.

Yes, but with my keyboard, known as the Keystack keyboard, Children have already demonstrated that they can use this after two years of age.

Those kids that know their ABCs, which most kids do, they learn to sing the ABCs at age two.

After 15 seconds, only 15 seconds of instruction, they can use my keyboard and type their ABCs.

So with that being said, I would love for you guys to bring me in so that we can go through this.

I've already got a school in North Carolina that's wanting to do a pilot program.

And I'm wanting for you guys to bring me in so I can spend some time and let you really understand why this is going to be a game changer.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Janice White.

Janice will be followed by Sabrina Burr.

Good afternoon.

I'm the parent of three SPS graduates.

Today I'm not here to talk about special education, but I want to talk about the district's goal regarding college and career readiness, focusing on college readiness.

I'm concerned that the data you are using to assess whether the goal is being met, on-time graduation and completion of one advanced course, don't tell the whole story.

At most colleges and universities, after students are admitted, but before they register for classes for their first semester or quarter, they have to take short placement tests in certain subjects to determine whether they are ready for college level work.

The most common subjects I've seen in the three schools my kids have attended are math, writing, and chemistry.

If students do not qualify for college level courses in a subject, they are required to take remedial courses which comes at a significant cost.

While they maintain their status as full-time students, the credits don't count for graduation.

They have to pay college tuition to retake classes they took in high school and now it might take them longer than four years to graduate.

Anecdotally, this happened to one of my kids this year.

They are retaking classes they took in high school and in which they got A's and B's.

so it can also be a blow to a student's self-esteem and confidence starting college.

Well, this is not an issue that is unique to SPS.

I would love to see SPS as the largest district in the state, actively collaborating with the colleges and universities in Washington State to find out how many of our graduates are in this position and then to work together on strategies to reduce those numbers.

I don't know if it's a curriculum issue, or an issue with inflated grading practices or something else.

But I do know that we are not doing our students any favors if we don't find out how widespread the issue is and address it.

Thank you very much.

The final speaker is Sabrina Burr.

Good evening.

I am Sabrina Burr.

The last school board meeting was a very hard one for me.

I testified on the treatment of a kindergartner and then I witnessed the blatant disrespect of our beloved school board president.

Our school board then director Hansen made an opening for that individual to apologize.

They didn't take it.

And the apology from the dais came from Director Hampson and I thank her for that.

On the behalf of the black community, we see you and we are sorry for the treatment of you.

but it doesn't change.

I was home for the latter part of that school board meeting when I saw the exchange between Director Sarju and Director Song.

When we have school board directors who don't believe in our children.

When our superintendent and our school board president cannot be treated with respect.

How can we treat black students with respect?

We don't in this district.

And for my family I can go back 70 years to horseman for my oldest sister.

Seattle Public Schools has a belief gap for black people.

I believe it goes back a century but I can count 70 years.

If we don't identify it, if we don't address it, if we don't have a plan to honor everyone in the process to truly see us, We won't change.

We won't change outcomes for black children.

We won't change reality to our beloved staff that we have on the small cabinet that I know get the racism.

Our black educators have it worst and they have to fight against their colleagues to do the right by students.

That is not right.

I'm a part of Roadmap's community leadership team.

For the last year we've been working, and it launched on the 11th of this month.

And we wrote, and it was unveiled, a black community statement of love.

we will have a convening at the Renton Regional Transit Center on the 29th.

I invite Seattle Public Schools to really identify that we do have a belief gap because until we identify it we can write all the strategic plans we can write all the goals we can make all the student outcomes.

what does each teacher pass on to their colleagues?

And I lastly wanna say, we have this office of African American males, but if we are not being strategic when those babies come in, by the time they get to that great program, the damage is done.

we have to work and engage with our black families to find solutions to work with those who don't see us to change their belief gap without calling them out and othering them in low vibrational things.

In 2014 I spoke at the principal's breakfast for Seattle Council and I talked about everybody in that room were doing the work for kids because of love that they had.

and that everybody in that room through love have the power to do a lift and a shift, to do right by every child.

In Seattle Public Schools, let's make sure every child counts, no matter what.

Let's do the work to see them.

but let's also make sure that our leaders and our adults are not disrespected for their earth suit because I want to lastly say this Superintendent Brent Jones he was born and made for this job and if we can't be successful with him as our leader somebody who we produced somebody who was produced from his family through love and intention we can't do it and I believe we can.

So let's get busy and let's do the work.

Let's stop that low vibrational stuff.

Let's lead through love because I know our superintendent does.

Thank you.

That was the final speaker on today's testimony list.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have now reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second the motion.

Do you notice how my voice is coming back?

Isn't that exciting?

I feel like a little kid.

It's finally unnumbing.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Rankin and seconded by Director Sarju.

Do directors have any items they would like to remove from the consent agenda this evening?

Go for it.

Remove item number 13 from the consent agenda.

Absolutely.

Are there any other items that we would like to remove from the Consent Agenda this evening?

Okay, seeing none, I may have a motion for the Consent Agenda as amended.

I move approval of the Consent Agenda as amended.

Sargi seconds.

Approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by Vice President Rankin and seconded by Director Sarju.

All those in favor please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

There we go.

Good job.

It gets easier.

Just kidding it doesn't.

All right.

The consent agenda has been passed unanimously.

We will now turn to items removed from the consent agenda.

May I have a motion for consent agenda item number 13.

I move that the board adopt board resolution 2023-24-7 as attached to this board action report.

I second.

All right.

This has been moved by Vice President Rankin and seconded by Director Sarju.

I will now call on Director Song to remove the item and if any other directors have any questions or things like that we will discuss then.

So Director Song.

Just pull this item to give us one final opportunity to discuss now that we've all had budget two by twos and I just I wanted to thank Dr. Jones and his staff and being responsive to some of the feedback that I provided and one of the changes that has been made since we were last introduced to this item is now there's language around a commitment to do an enrollment analysis and also the largest sources of deficit spending and I think we all know that that's likely special education and transportation.

As we're going through this budget development process, I think those kinds of analyses will be really important.

I'm also hoping that as we're weighing the proposed solutions that the district can give us information around the impact of students.

And I think that will help us weigh the relative solutions to each other.

and we've had this conversation, I asked them, is everything still on the table, that this is not an exhaustive list?

And Dr. Jones answered that yes, this is not an exhaustive list.

Everything is absolutely on the table.

And as we're having our budget deliberations, I will be curious to know what didn't make the list and anything that's already been eliminated and why.

Final comment to staff is that I really believe that the Interfund loan should be an absolute last option.

We don't absolute last option.

The Interfund loan.

Interfund loan.

We, of course, do not have details on how that will work, but I will express that I have some reservations at this point.

We're obviously in a high interest rate environment.

If you look at the monthly financial report that's attached as an information item to today's agenda, it shows that it indeed is a high interest rate environment for the cash that we have in our reserves.

I would expect that the repayment interest would be based on what we would be getting from interest on cash that we already have at a minimum.

I know from serving on the capital projects committee that cost escalation for capital projects has really escalated in the last couple of years.

And I don't want to compromise our ability to deliver projects that we have committed to the voters.

So I'm really confident in Dr. Jones and his team that they will work through these solutions.

This is our kind of guidance to what solutions were on the table.

