First up C number 1 action item adopting resolution number 2018 19 dash 4 to declare support for initiative measure number 1639 initiative 1639 concerns firearms.
This came before the executive committee September 13th for approval.
We had a rich conversation during introduction.
We have some ground rules here because of elected officials taking stances on ballot issues.
There will be a minute for the makers of the motion for the resolution to speak.
We can have short quick comments from our colleagues and general counsel has started his stopwatch and will provide that kind of time for folks in opposition to said resolution.
Is that correct general counsel.
or are you going to correct me now?
Good evening Noel Treat general counsel.
We as you know we are required to provide an opportunity for members of the public to speak in opposition to the proposed resolution.
We advertised that opportunity provided an opportunity to sign up for those speaking slots.
No one is signed up so we don't need to be as strict about timing and then providing additional time because there's there's no one who signed up to speak in opposition at this time.
but we do want to go home at a reasonable hour.
And we had a robust conversation during introduction.
Yes.
So I think a lot of this has already been said.
Director Mack.
Do you need a motion.
Oh Lord.
We have a motion please.
I move that the board adopt resolution 2018 slash 19 dash 4 as attached to this board action report in support of initiative measure number 1639.
I second the motion.
Director Mack.
As you stated earlier President Harris a lot of this has already been said I strongly support adoption of this resolution.
I think we need to take measures to make our students and families more safe.
This initiative will take good steps while it won't stop everything it will actually assist us in keeping our families and students more safe.
And the time is now for us to take a stand and help support laws that ultimately keep our students safe.
So in strong support of this I hope that we pass it.
As a co-maker of the motion I am in steadfast support of this.
Prior to our educating our children our real paramount duty is to keep our children safe and our children live in a dangerous world.
and it's one of those times where you stand up and get counted.
It is one of those times where as elected officials we walk our talk.
Director DeWolf.
And I just wanted to say thank you to the sponsors and the creators of this resolution for making sure to add a point about the fact that homicide children of color are affected by homicide at higher rates than white children in King County.
So just thank you for bringing that nuance into the into the resolution.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
I'd like to give a thank for staff for helping us put this resolution together and for amending same much appreciated.
Other questions comments concerns from my colleagues.
Seeing none roll call please.
Director Burke aye.
Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye this motion is passed unanimously.
Thank you so much.
C number two approval of state of Washington grant for high poverty high school and medical middle school international baccalaureate program.
This came before A&F September 10th for.
This item and item number three for approval.
Motion please.
I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to accept the international baccalaureate high poverty schools grants in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars for Rainier Beach High School.
I second the motion.
Comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Director Mack.
Just a quick thank you to the legislature for providing these additional funds because IB isn't actually explicitly covered in funding that comes from the state.
So having these dollars is incredibly helpful to ensuring that the students of Rainier Beach can fully participate in this great educational opportunity.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
I'm going to reach back in history and thank the sometimes rowdy but extraordinarily thoughtful PTSA ladies at Rainer Beach High School who demanded that the school district pay attention to this high school and who put in place the International Baccalaureate program and hats off to them and Rita Green yes I'm talking about you.
Thank you ever so much.
Betty Patu.
Director Rainier Beach High School District.
Also want to say thank you also to Rita Green for her pushing and also other parents that were part of this.
It's a long time event and I'm really pleased to see this happening today because we've pushed for this for a long time and this is very happy.
Thank you for this.
Appreciate it.
Director Pinkham.
Just some comments from the community and there is blanks on this page about the comment on future schools South Shore qualify for free lunch.
There is just of whom blank percent qualify.
So is that has that been filled in.
Did you get the numbers for that.
Hi Kyle Kanoshta chief of curriculum assessment instruction.
That is something that I am going to need to search out and find the current number.
But South Shore historically has been one of our highest free and reduced percentage lunch schools.
Mr. General Counsel would that be considered a Scrivener's edit.
And then the other comment was just you know probably another Scribner's like of the Rainier Beach how many of those qualify for a reduced lunch.
Did you hear the comments earlier from the community.
The number of students pursuing the IB full deployment Rainier Beach is 69. They're just wondering how many of those qualify for free and reduced lunch.
