missing title

Good afternoon, we will call the meeting to order momentarily and SPS TV will begin broadcasting.

The December 10th regular board meeting is called to order at 4 17 p.m.

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

Ms. Worth the roll call please.

Director Briggs.

She will be here momentarily though I did get a text message from her Director Lavallee Director Mizrahi Present Director Rankin Here Director Smith I believe she's joining us online I didn't see her online though

Don't see her yet.

Director Song.

Here.

President Topp.

Here.

Director Mangelson.

Here.

Director Masoudi.

Here.

Director Yun.

Here.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Well, we have a packed agenda this evening.

Exciting agenda and it looks like we do have Katie online.

Do we want to just have her unmute and say here real fast?

Director Smith and I said I said Katie sorry.

Director Smith.

Here.

Yay.

Thank you.

All right.

Well we have a packed agenda this evening.

I'm particularly excited for the two sort of work session items but the first thing I'm going to do is turn it over to Superintendent Podesta for his comments.

Thank you President Taup.

I'm really excited about this meeting.

The first regular meeting we are having with the directors who have joined us and so this is the start of many transitions that I think will be really beneficial to Seattle Public Schools and our students.

I'd like to celebrate a few points.

This is worth repeating.

We talked about it at the audit committee last night that OSPI reviews our special education programs on an annual basis.

and renders an opinion of what level of support districts need and for the first time since this type of review has been done Seattle program has been determined to be a level one which means no support that we're compliant with all their parameters all the state's parameters for how we administer our special education programs.

This is a huge testament to the improvements we've been working very hard to make in this program.

So I just really want to acknowledge that.

In terms of acknowledgments also our communications team was recognized at a recent convening of professionals for their work and earned multiple awards for various products that they we've had with SPS TV and through other venues.

Again we're working hard to try to be a little bit more transparent and communicate better with our constituents and so I appreciate all the work they're doing as well.

The other transitions going on we're going to be welcoming a new superintendent soon.

We have new directors.

We have changes in administration at both the county and the city level.

And I want to thank the previous administrations for their work.

We have a great partnership with the city.

A recent opportunity we had was when SNAP benefits were delayed for families in our community.

The city and the district partnered together.

The city sponsored food which we were able to distribute since we have connections with families and again we're working hand in glove during that period to make sure that we got supplemental food to families in need when their SNAP benefits were suspended.

So I just want to recognize some good news that we we have a lot to look forward to.

We have a lot that we've accomplished and we've got a lot on this agenda and including election of board officers which is always exciting.

So thanks everyone for being here.

Thank you Superintendent Podesta.

We'll go to student comments next.

Start with Director Yoon.

So we are scheduled to meet with the NAACP Youth Council this coming Monday.

We met with them for the first time in July to introduce them to the revisions we are making, the policy 1250. This will hopefully serve as our last meeting so they can kind of give us the okay to move forward in hopes to bring it to the entire board in January.

and we just wanted to make clear that we want to respect kind of the intent they had in mind when creating this program but also kind of our role as student board members there needed to be a couple revisions made to ensure that intent is still served with those revisions in mind.

Director Massoudi I also wanted to give a quick update on our communication plans we've been reviewing the district social media guidelines I'll be following those as we start posting more regularly from the student representative Instagram account our goal is to share consistent updates about board meetings student perspectives and upcoming initiatives and we've also posted a short fun recap video from our WASA conference we recently attended Director Mangelson

One last thing, last week we were able to meet with the district's web team and we hope to start reshaping our webpage on the SPS website so that we can better engage with students across the district.

We're gonna hopefully start working on this over winter break and hopefully have it running by second semester or what it will look like in the beginning.

It's a work in progress.

Thank you for those updates.

They're all very exciting and I'm excited for all of them and I'll put a plug in for the recap of the WASDA conference.

So go to Instagram, watch that.

I also want to thank Director Yoon for following up on the student cell phone policy conversation that we had now a few meetings ago.

She provided some comments to staff and I really appreciate the hard work she's doing to make sure that the solutions that we are putting forth work for students and I So thank you, Director Yoon.

I also want to just welcome new directors to the dais.

Last week on December 3rd we swore in Director Lavallee, Director Smith, Director Song and swore in again Director Mizrahi.

This evening we will be electing new board officers as Superintendent Podesta said the elections will happen after the consent agenda and before introduced items.

So we'll take a quick break after public testimony and then continue on and go from there.