But those are kind of my initial thoughts that I thought would be helpful to share with our collective colleagues since we were not all in two by twos together.

I also have some comments more directed to the board and I think we really need to be shifting our collective attention to the budget in a way that I think maybe we haven't done in previous budget cycles.

And to me, Dr. Jones and his team have really escalated their attention to the budget.

and it is up to us to meet them there.

And my suggestion would be to create an ad hoc finance committee so that we can support the staff as they're doing this work.

Just the sheer amount of time it takes to make these budget decisions and that way they'll be getting regular feedback.

I think we should consider recruiting two community members to join this ad hoc finance committee.

There is a bit of a precedent for this.

We have two community members that serve on an audit committee.

Likely community member candidates I think we should consider would be former school board directors that have gone through a school consolidation process.

Anyone from the Puget Sound Educational Service District that has more of a regional view into what's going on with school districts and can really help us with benchmarking I think would be a valuable voice on this committee.

and finally I think we should as a board really encourage the district and perhaps allocate resources to do the analysis that we potentially requesting through this resolution because it's going to be time consuming but also I think the outside consulting services will also enable more of that benchmarking and put us in a better position to weigh the relative solutions.

Thank you.

Do we have any other questions, comments?

By all means, Director Rankin.

I really appreciate seeing some of the feedback from the two by twos show up here.

I think there's really helpful clarifying language about our expectations around this.

So thank you to staff for that.

In terms of the sort of items that we are authorizing you to consider and research, The one thing that gives me great pause that we talked about some in the two by two but is the fees and I am open to hearing about information that I may not have about what that might yield for the budget but my concern is the impact the disproportionate impact on low income families that instituting new fees might have.

and I know that there is state law and a newly adopted policy that we have adopted in alignment with state law about mitigating the impact on low income students and about not charging certain students that it is not, I know that it is not being implemented with fidelity in operation.

And so I am very hesitant and concerned to add to that through any kind of administration of fees.

and also I'll just somewhat skeptical that that could yield, I mean we're talking about $105 million.

I don't see that as being a big source of revenue and I know we talked about this last year during the same discussion and kind of came to that conclusion.

But I just wanted to say I don't want to give the, I don't want to say no don't consider it because maybe there are things in there that that more information that you can bring to us that would show that it would help close some budget issues and not have an impact on students.

And actually I would say like let's do examine that more because I would like to uncover the ways in which the current requirements about fees are not being implemented with fidelity and I know that there's a need for improvement in that structure.

So if part of looking into fees in this context could help evaluate fee structure altogether like I'm not going to say that I want to remove it but I just wanted to highlight that while all of these things will of course have an impact on students like we're in a period of needing to make a huge number of shifts and changes.

impact doesn't always mean that it's negative.

If the impact to students is that they have the staffing and support in place on the first day of school, that's really a positive impact and a change from this past year.

So I, sorry, that's more editorial, but impact isn't always negative.

And with the fees in particular, I really want to, if that's going to be brought to us as a potential solution, I need to be able to understand how we mitigate.

That's sort of one of the closest to the student experience items on here.

that could really significantly limit some students' participation in things that we really want all students to have access to.

And also someone in response to Director Song's comments the having the budget come to this like I really commend the superintendent and staff and the board for pushing to have a more iterative and more meetings to have there be more transparency and also our role as a board is to really ensure that our budget aligns with our values and what we expect for our students and that we need to press the superintendent and staff to show us their work to prove that decisions are being made through the lens of supporting what we expect for our kids.

And I don't want us to lose sight of that under some other you know there's lots of technical pitfalls to fall into I think with budget discussions but if we're not laser focused on how these things are going to impact students and how they do or don't allow us to continue to make progress on our goals nobody else is going to do that job.

Any other comments.

Thank you.

I was I was.

There have been updates to this item since introduction and there was one that was already on there for the last week or so which I appreciated regarding the that there's a list the bullet number three that the superintendent is authorized to it was changed from include change to consider and research so thank you for that but there was today now more changes which I just wanted to get some clarity on what what was what effect that has in regards how we should interpret this, considering the change to kind of the title of it itself has changed.

I'm just wondering if you could elaborate on that.

Vice President Rankin will speak to those but just very briefly I wanted to respond to just note that I've noted the desire to have the Interfund loan be the last piece that we consider and then we will also do the homework on the fees but let us just be reminded that this resolution is the fiscal stabilization plan.

And we're really articulating what areas do you want the superintendent and team to go research.

Nothing's off the table, but this is really just giving us our guardrails for what we'll go pursue, what we'll go cost out, what we'll do the analysis on.

and so by the time we get to May, we should have a very detailed, informed, engaged list and plan of what we're gonna pursue.

So I just want this board to be reassured that nothing's off the table, but this is really our toolkit that we have to work with as we get to balance at the end of the year.

So Director Rankin, I know you and I have worked together on some of those clarifying pieces and if you could articulate kind of what the intent of those are for Director Rivera, that'd be great.

Thank you.

Yeah, happy to.

And apologies that this is coming day of.

It doesn't need to be an amendment procedure-wise because it's not changing the underlying item.

It's for clarity and so Myra My request was based on, after our two-by-twos and lots of time to look at it, kind of re-looked at it with fresh eyes and thought, wait a second, if I was reading this for the first time, is it as clear as it could be?

And I asked the superintendent to ensure that we had real clarity that the...

Whoops, sorry.

The resolution as a fiscal stabilization plan, as we did last year, is a mechanism specifically about addressing a projected deficit months ahead of the time at which the board is expected to approve the budget.

It's another opportunity for a, yes, we're on the same page.

Please continue as you move towards the budget that we have to address.

I thought it was a little bit confusing to have fiscal stabilization plan to create a system of well-resourced schools because we're really they're connected but the fiscal stabilization plan is about how are we going to make up the $105 million projected deficit and make broader systemic changes to move us towards a system of well-resourced schools the following year.

I didn't want anybody to read this and think that that's it for the next two years.

We'll let you know what we decide kind of thing.

I want it to be really clear that our direction was and clear on what my understanding of our intent was.

So to just make it really clear that the fiscal stabilization plan is about the deficit, that's one set of recommendations and thinking forward to the next year, we also anticipate a deficit and we anticipate the need to make some larger sustainable and systemic changes, whereas the fiscal stabilization plan is a little bit more, a shorter window.

So it doesn't, I hope that reflects what our expectation was.

It was my feeling that that could just be a little bit more precise.

Fantastic.

To better reflect what I think our intent was.

Yeah.

Great.

Please.

Thank you for that.

Thank you for the explanation.

I want to circle back to one of our public testimony speakers who spoke about this item.

I appreciate some of the things they suggested about it, but I also want to clarify, so one of the suggestions was, or one of the questions, I guess, was that nothing directs the district to engage with students and families, or that they should go through equity analysis.

I guess I want to clarify and get, obviously, the commitment that This resolution doesn't supersede policy that we already have in place for things like this, the equity policy and the goals and guardrails which talk about engagement.

So I appreciate that it doesn't look obvious that that's what we expect from you in this resolution alone, but that is always expected through policy and through goals and guardrails.

So I'm assuming there is a commitment for those activities, those processes here.