So I'm sorry that's a question that you know needs to be added.
And how will we get notice of said ads.
I'm sorry what was the question.
If you are going to fill in the blank for South Shore.
Right.
How do we get that information and how do we as board members complete the loop to determine how many of these 89 full IB students are free and reduced lunch.
The percentage if you will.
Yeah the percentage would be.
We don't have a Friday memo any longer so I'm curious as to how that's going to happen.
Well segue timing.
Thank you.
Correct.
Not a problem.
So it will come in the new
Correct.
The percentage is a pretty easy question.
Identifying the students and their status might be a little bit tricky but we can research that.
Okay.
And could you also tell us how many of the students at Rainier Beach are taking IB classes but are not taking the entire full meal certificate because IB is not just about the full diploma.
Correct and I think if I'm not mistaken those numbers are contained in either the bar or the company information from OSPI.
Let me see.
Yeah it is mentioned on that kind of same page at Rainier Beach total number of students 11th to 12th taking at least one IB class in 17 to 18 is 240. Total taking 36 is 100. Number pursuing the full diploma 69. So the question.
So what I'm looking for is the FRL percentages of each of those categories if you could report those back.
will do our best.
Sometimes it's hard to actually get information on the status of a particular kid and whether they actually qualify.
There's a pretty large shroud of confidentiality around that information.
It looks like on the website from two years ago it said we had about 67 percent just as a context.
So I would imagine it would be somewhere near that number.
Okay any other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Seeing none roll call please.
Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Burke aye Director Harris aye This motion is passed unanimously.
Number three approval of Alliance for Education sub grant for the whole child whole day initiative.
This came before A&F September 10th for you told me already approval.
Motion please.
I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to accept the Alliance for Education sub grant of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars for the whole child whole day initiative.
I second the motion.
Comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
We had a robust conversation at intro.
Director DeWolf and then Director Pinkham.
I just want to share gratitude for the Alliance for continuing to partner with us and just be really critical pieces of our work here.
So thank you for continuing to be partners with us and providing this resource to us.
Director Pinkham.
So this again is brought up in public comments and this seems possibly to me a little more than Scribner knows because the way that it's worded in this document the report participants 220 students goes on eventually says SPS uses six racial categories to identify students Asian black Caucasian Hispanic multiracial Pacific Islander.
I can see from this the intent is meant that of the students in this program were from those categories but when it says that we use just those categories it's kind of misleading.
Assistant Superintendent Brent Jones please address the issue.
Yes.
in public comments it was noted that we made actually a gross oversight.
We recognize seven racial ethnic categories and the fact that we left out American Indian and Alaska Native is probably somewhat indicative of the numbers that are small but if we if the numbers are small that means people aren't seen.
And so I've heard from the dais a couple of times about how important it is to recognize this population.
So I apologize on behalf of the team that was that was my oversight.
So how do we fix it.
It will be fixed.
When.
Immediately.
And that'll come out in the new communication tool that the superintendent has alluded to.
Yes it is an attachment in the annual review and that annual review will be corrected.
Terrific.
Thank you.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Director Mack.
I hope I'm not speaking on the wrong item but I think it was also mentioned that there's something in this agreement about not talking about since the grant letter that states the district is forbidden from publicly communicating about the project or mentioning the Alliance or the Gates Foundation without first coordinating.
Is that language in in there.
Yes it is.
It's in there.
It's around sub grant requirements and the sub grant requirements essentially say that if we were to have a public communication we will coordinate with the Alliance for Education around that communication before it goes out.
So I just had that reviewed and that that language is that's the intent of it and I just I just talked to Lisa Chick and she understands and Lisa Chick being the executive director of the Alliance for Education correct.
That is correct.
Thank you.
Thank you.
But the intent there which I can actually very well understand is that it's useful to ensure that folks are all on the same page and things are being communicated appropriately.
So I don't think that's an inappropriate request from an organization to ask to be looped into any communication that's going to have their name on it.
I wonder do you feel as if the language there might need to be massaged a bit to state that intent a little bit more clearly.