Just a few updates.

Director Mizorahi, Rankin and myself along with directors elect and staff attended an event hosted by the Alliance for Education and the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition on December 2nd.

It was a great opportunity to meet with community leaders and really discuss communication and how SPS communicates and how we can better communicate and engage our public.

So I look forward to more sort of opportunities to strengthen our relationships and partners.

Also directors elect and staff attended the Washington State School Directors Association and Annual Conference at the end of November.

We had a chance to learn and learn from and build relationships with other districts as well as each other.

And on our agenda was an opportunity if board directors had any kind of comments about lessons to learn highlights for the conference from you.

One thing you learned one thing that maybe made you curious to dive deeper or one thing you'll be bringing back to your service as the board.

So want to give space now for sort of thoughts from board directors there.

Director Yoon?

I attended a lot of sessions, but I'm just going to, for the sake of time, go over three of them.

So the first session I attended, President Taup mentioned, was a cell phone policy with the Ferndale School District.

I was very intrigued on how they went about engaging community members, students, and teachers on the implementation of the policy and also how they went about it even after implementing the policy.

The student board members created a video of the rules and guidelines of what this policy would entail and they also made sure to engage with all community members before implementing it.

So I sent some of those artifacts to the board directors and also staff who are involved in this.

So I'm glad the WASDA session was able to provide some of those insights.

The second session I attended was with the Auburn School District.

This was the I use it as a quote, but the literal title of the session is School Safety is Community Safety.

And that really spoke to me because when a school is safe and kids are safe and students are safe, the entire community is safe, and that was kind of the vision they had.

They specifically talked about the different types of safety, like mental health safety, physical safety, and how they implemented policies to ensure those different types of safeties were felt by students.

And I just found it very intriguing, again, how they specifically defined the different types of safeties and also came to recognize that safety can mean something very different to each person, each community.

So I hope we also take that into consideration when we define terms at the board level that it could be up to people's interpretation.

So making sure when we want to convey a certain message, we're defining those terms.

And the last session I'd like to emphasize is a session I attended with the other student board directors and it was the first session we attended called Bridging the Gap.

This was a very physical activity there was a lot of engaging and I actually took a note from a quote from like Julie Shanks I apologize I don't remember like her title but her quote was if we don't take time to build the culture we want we will be drained by the culture we have and this quote really spoke to me as we have new district leadership coming in and we have a new board so and I know we want to see a lot of systemic change within this district and I really believe that if we change the culture first and we show that by kind of the leadership positions we're in, we could really see the systemic change happening at a greater level.

So I just wanted to share the emphasis they had on culture.

The other thing was the culture pyramid.

Sorry, I'm taking a long time.

But basically, at the top of the pyramid, there was success, and then went down with courageous conversations, engagement, trust, and relationships.

And each time you accomplish one of them, you would go above each level of the pyramid.

So once you kind of build relationships, you can build trust, then you could engage, then you could have those courageous conversations, and then you have success.

So that's just something I wanted to emphasize and share with everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

You and other directors, a highlight for the conference, something you learned, something you're curious about, or want to bring back to your board service.

Director Rankin.

I'm not going to answer them quite the way they're phrased, if that's OK.

So part of the reason, and thank you for making the time to have this conversation, part of the reason I asked for this is because this is our first opportunity as newly elected and already elected board members to access professional development for board members.

And we had six of seven of our board members at board boot camp, which was, I'm not sure how many people said, oh my gosh, Liza, you've got everybody here.

And I said, yeah, yeah, it's actually, extremely valuable opportunity and Seattle I think has been isolating itself in ways that have been harmful for both our system and also just the way the board functions.

So I was really excited that people were able to attend.

Another piece for transparency and stewardship of funds is that it is taxpayer dollars that send us to attend the conference and reserve that space.

and so I think we need to reflect back to the community what we're doing with their investment and how we're representing the community.

And so I attended all, I think, four days.

Board Boot Camp, there's also a legislative conference or a legal conference, which is really valuable, but it was happening at the same time of Board Boot Camp where they go over different issues that are happening at the federal level and state level.

and then the breakout work sessions are such an amazing opportunity to connect with other board directors but also to see where other districts are putting into place best practices that we can learn from because there's a lot of great things happening in Seattle and we're very honestly very far behind a lot of the state in terms of just practices and superintendent board relations and operations and so any chance that we have to access that information is valuable and I would love to know if anything surprised people.