Yes Director Rivera your assumption is correct in that each one of these items will go through an extensive equity analysis as they impact students families and communities each one may require engagement or they may be engaged in combinations but we started that on the system of well-resourced school engagement and then we'll be having other opportunities along the way just to ensure that we are centering students and that our policy 0030 and any other policies that are applicable to this are honored.

So yeah we'll be doing that throughout.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Just wanted to lift up something that Director Song said about the potential to stand up in Ad Hoc Finance Committee.

While there are pieces of that idea that I like and pieces of idea that I really want to caution us about, one of the key aspects of this is by adding board directors into the feedback loop and especially past board directors, while I get the intent there, what brings me pause about that is that in order for us to balance the budget the district is going to have to move increasingly nimbly and with the situation that we just had where somehow one of our budget documents got out earlier than it was intended thank goodness it was largely good news for community but that could have gone a completely different way and what I worry about with that is by adding directors into a process like that We actually go in the opposite of transparency because there is the ability and, at this phase, likelihood that misinformation can get spun by releasing information before it is fully ready for our communities to consume.

That being said, I think that there is great merit in potentially taking that idea and merging it with a lot of the learning that came out from the Ad Hoc Community Engagement Committee.

We now have a roadmap of everything that we are going to be voting on.

We know when these critical intersections are going to be.

And I think one of the things that you raised up is really pertinent and timely there.

And that was brought up during public comment from, I believe it was Alex at Dunlap, there needs to be communication directly from the board on the budget with community and what is going on because the board does need to rise to the occasion in many ways to support the district in the direction that they're heading with the budget, right?

Where we are and where I think we have the most power and the most opportunity for positive impact is to serve as a conduit between community and what is actually going on within the district.

One of the things that I have found to be very true through my own personal engagement, whether it be with the 37 legislative district, going to schools, things like that, is that folks are hungry for information and many folks do not pay attention to these board meetings for numerous reasons.

A, they're long, B, they're not super exciting, but then for An additional reason, if we were to add another committee potentially that is like providing feedback and direction to the district, that also potentially puts that work into a silo.

However, if that community is stood up with the sole purpose of taking information and going out and communicating with families, having two way opportunities to communicate and then bringing it back to the full board, I think there is actually great, great value in that.

So whoever is going to be president, I would highly encourage that, you know, we find an opportunity to communicate about what that could look like.

So just my two cents.

Are there any other questions or comments on this item before we move to a vote?

All right.

With that being said, Ms. Wilson-Jones, roll call, please.

Director Sarju.

Okay.

This is where I'm always confused.

Which one are we voting on?

We are voting on the item that was removed from the consent agenda.

It has now become an action item essentially and it is item number 13 the fiscal stabilization plan.

So does this change?

No.

This was just an opportunity for us to have more discussion on the item before we vote.

There's no amendment on the floor if that's what you're asking.

It's the item as you as you see it as it was posted.

Okay so I'm still not clear.

I'm going to abstain because I'm not clear what I'm actually voting on.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm going to abstain.

Thank you.

And before moving on in the roll call just to clarify the motion that I'm currently calling roll on is the motion that is printed in consent agenda item 13. The board has been discussing some of the updates that have occurred to that item since introduction and those are the ones that are reflected with track changes.

But yeah.

Director Song.

Director Top.

Director Briggs.

Vice President Rankin?

Aye.

Director Rivera?

Aye.

President Hersey?

Aye.

This motion is passed with a vote of six to zero to one abstention.

Thank you very much.

Alright, now we come to the fun part.

We will now move to the election of board officers.

I will now turn the meeting over to Superintendent Jones who will preside over the election process as the secretary of the board.

This is always fun to have the gavel.

I will never use it.

So before I open the floor to nominations, I'd like to review the election process.

For each officer position, president, vice president and member at large, I will take nominations from the board.

A second is not required for the nomination, but can be made.

After all the nominations are made for a position, there will be an opportunity for directors to provide comment before voting.

After comments have been concluded, the board will vote for each position in the order of the nominations were made.

By law and board policy, the voting will be conducted by a roll call vote.

The voting will conclude at the point when one nomination gets four or more votes.

After the president has been elected we move on to the vice president and then to the member at large.

In summary for each position there will be nominations then discussion then voting.

At the conclusion of the election process for all three positions each new officer will have an opportunity to provide remarks.

Any questions or clarifications on that?

Seems pretty straightforward, but sometimes these things aren't.

Okay.

Nominations are now in order for the Office of President.

Are there nominations for president?

Yes, I have a nomination.

I would like to nominate Vice President Rankin.

For president.

For president, yes.

It doesn't require a second.

It does not require a second.

I second the motion.

Are there other nominations for president?

If there are no more nominations, I close the nomination for president.

Would any directors like to make any comments at this time?

I have had the distinct honor of working with Vice President Rankin in several capacities, most namely of which was one where we tag-teamed at the beginning of both of our terms to really address isolation and restraint within our district.

I remember very clearly having a meeting with a community down at New Holly, a community that has experienced the atrocities of isolation and restraint more so than most in our city.

and during a conversation, Vice President Rankin came and honestly just sat and really thoughtfully listened.

I remember a comment that a community member said with both of us sitting there saying that this is really nice that you're trying this, but it can't be done.

and I took that to heart and so did Vice President Rankin and sitting here just a few short years later, it was done and that wasn't the only thing that has gotten done.

When we're talking about a continuity of ideology and vision that is critical for steering the ship of a public education system, and for an individual who has not only shown up for their community but others across the city, I can't think of somebody more capable to fill this role than Vice President Rankin.

As I said earlier, this is a very difficult and challenging role to take on.

I am genuinely excited to potentially have the honor of passing the gavel on to someone who I have had the distinct honor of working with in many different capacities, whether it be in Olympia, here in Seattle, through the student outcomes focused governance process in many other cities, and someone who is widely respected throughout the educational community and who has the receipts to back up the advocacy that they have been participating in for a number of years.

So with all that being said, I am honored to nominate Director Rankin to serve as the next president of the Seattle Public School Board.

Would any other directors like to make comment at this time?

The reason why I'm excited about this is and it's specifically related to the embracing and grasping of student focused outcomes.

It was a heavy lift at the beginning.

It's like we were back in college.

I felt like we were back in a graduate school class with no prep.

We weren't really prepped.

for it, but it made logical sense.

And to me, anyway, I'm not gonna speak for anybody else.

And what impressed me, and I don't even know if impressed is the word, but what I will remark upon was Liza's enthusiastic willingness to go there.

not having all the answers, not knowing what it would look like a year later, but understanding.

Actually, it was a representation of the opposite of the belief gap that Sabrina Burr referred to.

She believed that this was a viable, strategic way forward, not perfect.

We often seek perfection because that is the foundation of white supremacy.

This is not perfect, but it's good enough it's good enough for us to say yes to this for our students who have historically never had their needs met.

We heard somebody say, we can go back at least 70 years, she thinks it's likely a century.

And so I admire her because I'm still in it and there are still things I don't understand.

Like I have my book out on my dining room table and I actually swung around and looked at it for a county meeting because the adults were not focused on the right things yesterday.

So I brought us in the room, the common pretending.

I used it and I successfully used it.

And so if you are elected, I'm excited to have someone who is committed to using her four years to ensure that when she's done this place is a better place for those students that we seek to make it a better place for.