I didn't read the specific language myself but I it flagged for someone.
So I want to make sure that we're reflecting appropriately the intent.
Right so I'm comfortable with the intent but I do believe the language could be massaged a little bit to be clearer.
the superintendent would like to weigh in.
I'm actually fine with the language.
I think it's great to include our partners in any communication.
The credit is the alliance.
They are the grand door to us.
And so I think it's fair if we communicate we work with them.
I don't think it's like a permission sort of thing but they are asking that we work with them on any sort of credit as it rolls out.
So I think it's cool.
But if a majority of the board would like to massage it we can do that too.
Well I'm beyond uncomfortable with massaging contract language on the dais.
I think it leads to very very unintended consequences and hindsight being 20 20. My question to my colleagues is is this something you can live without or do you need to roll it back and what is the price we pay if we roll it back.
Now I believe.
speaking personally not as the board president that the Alliance for Education is ever so aware of our history and our scar tissue and that in coming together with mutual respect and collaboration that we won't have difficulty in this mission.
And I'm seeing a nod of the head from executive director Lisa Chick.
Director DeWolf and then Director Mack.
I guess my question I guess my concern is at what point do we say history is past.
We've been doing great work.
They supported us with the with the teacher residency program.
We have a positive relationship now.
When do we say we have a great relationship now.
Let's depend on that trust and the relationship we have.
Director Mack.
I don't think we need to massage language if it if the intent is clear and there's no.
So I just wanted to make sure that we're all clear.
So thank you.
Seeing no further comments.
Questions.
Excuse me.
Director Burke please.
I don't have a problem with the language.
You know I think there's language like this in contracts all day long.
I think what what speaks to the intent is the fact that you know the representation from the alliance is here came early sat through comments shared some of our challenges with us because they are committed to the same things we are committed to.
They've gone more than halfway in helping to find that alignment.
And so I just want to share that gratitude.
Seeing no further comments questions concerns from my colleagues roll call please.
Director Geary Yes Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Burke sure Director DeWolf yes Director Harris aye this motion is passed unanimously.
Thank you.
I say a round of applause on this one.
Number four amending policy number six eight eight two rental lease and sale of real property and repealing board policy and procedure H zero two point zero zero and H zero two point zero one closed facilities.
This came before ops August 22nd for.
Approval.
Motion please.
I move that the school board amend policy number 6882 rental lease and sale of real property as attached to this board action report and repeal board policy and procedure H 02.00 and H 02.01 closed facilities.
I second the motion.
Comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Associate Superintendent Dr. Flip Herndon can you give us a three liner on this one for those that did not see the conversation during intro.
It's a change.
Flip Herndon associate superintendent for operations and facilities.
This is basically a change that was already in a numbered policy.
It's getting rid of a letter policy.
So it's an update and a cleanup.
Is that correct.
Correct.
OK.
Comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Seeing none roll call please.
Director Mack aye.
Director Patu aye.
Director Pinkham aye.
Director Burke aye.
Director DeWolf aye.
Director Geary aye.
Director Harris aye.
This motion is passed unanimously.
Okay now we are back to the items that were taken off of the consent calendar.
And number two is the personnel report.
Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report.
I move approval of the personnel report.
I second the motion.
Questions comments concerns from my colleagues.
This was taken off the consent calendar by virtue of public comments for transparency purposes.
Director Pinkham you took it off.
Could you please address it.
Sure.
And with the public comment that came up I think to me I don't want to put words in the commenter's mouth but it was just to see that there are some things that the board can do with staffing issues.
I think this is extreme.
I would still in favor of approving the personnel report but I didn't know what the comments were going to be.
But I just wanted to hear what the definitely give the community opportunity give their voice before we vote on it.
Director excuse me assistant superintendent Dr. Clover Codd.
If we do not approve the personnel report what are the consequences of same.
I think we'll bring it back at the next meeting and ask that you approve it and try to answer any questions that you do have.
We the personnel report is backwards looking so the policy 5000 which over which talks about recruitment and selection of staff basically says that the school board each month approves all of the newly hired staff from the previous month and they just go on the next personnel report.