That would be something I would love to know from directors.

And yeah, no, I think my takeaway and what's exciting is always being in community with other, nobody can really understand what a board director does except for another board director.

And to kind of know that we're not doing this alone is always, for me, the most valuable thing of participating in some of those types of conferences.

So I'm really glad we were able to go.

Thank you, Director Rankin.

Others?

Okay.

Oh, sorry.

Director Mangelson.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that I was really grateful to get to go.

I think it was a really cool experience and being able to be with other people who were interested in the things that us as student board members were interested in and getting to kind of build that network of other students, especially, and adults.

But it was really cool to be able to attend a bunch of sessions, but Two that I felt very focused in and was really interested in was one that I attended was the science of reading, which was really cool to explore how intentional reading curriculum, especially for younger students, can be addressed.

And I'm definitely curious in exploring that in the future.

I think that was very impactful.

But the other one that I was incredibly interested in was the CT and Arts Education session that Director Rankin and I got to attend.

Gail Frazier, the Seattle Public Schools Arts Program Manager, spoke at this, and it was awesome to get to communicate with her.

As someone who's participated in Skills Center and I'm incredibly interested in advocating for CTE, career technical education, and arts education.

It was really exciting to learn about what it will slash can look like in the future and about the creative economy, creative careers.

And so really getting to explore how other districts and programs address that was great.

And I was grateful to be there for it.

Thank you so much for sharing.

Others?

Alright then we're going to move on to our committee and liaison reports.

I will quickly start.

I've stepped into and into serve as the Head Start liaison until new liaison is appointed.

There's sort of this weird in-between stage and I just want to thank Whitney Smith for meeting with me last week to walk through the program and the responsibilities of the role Just Head Start is an essential part of our early learning system and this liaison work really matters.

It ensures we're aligned, accountable, and supporting some of our youngest learners.

And with that, though, I'm also pleased to share that we have been approved for our 2025-26 Head Start grant, which will provide funding retroactive to November 1st.

This is an important milestone for the program and for the thousands of families who rely on those services.

So looking to other board committee chairs or liaisons for reports.

Director Rankin.

So for a legislative update, you know, there's simultaneously a lot and not very much happening at the federal level, but the biggest issue right now is that the elementary and secondary education are being moved to Department of Labor.

which the talking points of the administration are to streamline and reduce bureaucracy.

It's actually going to do the opposite.

It's going to increase bureaucracy because the Department of Education can't be closed and is still responsible for oversight of these programs.

What is actually happening is they're trying to just wear down Congress until they agree to close the department, which hopefully won't happen, but that's what's happening.

And it's basically being piecemealed out to all sorts of other departments.

I have a chart that I can share if folks haven't seen it or would like it that I won't go over now.

Right now there is a current budget extension that expires January 30th, at which point there could be another government shutdown.

I think people in general on all sides of the aisle really didn't get a whole lot out of the shutdown that we just had.

My sense is people will be trying to avoid a shutdown again, but there's a lot of negotiating right now on Agreeing on outstanding funding bills for the current fiscal year and for the next fiscal year I was on a call with some board members from other districts across the country and you know we're seeing Some issues around immigrant students and families feeling unsafe, it's really ramping up pretty significantly in some of the eastern part of the country, it seems like even more than here.

Boston and Broward County are both noticing that their enrollment is actually being impacted by families choosing to leave the United States.

because they just can't take the stress anymore and the fear of potentially being targeted, which is really just scary and horrible.

There is some movement at the federal level to require districts to provide proof of citizenship of students.

which is also really scary.

There is a stay of litigation right now to prevent that from happening, but that is something that's being attempted.

And so I would ask Superintendent Podesta and incoming Superintendent Schuldner if we might take this as, take an opportunity to remind parents that they do not have to provide social security numbers and to make sure that our systems are not asking for people to provide social security numbers for identification as that's one way that this information is being accessed.

There are cities in Florida also that have signed cooperative agreements with ICE and ICE is a really visible present around schools and really folks are struggling to support families and give them assurance when their fears are really grounded in very legitimate dangerous, harmful, threatening presence of these things.

Their schools, they're working really hard to keep their schools safe, but they also know that between home and school is not safe for all families.

So that's something that we're dealing with somewhat and I only expect to increase and hopefully we can continue to keep connecting with folks on the other side of the country and just stay in community and communication to make sure that our students and families are protected.