So thank you.

More comments.

Student board members, do you all have comments?

I know you're not voting.

I would love to, as a student board member, share my support for the nomination of Vice President Rankin.

Specifically because I think that, kind of as Director Sarju was sharing, I've had similar experiences with being here specifically as a student.

It's very deeply confusing.

A lot of this stuff I still don't know.

I'll fully admit that and be transparent about that.

and in my experiences with Vice President Rankin, I felt that no matter what it is or no matter how silly I feel for asking this question, I always feel like that's a person that I can communicate with and I can build healthy communication with and I've learned so much from.

I'm just thinking back to a moment where I was talking about, wow, this policy from the 1000 series is so good.

And I said, Director Rankin, I just love this policy.

And you turned to me and you said, oh, yeah, I wrote that.

and so just as that is like testament to how incredible a leader Director Rankin is and her ability to you know I talk a lot about in like academic spaces because I'm a big literature person I talk about you know the power of words as much as I say that actions speak louder than words there is real power to words and policy and I will fully like say that and make that clear and that is a really huge area of expertise of Vice President Rankin's and so I'm really excited for this next chapter of leadership.

Miss Wilson Jones please call the roll for the vote of Director Rankin.

Director Briggs.

Vice President Rankin.

Director Rivera Director Sarju Director Song Director Top For the last time President Hersey I love that.

Proudly aye.

The nomination of Director Rankin for President has passed unanimously.

Congratulations on your election as President, Director Rankin.

All right, let's let that sink in.

Nominations are now in order for the Office of Vice President.

Are there any nominations for Vice President?

I would love to nominate our current member at large, Director Sarju.

I second the nomination.

Are there other nominations for Vice President?

If there are no more nominations, I close the nomination for vice president.

Would any directors like to make any comments at this time?

Director Perron, go ahead.

Okay I feel like I've been talking too much.

But I just want to say Director Sarju every time I'm up here I am always so deeply inspired by Director Sarju's leadership.

I'm so proud to be serving as a student board member on a board that has somebody like Director Sarju on it.

You see, I'm kind of at a loss for words of even what to say because this is a person who's so inspiring and incredible and cares so deeply and loves so deeply and so proudly that, you know, I'm at a loss for words.

What can I say?

And I would give my strongest, strongest support possible to this nomination with lots of pride and joy.

I don't even want to speak in a professional setting.

I want to speak as a person-to-person relationship with Director Sarju.

I've seen how much she cares and how much she cherishes making those connections at that personal level because that's what drives success as a board.

It's a board that works together, a board that knows each other's kids, knows each other's families, knows what makes each other tick.

Honestly, it's a board that cares, and Director Sarju is an embodiment of a board member that cares.

I remember, I think it was last meeting, I was here late, and Director Sarju comes up to me, pats me on the back, he's like, is like, hey honey, you think you should be going now?

Because she cares.

She cares that I had schoolwork to do that night.

And she cares about me more as a person than almost any other member I've met on this board, because she takes the time and I think that's what we need as a vice president.

Someone who will take the time, take the space to be a human because we're humans and we need to have those connections on this board.

So I'm so excited to possibly have you as our vice president.

Yes please.

I'm going to echo Director Muthuswamy's comments.

The reason that I wanted to nominate Director Sarju for vice president is because there are so many distractions and pitfalls and all kinds of different ways we could go.

as the board president, my focus is going to be as much as possible as keeping us together on the same page and keeping us aligned with commitments we've made to each other and to our community and making sure that we all have the information that we need.

And because I know myself and my weaknesses, I know that that can sometimes bulldoze a little bit.

and hyperfocus.

And I think that Michelle's heart and her unwavering love and highly moral and ethical clarity will be, I mean, to be completely selfish will help me a lot.

But also I think is a good balance to what we want to show our students and how we as a whole body want to lead.

Would any other directors like to make comments?

You just say, uh-oh.

There's no way that I could have this nomination come forward and not sing the praises of Director Sarju.

As I mentioned earlier, these roles require paramount to almost anything vision, but vision is nothing if you do not also have clarity and understanding, especially in regard to our community, but even more so in regard to yourself.

The way that director Sarju authentically shows up, I think, A, takes a lot of courage, and then B, we would expect nothing else of her in terms of how she communicates the needs of individuals, but specifically black youth, her grandson being one of those folks.

When we're looking at everything that is coming before us, we have a strategic plan on the horizon.

The budget is important, but we also do other things besides manage the budget, right?

Curriculum adoptions, all this, that and the other.

When we are talking about institutional community knowledge, there is nobody on this board that has more of that than Director Sarju.

And it is critical that the leadership of this board have the wealth of that resource that she brings to the position.

I am incredibly excited to vote on this nomination because Director Sarju embodies what I think continuity of leadership and vision and direction means not only in working with the superintendent but laying a very or rather continuing to lay a very solid foundation for board directors to come.

So I support that nomination with great pride.

Would other directors like to comment?

Ms.

Wilson-Jones please call the roll for the vote of Director Sarju Director Hersey aye proudly aye Director Rivera aye Director Sarju aye Director Song aye Director Top aye Director Briggs aye President Rankin Aye.

The nomination of Director Sarju for member or sorry for Vice President has passed unanimously.

Congratulations on your election as Vice President Director Sarju.

Nominations are now in order for the office of member at large who serves with the President and Vice President on the Executive Committee.

on what was formerly known as the Executive Committee.

Are there nominations for a member at large?

Yeah.

I mean, is anybody super interested before I make a nomination?

I don't want to like...

Cool.

Right on.

I will make a nomination.

I would like to nominate Evan Briggs for Member at Large.

And let me...

Yeah.

Go.

Are there other nominations for Member at Large?

I second the motion.

I have a clarifying question sorry.

This may just be a conversation for entirely other time, but a member at large is something that exists only in our policy.

It's not required by state law, and it exists because it was the third seat on the executive committee, which no longer exists.

So the policy still exists that we elect a member at large, so I'm not suggesting we don't elect a member at large, but I guess I'm noting that that is something we may want to consider defining the role or possibly not having it.

I mean, I think you're forgetting that a key function is for that person to second.

So we need somebody to second.

This is who you just selected.

In Robert's Rules of Order, our body is considered a small governance body and we do not actually have to second.

We can just make motions.

No way we're changing that.

I'm just stating this.

I'm happy for us to move forward with this vote, but just given that this particular talking points, obviously there was an oversight in not removing the executive committee on there.

that we need to clarify what we want that role to be as a board and how that person should serve.

And let me explain why...

Oh, sorry.

We're not there yet.

Nominations.

Thanks.

Are there other nominations?

And then I think we can come back to this, but I want to...

Yeah, for sure.

Please.

Are there other nominations for member at large?

don't look like it.

All right.

If there are no more nominations, I close nominations for member-at-large.

Would any directors like to make any comments at this time?

So please proceed.

You want to go first?

Well, I think what President Rankin was pointing out, I don't think tonight is the place to work it out.

I think it is representative of it's an example of, okay, so we had this and now we've had a shift and what do we do when something like this happens?

And so my recommendation is that it stands at least for this year and then we explore what we do next.

Yeah.