So it's not as if you approve the staff and then they then they start.
We've already hired them.
They've started and then you make the approval in the very next whatever the next more or the future personnel report is.
So no one misses paychecks for instance.
No.
OK.
Director Burke did you have a comment question concerns sir.
I just wanted to sort of echo what I what I heard from Director Pinkham and what the way I understand it that non approval of the personnel report is somewhat of a nuclear option and it's not like a line item thing where we're identifying particular staff that should or shouldn't be impacted.
So it's something that I'm extremely uncomfortable using as a governance tool.
Thank you.
notwithstanding social media that has been beating the heck out of me by saying that we are not using our power.
There's a fine line between micromanaging and being collaborative and I would push back on some of that social media attacks.
and happy to say that I had breakfast with a couple of those attackers and I got bacon and French toast out of it and got to spend a fair amount of time talking about how a school district works.
It does not work like a city government.
It does not work in someone's fantasies.
And I.
frankly get a real kick out of the concept that we as board directors are all powerful and we're just reluctant or too chicken to use our power.
I'm thinking that messing with the personnel report is indeed a nuclear option and I'm unwilling to do so.
I do though want to encourage my colleagues A to read it every month early on and to call the assistant superintendent of human resources and ask questions about things that they are curious about.
Yes absolutely.
It's so much easier if I can get questions ahead of time so that I can talk with my staff and research and get answers back to you just to help clarify.
It's really difficult to do that on the spot.
I wasn't actually here for public testimony.
I was up at Garfield working with the staff there on a different issue so I wasn't able to hear what the community member actually stated.
So it is very helpful if we can get things in advance to be able to get those answers to you.
I'm pretty quick on email and can get them to you right away if I have a little bit of advance notice.
Other questions comments concerns on this issue.
Seeing none roll call please.
Director Burke aye Director DeWolf aye Director Geary aye Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye This motion has passed unanimously.
Okay we are back to number four on the consent calendar.
New England Center for Children contract.
This came before A&F September 10th for.
Motion please.
I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with New England Center for Children in the total amount of $401,031.49 for residential special education programs serving a student in the form of the draft contract dated September 1, 2018 and 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 contract.
I second the motion.
Chief Jessie could you come to the box please.
I have a couple of questions that might cut through this.
I understood the angst of the community person and teacher who testified that this is far too much money when we are leveling and dispersing teachers to other schools.
Is this.
A compliance issue with federal law.
Yes it is.
Thank you.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
I'd like to editorialize a little bit that the state doesn't fully fund our special ed needs and this is actually one of the major holes that we have in our budget and that hopefully we can get the legislature to move a bit on that this session so that we don't have continue to have such issues.
Director Geary.
Let's let Director Geary go first and then we'll give you the floor back.
Thank you.
There are just times I just want to.
Yes it is very expensive.
But sometimes a residential placement is required and From my years in special education what I do know is that we don't have a lot of residential placements in the state of Washington and that has to do with the fact that 13 year olds can sign themselves out and cannot be involuntarily committed.
And a lot of residential placements require a stability of the population in order to work.
for all the kids.
So what we are left with when we have a student who needs such a placement is contracting with placements out of state which obviously is going to make it a more costly affair for us.
But we must offer or provide a placement on the continuum if that placement is required.
And so it is my understanding from the comments given earlier or before today that this is just part of the continuum.
It's just a particularly expensive one for the state of Washington because of our lack of programs and lack of competition around these types of placements.
and they're also just very expensive.
So it's required for this family and that's that.
Chief Jesse the floor is yours sir.
Thank you.
I just want to get clarity based on a comment by Director Mack absolutely we are underfunded somewhere between 70 to 80 million dollars of our general ed fund goes to support special ed.
with also there is safety net.
So the state provides safety net.
And so for students who expense over about thirty thousand dollars with unique needs like this we do get reimbursement and we do a wonderful job here.
We've got over four million dollars in safety net and we're usually celebrated across the state because of our application process and documentation for staff all across this district.
So I just want to recognize those efforts.
and that the state is part of their consideration is to increase safety net funding.
And so that is one thing for us to be part of those conversations.