At the state level, there's lots of preparation happening for the next, for the 2026 session.

Olympia was really busy in the last week or so.

Folks are meeting committee, there have been bills pre-filed, they're prepping for next session.

The session starts in January.

It's a short session, as we know.

It'll likely be pretty challenging.

And so two opportunities for us as a board is there's the annual WASA, WASDA, WASBO legislative conference, January 9th and 10th.

Anyone interested should attend, particularly if there's interest in serving as the board's legislative liaison at some point.

That position is really about engaging with WASDA and collective advocacy across the state.

And the conference is a great opportunity to connect with other board directors.

It's not limited, for sure.

Anybody can go.

I'm registered already as a WASDA board member.

They register me.

But folks who want to go should definitely contact Julia and Carrie to see about going.

It's in CTAC, so you don't have to stay overnight.

You could just drive down both days or one day.

and student board members can come, too.

So talk to the board office.

Also in January, Cliff Traceman, our district's lobbyist, and Julia from the board office, who leads our legislative work, will be providing the board with kind of a mini training about legislative session.

It'll be a couple days, like two days into legislative session, but there are guidelines and legal restrictions around what board directors can and can't do during session, and so we'll just all have that training together to make sure that everyone's supported and can advocate effectively and Yes, we have recommended that the legislative liaison position, which is two years shift to align with the biennium.

And that we can, we'll need to further discuss that and other liaison and committee positions at the retreat in February, which leads me into the policy committee work, policy committee update.

Our committee will be closing out the current phase of work.

We had two deliverables.

that will be, we had a meeting scheduled for this month.

It will be held in January to close out those recommendations to provide to the board about future and ongoing work and policy.

Policy is the law of the district.

and without a clear and regular mechanism for the board to provide oversight and receive reporting and regular updates from the superintendent.

We have the messy situation that we've been occupying for some time where I give one really, hey Evan, one example of where a lack of a structure, oh sorry, so let me back up for a second.

Our committee will be providing recommendations on a regular cadence of reviewing policies, both from the superintendent and of the board.

And an example is highly capable services.

There's a policy aligned with state law that requires the district provide highly capable services.

We as a board struggled for many years, especially after the proposed phase out of the cohort, to get information about what was actually happening, what services were being provided.

Individual board members from the dais demand things, ask for things, but unless the policy is updated and complying with law and directs reporting to the board, it's not going to happen in any kind of regular way.

And without the mechanism and without also everybody on the board understanding what authority we actually do have, we don't have that.

So I actually had to fight with staff and then fight with our legal team to bring forward recommendations that are aligned with what the state law requires.

We're required to be provided with certain pieces of information by law.

We were not getting those.

Our legal department told me that I would be creating a legal liability by pointing out that we weren't getting this information.

and this is the problem when the board doesn't have the authority it's meant to have through policy and this is why the policy committee work is really important.

If we're not keeping our policies updated and holding each other and the district accountable for following them, we end up with a district driven by legal complaints and concerns and the contract with SEA and that's it.

So the policy committee work is not my special fund project.

It's actually the work of the board.

It needs to be really transparent.

It needs to be really clear how we do this job for ourselves, for the district, for our students, for our community.

And so that is the set of recommendations that we'll be closing out on to bring to the full board.

And then I really look forward to working with the incoming superintendent and the full board in public meetings about how we fulfill the obligations of the board, both individually and as a body.

The end.

Other committee and liaison reports.

Director Mizrahi.

This is not a committee or a liaison report, but it's a Joe Mizrahi report.

I don't know where else this would fit in though.

At the last meeting, which feels like six months ago now, we had a presentation on the cell phone policy and on AI.

and I was cut off at the end because I was on the computer and couldn't get in because of a technological problem, ironically enough, with the conversation we were having.

And I just wanted to just offer very quickly my AI comments.

And I said, I'm going to do something at the next meeting, not thinking if the next meeting would feel like a lifetime.

But OK, so I just wanted to say, we had this presentation on AI.

And I feel like all the comments that we had were rightfully very much lifting up the concerns we have around AI, which I agree with all those.

And I don't disagree with anything that anyone said.

I feel like there is another half to that, though, that does need to be said, which is why I wanted to jump in, which is, and with all those concerns in mind, we do have some pressure and imperative to be talking about these things that are going to deeply impact the future of the students in our schools right now.