Yes, and the reason why I think that this is an opportunity that's important is that we have all identified that there is a very real need to work in the practice of being more present in onboarding new directors as well as providing opportunities for leadership.

and what I'm saying is regardless of who is in the member at large position, I think for both Director Briggs and Director Topp, that a part of the Vice President and the President here, I am already assigning you work, right, should be to keep those directors specifically as close as possible within OPMA regulations.

I can tell that Greg is probably very happy that we are talking about that right now.

But in terms of making sure that they understand the processes of how things go.

Because I remember as a new director, it took me a minute to even know what the difference between action, introduction, the consent agenda, and everything else was.

And nobody reached out and told me I had to learn that on my own, right?

Which is cool.

I would say that in terms of getting folks up to speed, having somebody in that role that the president is also thinking through, like, okay, I need to make sure that I have this individual up to speed, I need to make sure that they are getting checked in on, but also giving them an opportunity to see how the inner processes of the leadership roles that are actually functioning in a way that is significant works is of great value.

So, my two cents.

Are there other comments at this time?

You can wait till after after the vote if you'd like.

Miss Wilson Jones please call the roll for the vote of Director Briggs.

Director Rivera.

Aye.

Director Sarju.

Aye.

Oh sorry Vice President Sarju.

Director Song.

Aye.

Director Top.

Aye.

Director Briggs.

Aye.

Director Hersey.

Aye.

And President Rankin.

Aye.

The nomination of Director Briggs for member at large has passed unanimously.

Congratulations on your election as member at large Director Briggs.

Madam President, I would like to report that the officers for the board of directors for 2024 are President Rankin, Vice President Sarge, a member at large Briggs.

I would now like to invite our newly elected officers beginning with the president to offer any remarks they would like to make.

Thank you, Superintendent Jones.

I didn't really think about this.

I'll just say, I think, as I've said previously, we have a really great opportunity for a reset going into 2024. We've been coming out of for years related to COVID for how many of us up here?

Three of us up here, our whole, I mean, being on the school board and COVID are the same period of time.

And for two others, the recovery from that was, you know, there was nothing, nothing was, there was no such thing as as usual.

and so with this sort of you know school operations have largely returned but we are shifting into a new normal because as we know the needs of our students and our staff and our whole system have changed a lot in ways that are not going to go back to the way they were before and so we really need to to embrace that and step in to the next phase.

And with two new directors joining us, we have a great opportunity for sort of a re-level setting, reflecting on what we've learned, reflecting on and moving forward from the work that has been done with the governance structure.

And I guess I'm just kind of making the the commitment to all of you that I'm going to remain focused on improving outcomes for students.

And in order for us to do that best, we really need to make sure that everybody up here is included, has what they need to be successful, is able to participate.

And that starts with things as simple as introduction, motions, what those different things mean.

and so I'm really looking forward to grounding us all in that in January.

It may seem sort of boring and administrative but it's also it's our foundation and it's how I'm committing to all of you to lead.

I really want to this role really by definition is just to run the meetings.

The president doesn't have any power that any other board member doesn't have except to run the meetings and be really responsible.

Like I take it very seriously that part of the board is, the board president is checking in and making sure that people have what they need to participate fully and be successful.

I am excited to move into that role.

Boring.

The focus should be on kids, not us.

Yeah, I'll keep it brief.

I wanted to go on the record that I did not aspire to be vice president.

And it was a moment for me where I went back, I was taken back to, I actually didn't aspire to be an elected official.

I answered a call and I know that my African-American colleagues in the room deeply understand what it means when the call comes and you can't say no.

I mean, you can, but the consequences are actually way worse than if you just submit.

and this is not a popularity contest for me.

I was vice president in high school, so I've done all the popularity stuff.

And as those who spoke, I really am about kids.

I have this palpable desperation that is all-consuming.

to see something different.

I've lived here almost 40 years.

I don't want it to be another 30 where I come to a meeting and I repeat what Sabrina just repeated.

That's sobering if you just sit with it.

And no, it's not the children's fault.

And no, it's not the parents' fault.

It's working exactly the way it was designed to work and it works really well.

And it ain't gonna change unless we all decide.

All the teachers, SEA president, superintendent, Bev Redman, Mr. Howard, who also grew up in this district, unless we decide, it is not the district.

We are the district.

I don't expect you to have the sense of desperation that I have.

That's not what I'm asking.

What I am asking is that you make the commitment.

We don't have to be friends.

We don't have to be lovey-dovey.

You all owe me Prosecco for the rest of my life.

That's for sure.

But it's about the kids.

and it's about the kids who have never gotten what they categorically, fundamentally deserve.

When we get there, when we turn that corner, we're not gonna reach the finish line, but we need to turn the corner.

We haven't turned the corner.

We're still like, oh, do we do it?

No, maybe not, because those parents really don't care.

you know, maybe we just sit back and just, let's just see what happens.

No, we need to turn the corner.

And that's what I hope to do this next year is I don't want any drama.

I'm so tired.

I don't want any drama.

I don't want any, we can have conflict.

Healthy conflict is good.

but when we come here on Wednesdays or Tuesdays or whatever day, let's get to business.

That's what the children want.

That's what our student board directors want.

I don't know how I'm going to answer your request, but I can promise you I have an interest and a desire.

It may not look like, Director Cron Barone, what you envision it now, but is there a meeting in the middle?

What you actually want may not be possible, but something is possible.

And how can we get there So my commitment is to meet you in the place and wrestle and discuss and figure out where can we get?

If we can't get there, where can we get?

Because otherwise we're all hypocrites.

All of us, because you know what?

We say, oh, children are the future.

We're handing them the baton and we're sitting up here making decisions that are adult-centered, not children-centered.

And we're patting ourselves on the back because it looks good on paper.

And then they go off and graduate and they're continuing to struggle because we didn't do our job up here.

We didn't do our job in the classroom.

So we either all believe that all the children can achieve or find a new job, like seriously.

There are plenty of other things to do.

If you don't believe it, go find another job.

Find a job where you can lean into it, that you can actually believe.

Because our children are counting on you to believe it.

to believe it and then show it in the classroom.

Show your work.

What do they say in math?

Who said it?

Show your work.

Let's show our work.

As previously noted, it is unclear what this role is, but whatever it is, I'm here for it.

That's it.

So thank you, President Hersey, for your powerful leadership.

And I know we're handing over this gavel to President Rankin.

I now turn the meeting over to our 2024 board president, Director Rankin.

Thank you.

We are now going to take a brief recess before returning for the remainder of our meeting with our new 2024 board officers.

Let's see, what time is it?

What do we want?

It's 6.16.

Let's resume at 6.20.

Good?

Four minutes?

He told me three minutes.

Check everyone, it is 625. All right.

I'm going to call us back to order even though we are down one director I'm sure she will be back but we have staff prepared.

So let's go ahead and resume the meeting.

We are going to move now to the action items on today's agenda.

Action item number one.

is approval of the 2023-2026 collective bargaining agreement between Seattle School District Number 1 and Teamsters Local Union Number 117. May I have a motion for this item please.

This is my first production.

I move that the board of directors approve the 2023 to 2026 collective bargaining agreement between the district and Teamsters 117 and authorize the superintendent on behalf of the board of directors to execute the agreement in the form attached to the school board action report with any minor additions, deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the terms of this agreement.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

and this item is on the agenda for introduction and action so we have staff at the podium to present.