Okay and the dollars are targeted dollars limited use dollars and the four hundred thousand dollars would not go towards mitigating teachers at under expected enrollment schools.
Is that correct.
That is correct.
Thank you.
Other questions comments concerns from my colleagues.
Seeing none roll call please.
Director DeWolf aye Director Geary Director Mack aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Burke aye Director Harris aye.
This motion has passed unanimously.
We now move to number six on the consent calendar BEX IV resolution 2018-19-1 acceptance of the building commissioning report for the Arbor Heights Elementary School replacement project.
This came before Ops September 6th or.
Approval.
Motion please.
I move that the school board approve resolution 2018-19-1 accepting the building commissioning report for the Arbor Heights Elementary School replacement project as attached to this board action report.
I second the motion.
Comments questions concerns.
Director Pinkham you pulled it from the consent calendar.
Take it away.
This was about some clarification on language in it about the report isn't clear whether two issues were resolved.
I believe we discussed this in operations and that they were resolved but doesn't look like it got updated in the bar report materials.
You're correct Director Pinkham.
We did talk about that.
If you recall the issuers of the report did not want to edit the report which is why they made the clarification in the executive summary.
So all the issues were resolved.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Seeing none roll call please.
Director Patu aye.
Director Pinkham aye.
Director Mack aye Director Geary aye Director DeWolf aye Director Burke aye Director Harris aye This motion has passed unanimously.
We are at D number one intro item BTA IV approval of technology purposes purchases to support student learning through new instructional practices.
This came before C&I September 11th for.
Consideration.
Approval of this item would authorize the superintendent to execute purchase orders through RFP number 0 7 7 9 2 with Dell slash Thorberg for a total not to exceed amount of five hundred fifty thousand dollars over fiscal years 2018 19 in the form of the order requested attached to order requests plural attached to the board action report with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and take any necessary actions to implement the purchase orders.
Short explanation please.
Kind sir.
Thank you.
Kyle Kunofta chief of curriculum assessment instruction and if the board can indulge me for about two minutes I'd like to highlight a few things because in response to board questions before in terms of technology purchases we're attempting to get better.
at responding about questions such as what what's our theory of action behind the purchase as well as what is some of the research behind it.
So just want to spend a minute on our theory of action behind this purchase.
This purchase is actually part of the overall professional development to support high school revisioning and specifically PD on the capacity to teach on longer blocks in a potential modified high school schedule.
and in particular the aim is to increase student engagement.
So in terms of a theory of action in terms of how is this going to help high school staff actually learn to do this.
Four points I want to make.
One is when you don't have enough dollars to do the thousand on high school staff we're using a strategy called leveraging examples of positive classroom practice.
It means in each building creating a percentage of classrooms that are exemplars to show how it can be done.
And since the longer block time affects everyone there is increased motivation from the rest of the staff to actually see in their building how to actually do that.
The second aspect of theory of action is that the PD goes to those who are most eager to implement it with our limited dollars maximizing the chance that the actual classroom practice will actually change as a result of the professional development.
The third thing is that another part of the theory of action is to structuring it so that there is actually a partnership between the Stanford Center and the schools who are implementing this.
It's not a situation where we're dictating to the schools how they do it nor is it where the schools do whatever they want.
The central office holds the funding and set some pretty firm guidelines.
But the schools figure out a PD plan that meets the guidelines and best fits the reality of the school.
And we figured that was the best way to respond to the fact that there are 15 really diverse high schools.
So lastly the tech requests that you see tonight are part of that strategy.
So by connecting the tech requests to the professional development plans and providing technology to the staff who are most eager to learn how to use it they can demonstrate how to use it properly with students and can develop the positive exemplars of classrooms for the rest of the staff to be able to see.
So kind of in conclusion the other thing to highlight in the bar that you'll see is that in tech requests from now on is we'll be referencing in some way how it actually helps students to meet the newly adopted Washington state educational technology standards.
in the bar we actually listed the standards that the professional development plan speaks to.
And I believe Chief Kroll actually presented these standards to board members as well.
We've been working hard in terms of really looking at the research literacy that underpins some of the work that we want to do and we made references to that in the bar as well.