When we did the engagement sessions around the strategic plan, one of the things we heard most loudly was that folks want their students to leave SPS ready for the world that they're going to face.

And those are oftentimes the aspects of the world that we like and some that we may be worried about, like AI.

And I think about, in my work, I think a lot about the future of work.

I'm not a tech person.

We are often fighting against new technologies, but also aware of the reality that Whether you're someone who works in an office or lifts a hammer for a living, your job is going to be impacted by AI in some capacity.

So I wanted to just maybe reflect a little bit of the positive in that I felt like it's clear that district staff is doing a lot of thinking around how to introduce technologies in a way that recognizes that they are dangerous and recognizing that we are at this precipice of we all don't know how to protect ourselves and our kids from these new technologies and yet we also have to be engaging with them.

and I think back to when I was a kid and someone said like, hey, computers might be important to this kid's future and they made me play Oregon Trail and that probably helped me at some level and I think about my wife when she was teaching English, she's a principal now, but they had, there was a lot of debate around how Wikipedia can be used.

And is this dangerous?

Because anyone can edit Wikipedia.

Is it a source that people can actually use?

And she had to teach a curriculum.

She got to teach a curriculum in her class about how to responsibly use Wikipedia and how to know if something was edited rightly or wrongly and how to look at sources.

And so I just think that it's opening up an interesting conversation about how we, like I said, I also don't agree with anything that was said about the challenges of AI and the dangers of it, too.

So I think it's an interesting conversation around how we both protect and also engage with this tool.

And I hope that the conversation that we had is not a one and done, but that we're having more conversations and getting constant updates about this and able to ask lots of questions.

So hopefully this is something that's maybe not a perpetual agenda item, but is on the agenda and that we're engaging with community about.

But more than anything, I just also wanted to express appreciation because even with all the frustrations and concerns we have around AI, it's clear that there was a lot of work put into that presentation and a lot of work to think about our approach to it.

So I wanted to to show my appreciation for district staff in that.

That's it.

Thank you, Director Mizrahi.

I agree.

I think staff started to think about a framework for how we're going to have this difficult conversation around AI and generative AI.

Other board directors, committee, or liaison reports?

I have a committee question.

Is that okay?

Yeah, I'm just wondering if the, I got, while I was out of town and just getting back like literally 15 minutes ago, I got a text saying that the audit committee meeting that was supposed to happen yesterday, did that end up happening?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Did you go to it, Jen?

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, so I chaired it on your behalf.

Sorry, can I go ahead?

Thank you.

I chaired it on your behalf.

And then Director Mizrahi was also not able to attend.

And so then, thankfully, Director Lavallee was able to step in.

So we didn't have to reschedule it, because it does involve a lot of people.

And it was a great meeting.

I highly recommend folks look back at the notes and reports from there.

It was exciting to see some good work moving forward.

And we talked a little bit about, again, a conversation for the full board.

trying to bring in more, as we've been talking about, trying to bring in more public advisors and how we can kind of expand that work and bring in more experts to support the audit.

But it was a good meeting.

Director Lavallee.

Yeah, I want to go back, Liza.

I know in your legislative report, you were talking about the impact of ICE on some of the schools and some of the laws that were going on.

It has been impacting our communities as well.

So I do want to bring light to that.

I know there's a protest outside shedding light to that.

And so it has been deeply affecting our immigrant communities here on a very regular basis.

So it's It might be happening even more in some other places, and it is deeply impacting children and attendance in some of our South Seattle schools.

And in other districts, too.

Others?

So we have about roughly 10 minutes till public testimony so we're going to take a 10 minute recess I kind of looked at the agenda and we can't move forward on anything else till after public testimony so we're going to take a 10 minute break we will reconvene at 5 p.m.

for public testimony and we're going to start directly at 5 p.m.

so come back like at 4 59 so we can roll right into it thank you We have, it is 5 p.m.

So we're gonna reconvene here.

We're gonna go into public testimony.

Thank you all for being here this evening to provide public testimony.

Board policy 1,400 provides our rules for testimony.

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 and I will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe a standard civility required by our procedure.

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

I'm going to pass it off to staff now to summarize a few additional points and then to start reading off the list of testimony speakers.

Thank you, President Topp.

The board will take testimony from those on the testimony list and will go to the waiting list if we are missing speakers.

Please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute and only one person may speak at a time.