Please go ahead.

Good evening Board of Directors.

Tina Mead, Director of Labor Relations.

Sorry I'm battling whatever it is.

So you might hear me have a cough drop as well.

I'm trying not to cough.

Really all of the information is in the board action report that was submitted to the board.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the bargaining team members from Teamsters Local, number 117, who are our eight warehouse workers in our central office, John Stanford Center, and the members of the Teamsters 117 bargaining unit.

Bargaining team were Scott Clifthorne and Shannon Sanchez from Teamsters 117 and an employee who is also the shop steward, Ricky D'Angio.

On behalf of SPS, the bargaining team was me and Craig Murphy with assistance from our finance and accounting department.

Are there any questions that the board has for me?

Do directors have questions?

All right.

Thank you very much and thank you to the bargaining teams.

Director Song.

I just want to make a comment to offer explanation for why I will be abstaining from this item.

I was a member of Teamsters 117 while this was being bargained.

Thank you.

So Ms. Wilson-Jones call for the vote.

Director Briggs.

Oh my gosh.

Why can I not.

Oh it's on.

Oh it's already on that's why.

I.

Director Hersey.

Director Rivera.

Vice President Sarju.

I.

Director Song.

Abstain.

Director Taup.

Aye.

President Rankin.

Aye.

This motion has passed by a vote of six to zero to one abstention.

Thank you.

Our next item action item number two authorization to accept proceeds of lawsuit settlements.

May I have a motion for this item please.

I move that the board authorize the acceptance of settlement proceeds in an approximate amount of 1.75 million in the litigation described below.

Approval of this item would also waive the provision of board policy 1420 stating that board action reports and relevant supplementary information are posted to the district's website at least three days in advance of this meeting.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

I see our chief legal counsel Greg Narver approaching the podium as this item is for introduction and action.

Now, there we go.

Thank you.

Good evening, directors.

Greg Narver, general counsel.

I am pleased to be here this evening to present something that I think is just plain good news.

This bar asks the board to approve the acceptance of approximately $1.75 million in proceeds under settlement agreements that were reached in what we generally refer to as the jewel litigation.

and I want to stress this is net recovery.

This is money coming to the district after all litigation and expenses and attorney's fees have been paid.

Our outside counsel, the Keller Rohrbach firm, agreed to take this on a contingent fee basis.

15% of our gross recovery went to them for their attorney's fees.

We get to keep the rest and so that's why we are actually will receive in pocket $1.75 million.

This is coming before the board because traditionally we've treated settlements whether we're paying money or receiving it.

If we're paying it, we treat it like a contract and if it's above the threshold that requires board approval, we ask the board to approve it I think I've had to come before the board once in four years to seek approval of a settlement payment and the flipside when we're receiving money that rare occasion it's treated as if it were a grant and if it's above the grant threshold we do ask the board to approve the receipt of the money This bar is the culmination of a four-year journey.

I think the only director who was on the board when I met with the board in executive session to discuss this lawsuit was President Hersey.

I think everyone else is new.

We filed this lawsuit in November of 2019 against Jewell, Altria, formerly Philip Morris, and some individuals who were involved in the manufacture and distribution of vaping products.

The complaint took issue with the way that these products were blatantly being marketed to minors.

We asked for injunctive relief to get a court to stop them from doing that.

Fortunately, that aspect of the case was essentially resolved through some actions by the Food and Drug Administration and a settlement with some attorneys general, including of the state of Washington.

But the money that we were seeking to help pay for programs for education, for prevention, for addiction treatment was still very much at issue.

Eventually, two global settlements were reached.

We were one of 1,500 government entities that were part of the case.

There were 10,000 individuals, 40 native tribes, and a class action involving millions of consumers.

So this was a big deal to negotiate.

The settlements were reached some time ago, but they didn't really become final until there was court approval of the class action settlement.

That happened in September, and then that set in motion a process to start getting the money in hand so that it could be paid out, and tonight's the final part of that.

As said in the bar, there is $750,000 available right away, assuming the board approves, another $150,000 in January, $400,000 from the Altria settlement in April, and then the rest would come in installments every year until 2027. As it notes in the bar, there is a bit of a restriction on how we can use the money.

It's supposed to go to remedy the harm that we were complaining about.

And so while it's not tightly focused, there does need to be some nexus to the student health concerns that led us to file this complaint in the first place.

If this is approved, the superintendent will need to convene a team, including representatives from school health, who will decide the best way to allocate the money to address the problems we were complaining about.

I would be remiss at this point if I did not introduce to those of you who don't know her, Lisa Davidson, who is SPS's Manager of Prevention and Intervention.

Did I get that?

Yes.

Lisa was the key person in the room throughout this entire endeavor.

When we were drafting the complaint, she was coming up with the data that was SPS specific.

She is as up to speed as anybody in the country on the science of addiction and nicotine addiction in particular.

What programs would be effective?

What messages work out in schools?

There was a part of me that almost didn't want the case to settle, because if this had gone to trial, she was going to be front and center, and she would have had her chance to just tear into the people who have perpetrated these wrongs.

That being said, it's a good thing to settle.

One last thing I'll say is It was raised.

This was posted two days before the board meeting, not three.

Mea culpa.

The bar just wasn't ready.

It was being reviewed.

The board does have the authority to waive that policy.

And in this case, I'd urge you to do so because waiting to the next board meeting is another month that this money is not going out to serve purposes.

So I always try and get bars three days in advance.

This one was two.

The board does have the authority to waive that.

I would be happy to answer any questions the board has.

Some of them may be more appropriately answered by Lisa Davidson.

I'm going to say in particular if you have questions about the hip hop to prevent substance abuse program, please don't ask me about that.

Happy to answer any questions.

Okay, directors.

Director Rivera, go ahead.

I'm totally going to ask.

Thank you, Greg.

First of all, thank you for your work on this.

This has been a long time coming.

I remember when you first filed this, there was some community saying, is this really what SPS should be putting its time and attention into?

I think obviously the answer is yes.

It's always important to put our time and attention to protecting the health and safety of our students.

So thank you for that and for what we now can use towards that.

And speaking of what we're going to get and how we're going to use it, I know this isn't decided by you, but for the rest of my colleagues or for staff even, I guess, you know, I really hope that we find a way to bring students into the how we're going to spend this money.

We have student board members, I know, but also just if I would love to see us form some sort of student advisory council.

I think the superintendent used to have one or still has one, but just, again, bring students into how we're gonna best use this money to help them, because they're gonna know what's gonna do the best for them, so thank you.

Thank you.

Director Topp?

Yeah, I don't have any questions.

I just wanna say thank you to our legal team and staff for seeing this as an opportunity and taking it.

It's really going to benefit and help our students' health, so thank you.

Thank you.

So my question is about the expenditure.

So you're saying we're sort of under our policy on grants accepting the money with that threshold.

Will is there an opportunity or will the board hear follow up on when the expenditures are made and how how that is implemented.

That's one question, but kind of backing up, there are restrictions as a result of the lawsuit of what the money can be spent on, so it's not like there's this whole range of how should we do this.

So my question from our end is, is what we have directed in policy about our expectations around student health and well-being sufficient, or do you want or need further direction from the board that would help support the implementation of the money?