So basically I also want to note in response to a question asked by Director Harris is that the core idea from the research that we found is that technology is most effective when mediated by and implemented by a skillful teacher who engages the students.
It's much less effective if you don't have that condition present.
And that's something that we'll be using as a guiding idea.
So we are advocating for the passage of this.
This is not the only technology that schools are actually asking for.
They are asking also for things like maker spaces to help with engineering you know education and things like that.
But the laptop purchases put us over the amount that we actually had to have the board approved.
So I'll stop for any questions.
Director DeWolf.
Yeah.
I'm just curious.
I'm not seeing NOVA High School on this.
Is there a reason they're excluded from this?
They're in the process of developing their plan but you know they actually have a plan to actually create maker spaces as well as order some laptops.
What we've said is that for schools there are three schools that have not yet completed their plans and when those come along we'll actually you know purchase develop purchases for them.
What three schools are those?
Let's see.
three schools I actually have to look at the list.
NOVA is one of them.
I looked at all 12 of them but I didn't actually you know identify the schools that have not yet completed yet.
But I can get that for you.
And are those plans going to be funded in this expenditure in this bar or are you coming back with another bar.
I don't believe that those purchases will put us over the approval amount.
The maker spaces for example are not like the laptops where you have to buy in large quantities.
So I don't believe that we'll need to.
Director Burke please.
I want to thank staff for their work on this as one of the one of the directors that has been I don't want to say critical because that sounds like a negative word but trying to set an expectation that our technology purchases are intentional and not just trying to meet a ratio.
I think that Kyle and John and the team have been really responsive around connecting this work to to you know to an actual theory around our high school work.
I had the privilege of sitting in on the principal planning discussion at SLI where the principals were in their in their groups talking about their technology plans and how they had identified their technology needs under this.
So it is something that what we're seeing is the building or the culmination of a project that intersects a bunch of different areas in the district.
So I want to be really clear on that.
The other thing please correct me if I get this wrong because this was a really important one for me is that we have an allocation for all schools and that when you look at the schools here there's different investments in different schools and that the amount that's being allocated to schools is not all they're getting or the only thing that a specific school is getting but it's what they identified that they're ready to get now.
Is that correct?
That is correct.
To make it equitable we actually took the pot of money that was available from the BTA and kind of turned it into a formula that was based on 62 dollars and 50 cents per student FTE.
But in the case of some of the smaller schools because that ended up being such a small amount we held back a pot of money to basically supplement their request just to make sure that they could fulfill them.
Thank you.
Director Mack.
I want to express gratitude using Director DeWolf's terms but gratitude around the intention and thoughtfulness that has gone into being collaborative between the district and the and the schools being thoughtful about how we're spending this money that we're doing it in a way that is meaningful useful and will serve our students.
I want to express that gratitude first.
I also want to take the opportunity to segue a little bit to something that I recently learned and I just it's connected to technology and I want to plop it.
Is it connected to this intro item?
Yes.
Make it happen.
I've learned recently that students get new email addresses every time they change schools and I'm wondering if that is something that we can think about in the future of maybe not creating so much work for our technology.
I'm wondering if Chief Cole might be able to answer that question.
I know it was a total segue I hijacked I apologize.
That doesn't have anything to do with this intro item and I could pile on but I can't be a hypocrite here.
Director DeWolf.
Yes sir I don't keep belaboring this too.
I assume Garfield's one of those schools too that because they're not included on here.
I'm sorry which school.
I assume Garfield is also.
That's correct.
Garfield and NOVA are still we're awaiting their plans.
Right.
We're still one of the things that we want to do to ensure that you know the plans had rigor and were appropriate is you know we've had kind of iterative conversations with the schools and ourselves ask a lot of questions that may not have been apparent in the plans that they submitted.
And so we're still dialoguing with those schools.
We're pretty confident though that we'll reach a conclusion pretty close to being done.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues.
Well this looks like one of those yummy balancing one of those yummy balancing issues between administrative oversight and baseline and building based management.
And thank you for that.
And with that it is 8 05 this meeting is adjourned.