So first of all, board action would only be required if this money were spent on a contract or program that exceeded the threshold for board action, which I doubt is going to happen.

I don't think so, yeah.

In terms of, you know, There's a lot of discussing to do about the best way to spend the money.

Lisa obviously has a lot of strong ideas about things that would be effective.

Student voice will be important.

And certainly, the board is ultimately responsible for the budget.

The good news is this is money that you don't have to find somewhere else to fund these programs.

But nevertheless, in its oversight role, there's certainly a role for the board to say, OK, Let's make sure that this money that is coming in is spent consistent with the board's values on overall budget strategy.

I'll just take this opportunity to echo the praises of Lisa Davidson.

I was in a meeting with some folks from King County Public Health recently talking about harm reduction and the opioid crisis and they said well you have Lisa Davidson.

So my question wasn't about you know don't you need us to tell you how to do this but I am assuming that between the in-house expertise the requirements of the lawsuit and existing policy you have a good path forward but if you run into something we are always ready and available to provide any kind of direction that may be needed.

Much appreciated.

If there are no further questions.

Oh Director Song.

I have a procedural question.

So if the board wanted to do a waiver of the three days do we need to do that formally or just vote on it.

That was already in the motion that is that is part of the motion that's before the board.

Thank you.

Correct.

If there are I see no further questions or comments.

So Miss Wilson Jones.

Director Hersey.

Director Rivera Vice President Sarju Director Song Director Top Director Briggs President Rankin This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

We will now move to introduction items.

Our first item up for introduction is review and approval of the 2023-24 career and technical education and STEM annual plan per board policy 2170. Dr. Perkins take it away.

Thank you very much, President Rankin.

Caleb Perkins, Executive Director for College and Career Readiness, and I'm here on behalf of Dr. Mike Starosky, our Assistant Superintendent for Academics.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity to introduce actually two board action reports that are gonna support our district's efforts to help our students graduate ready for college and career, which as you know is one of our main strategic plan goals.

The first is the annual career and technical education and STEM plan, and I'm going to ask our remarkable director of STEM and CTE, Brian Day, to come to the podium and provide an overview of our plan.

Here he is.

Thank you, Dr. Perkins.

Good evening.

I'm Brian Day, Director of STEM and CTE.

I'm here this evening to introduce the Board Action Report for the annual SPS CTE and STEM Plan.

To introduce this bar, I want to remind the Board and those listening that Board Policy 2170, Career and Technical Education, states that the Board will annually review and approve the district's plan for the design and delivery of its Career and Technical Education program.

Similar to the last six years, this plan includes strategies to improve the quality and the design and delivery of the district's career and technical education program and plan.

The CTE team uses this annual bar as an opportunity to share details on how the district CTE program supports the goals and outcomes of our district strategic plan Seattle Excellence and our efforts to help all students particularly students of color furthest from educational justice become ready for post-secondary opportunities and career preparation.

The annual plan emphasizes equity and access to CTE programs that support career exploration and preparation necessary to achieve personal and individual career goals.

The plan also highlights strong partnerships between SPS CTE, industry and business partners, community-based organizations, City of Seattle, and our post-secondary institutions.

The plan was formulated from a thorough data informed comprehensive needs assessment focused on highlighting opportunities for eliminating or enhancing support to our students with a special emphasis on empowering those who are furthest from educational injustice.

Data including enrollment, career pathway completion, dual credit, opportunities at elementary and middle school, internship completion, and work-based learning opportunities as well as other data points were carefully looked at and are detailed in the report.

The report also reflects the escalating living wage and cost in this region as well as current and future job prospects.

We believe that in order to guarantee the success of every student graduating from Seattle Public Schools, it is crucial to match the passions and interests with higher education opportunities and careers that allow them to thrive.

Our goal is to develop a comprehensive system that encapsulates all of these aspects.

The results of our analysis reveal that we do this in many ways and places and there's many places that we can highlight and we can do much better in areas.

Briefly, here are several key opportunities we are focusing on.

More STEM opportunities in elementary schools and middle schools, especially computer science and robotics.

We need to make sure that these are at every single grade level so every student experiences these year after year.

At a very young age, students decide what career is for them, much younger than we really realize.

They identify themselves as being STEM job capable.

They decide if they're going to go into those careers and it's beyond just content.

It's who they see they are.

We need to ensure complete career pathways at each school that are aligned to student interests.

We need to make sure students can make informed choices that lead to future success.

We need to increase and better leverage community and industry partnerships to strengthen our offerings.

So far this year, we have 102 new partnerships and we plan to have much more.

Incorporate student voice into program consideration and strengthen the understanding of their passions.

This includes empowering communities to embrace opportunities.

Embrace our commitment to students with disabilities and make this an expected part of what we do every single day.

We need to increase internship opportunities.

We are trying to remove barriers for students as well as community partners.

We have rebranded our internship program to CareerQuest.

This has attracted many new students.

This year we had 340 internships.

Last year we had 34 internships.

So our efforts are working.

We also need to increase awareness of apprenticeship opportunities.

There's many many strong apprenticeship supported jobs in our area.

High paying jobs that students are not aware of and staff do not have full awareness of.

Students will not enter these jobs if we do not understand what the opportunities are.

and overall our goal is to ensure that each student graduates ready for a career, college and life, recognizing that we play a significant role in their journey towards success.

Thank you for the time to talk to you and I welcome your questions.

Thank you so much.

Director Rivera.

Thank you.

I really appreciate all of your presentation and I also appreciate Director Song had a question that was previously submitted regarding financial literacy asking if we currently have a learning standard in K-12 math and the answer is that we do not but there are specific financial literacy standards for Washington State but there's a link to the document which is awesome it's a 77 page document.

So I'm hoping you can give me the CliffsNotes version of how is SPS carrying out those standards?

How are we getting those in the classroom?

Because I think it's vitally important that we do this.

I saw in your presentation or your materials, the acknowledgement that it's incredibly important for our students and it's a strong, you know, especially for our students of color who don't, I didn't grow up knowing first thing about bank accounts and what I do with money.

And I know today I still hear students talk about the need for financial literacy.

So I'm really concerned that we're possibly, you know, I saw in the documents too that it could be an elective, which I think still creates a barrier because it's not, it takes, you know, a student going out of their way and taking away from other electives.

So I just want to find out but standards kind of are how we're doing it and then as a board how can we better direct it to happen.

Yes you asked a very good question and probably a question that I can't answer completely and more than likely I'll see if I can answer the entire thing in a board bulletin that kind of lays out the entire aspects of it.

In short we do have good opportunities in our schools for financial literacy.

but it is not an expected curriculum throughout our system.

It is forming and we're taking some very good first steps but as far as being a cross-cutting curricular aspect at each school, it's not fully there.

There are efforts in place to make sure that it is. the great aspects is that in high school there are opportunities as you stated to take courses that are financial career based which is different from financial literacy.

So if you're able to take those courses those provide a strong foundation but I do see many opportunities that we can grow in that area.

Thank you very much.

Other questions from directors?

This may be more of a question for Dr. Perkins but I'd like to learn more about how we should think about the CT plan in connection to our third goal around college and career readiness and advanced classes specifically.

Go ahead.

I think the prior question also connects to a broader goal too just to Director Rivera in terms of we do have an obligation to offer it to all students including through math but in terms of ensuring that all students have actually take it and follow through we do have work to do as Director Day shared.

In terms of how the CTE connects to the larger CCR goal, as you know our top line measure and as was discussed earlier is around on time graduation having completed advanced coursework.

There's also an additional portfolio of measures which includes things like CTE pathway completion and internship completion.

So those are secondary but still critical metrics and we'd welcome the opportunity to highlight those more going forward and we'll follow the board's direction on that.

Any other questions?

All right.

This is introduction so we expect it to be for acceptance on consent at the next board meeting so if there are any questions between now and then please submit them through the board office.

Thank you.

Our next item for introduction is approval of courses with new content as defined by Superintendent Procedure 2026.

Hello again.

Oh hello.

So this is our second item related to college and career readiness.

This is related to our high school course offerings.

For those who are new annually we bring to the board per Superintendent Procedure 2026 any courses that we want to add to the catalog that are truly new content.

and we're excited to bring this to you right as high schools are getting ready to plan for 24-25 as you may know.

They're already starting to communicate with their staff and in January and February it will be students and families and so we're excited to bring this bar to you to talk about the course catalog generally but specifically to ask for your approval of four new courses.

As context, every year we look through the course catalog and try to analyze quality, equitable access, and ensuring offerings are sequenced towards readiness, towards our overall goal of college and career readiness.

This year we are bringing four courses that have truly new content, home care aid related to the CTE plan you just heard about, Vietnamese language and literature, Amharic heritage language, and quiche heritage language.

So this connects to a number of efforts related to our work around racial equity in terms of increasing, enhancing pathways to graduation and providing new courses that meet our expectations while also recognizing cultural diversity and inclusion.

And so I want to highlight just a couple things in particular that are really pivotal about these heritage languages that this board has approved in the past.

We have a remarkable number of students who are earning credit through the World Language Competency Program, thanks to the support from the board and a number of other leaders.

And this, by adding Amharic and Vietnamese in particular, we have a number of students who are interested in taking that class to enhance their own skills so that they can pass these competency exams and further earn credits.

So it's not only a useful life skill, but it helps them graduate.

and in addition the home care aid piece will also expand career opportunities for a variety of students and we see all this through the lens of racial equity.

So this is a shorter bar than our prior one but I do I will pause to see if there are any questions.

Thank you.

Anybody have questions.

I'm very excited about why I think home care aid course is really something that's needed both as an opportunity for students and also is a skill and a role that we need in our communities.

So I'm excited about that.

But the adding heritage language is just awesome.

So.

Director Rivera.

Just real quick and maybe I just skipped over it but how do we have an estimate of how many students are expected to enroll in these courses?

Not that that is like a requirement but I'm just wondering what the interest is.

And fortunately, I have a general answer, which is that I did talk to Dr. Thad Williams before this presentation to try to find out what just is the latest numbers on the World Language credit, the competency credit.

So we had 700 students earning those credits last year, which is about double from where we were just a couple of years ago.

and these heritage classes link directly to those competency exams.

So I don't know if we have an exact estimate for Vietnamese and Amharic at this point, but those are the ones, and Kishay of course, those are the ones that we have heard interest of and I would love to report back on the numbers once we have them.

Wonderful, thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Our final introduction item is approval of the negotiated 24 25 and 25 26 school year calendars.

Dr. Pritchett.

Good evening I am here to present for introduction approval of our 24-25 school year calendar as well as our 25-26 school year calendar as negotiated with the Seattle Education Association and with input from our other labor partners.

It's important to note that these calendars have been created with the formulas that are outlined within our current CBA.

We have sought out feedback from community and part of our seeking out that feedback is to inform as we go into negotiations in the spring of 2025 with the Seattle Education Association as we are not able to change a whole lot in the formula as it stands right now.

It is noted that in these two calendars we do not have a day in between semesters.

We have not had a day in between semesters for about two years now.

And so that is continuing with that.

and not seeing the need for it as we continue to move forward.

Our community feedback this year was down.

Last year, I think there was significant interest in our calendar given that we had a late start due to our strike days.

And so we saw an overwhelming amount of interest in the feedback.

However, the community feedback that we did get really made suggestions around midwinter break being eliminated or shortened.

A lot of the reasoning behind that was just the toll that it takes on our working families and making accommodations as students are out for that entire week.

The second highest change that we noted was around the first day of school and that varied.

Some folks wanted to start before in August so that we could get out sooner and others were that start later than Labor Day.

So that one was a little bit of a split.

And then of course the emergency closure make-ups and overwhelmingly folks were interested in having those days be remote if necessary and continuing that practice and that was something that we worked out in partnership with Seattle Education Association last year as we started and made plans and continue to have those plans available if we do have inclement weather.

I will stop there and see if there are any questions.

Do directors have questions on this item?

I have a broader philosophical question that I'm going to save for another time.

I'm happy to talk with you anytime you'd like to talk about.

But thank you.

Absolutely.

Oh actually wait sorry one technical question so this is introduction now when this comes back again and is approved just to confirm families students staff can rely on the dates for the next two years those are those will be set.

Correct.

Thank you.

All right.

The next item on the agenda is our board self-evaluation.

We have attached to the materials here our time use evaluation for October and November.

And for new directors in case you weren't not we're not apprised of this very technical specific thing as part of our focus on our own governance practices we are tracking how we use time during meetings.

how we use our time is essentially the currency with which we address issues facing our students.

And it may not surprise you to learn that a lot of boards including ours spend a lot of time talking about things other than students.

which is not to say that every minute should be spent on student outcomes.

We have lots of things we have to do as business items but the goal eventually is to spend 50 percent of our time on our time together as a board on discussions related to student outcomes and 50 percent on other.

We have in the past and so to do that we track all of our board authorized meetings in a month and we've been doing a rotation of directors to take the minutes for that month.

We have a spreadsheet as you can see in the notes and you know for now it's just kind of a quick check in how did we do and ultimately we'll have a year a year at a time to to reflect on as we do an annual self evaluation about how we did or didn't make progress in using our time.

I think our highest usage we've gotten to spending on student outcomes focused minutes is about 15 percent of our total meeting time.

And then we've bobbed down again.

But again the ultimate goal is to get to 50. So thank you to directors Rivera and Song for taking on the October and November meeting minutes.

Do you have any observations or takeaways you want to point out?

Sure.

Thank you.

If you look at the materials, I went down to the seconds in some of these, and that's probably not necessary, but I did because I wasn't sure how precise it was supposed to be.

Maybe I would recommend we create some sort of guide guidance, like one sheet or one page or just kind of say round up to the nearest whatever and stuff, just so it's uniform.

So we're consistent.

I'm doing it this way and someone else is doing it a different way.

Just so it's better to compare to month to month.

So that's all I would say.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's good to note.

Thank you.

So for in January, we'll have a look at time use evaluation for this month December that is Director Sarju and I believe it will just be this meeting.

So you pulled the lucky straw of the shortest.

So in January you will provide.

Yeah I can I can help you with that.

OK.

I think that's it.

There being no further business to come before the board the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 7 0 4 p.m.

Thank you and have a wonderful holiday full of family and rest and restoration.