The board's procedure provides that most of your time should be spent on the topic you signed up to speak to.

Speakers may cede their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called.

Time isn't restarted and the total time remains two minutes.

The timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person.

When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called.

For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted.

Moving into our list now, for those joining by phone, please press star six to unmute on the conference line.

And for everyone, please do reintroduce yourself when called, as I may miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list.

The first speaker is Raiden Kahlberg Hello, my name is Raiden Kahlberg and I cede my time to Hania Hello everybody, my name is Hania and I am going to be reading a statement written in Spanish by a woman named Darlene who is the mother of children that go to Seattle Public Schools My name is Darlene.

But lastimosamente me fue denegada la solicitud de asilo.

Nos dieron orden de deportación a mis dos hijos y a mí.

Nos encontramos con miedo de volver a Guatemala y que esas personas vayan a cumplir sus amenazas al saber que estamos en el país solos.

Solo somos mis hijos y yo.

No contamos con familiares que brinden su apoyo.

Por eso estamos pidiendo que la comunidad de Rainier Beach, los miembros del Distrito Escolar de Seattle Public Schools y a los quienes puedan ayudar a parar la deportación de mi familia.

Thank you.

Hang on just a moment.

We're going to translate that real fast.

We want to make sure the important message is translated.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Okay.

My name is Darley and my children are .

We came to this country in August 2021 fleeing my country, Guatemala, because of death threats against me and my children if I testified against the people who robbed me of my motorcycle at gunpoint months earlier.

Fearing they would carry out their threats, I decided to come to this country seeking asylum.

We came here to provide for my family, and if they are deported, all that work will be for nothing.

But unfortunately, my asylum request was denied because it was considered just another criminal case in my country, and my two children and I received a deportation order.

We are afraid to return to our country and that those people will carry out their threats, knowing we are back home and alone.

It is just me and my children.

I don't have any family to support me.

That is why we are asking Rainier Beach community, the Seattle School District, and everyone who can help to stop the deportation of me and my two children.

I am not the only mother going through this situation, and it is necessary that the community not only knows this is happening, but also that those can use their positions in society to put an end to the separation of communities and families.

It would affect us immensely emotionally to think about the risk we would have to face living alone.

My children have their communities and friends at school whom they don't want to be separated from.

And as a mother, I have sacrificed so much to raise them through the situation.

I am appealing to everyone who feels moved to do everything possible to stop my family's deportation.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Caitlin Murdock Hi We can hear you

This is the third time that I'm testifying about an enrollment department that pushes half-baked policies before seeking the required feedback of the board under policy 6010 and in blatant disregard of guardrail 4, requiring community engagement before making decisions.

To quote Superintendent Schildener, the first thing is to actually listen to people and have plans.

I've seen people present an idea with no plan behind it.

That's not okay.

You can't bring a half-baked idea to the board or the community." A year ago, the assistant superintendent of school operations proposed closing all option schools. Six months later, she admitted to a hidden policy of not moving waitlists, which for years artificially decreased enrollment. Just last March, six option schools lost assistant principal support at the same time, a highly improbable result. Superintendent Podesta was made aware in May, yet families were still turned away. Facing public outcry, waitlists were moved unevenly in the summer. Today, we are asked to trust the same people without them showing any work of the impact that this has on students and staff. The superintendent stated that waitlists will be moved to 85% of capacity. Why are we reserving room at option schools when there is no other way to enroll than to go through the choice process? Is the answer because the cap would keep the same option schools just under the threshold for the AP support they need? Is it because the enrollment department cannot guarantee less than a 15% error rate in enrollment projections? 20% of families left on wait lists leave the district. In 2024, SPS had retained these students. Nearly $12 million would have been added to the budget. Dissolving waitlists on May 31 will not lead to increased stability. Families inevitably leave the district in the summer, along with their funding. Without backfilling their seats with active waitlists, money will again be left on the table. The true problems in need of fixing are inaccurate enrollment rejections, budgets essentially fixed six months before the start of the year, and unaccountable weighted staffing standards. Without addressing these root causes, an artificial deadline will exacerbate the problem it is meant to fix. As Superintendent Schuldiner observed, trust requires presence, transparency, and genuine engagement. Seattle deserves that. End quote. Tonight, please direct district staff to allow schools to enroll to their full capacity, to keep wait lists operating through the first week of school, and to stop making changes to enrollment without first bringing a portfolio of research-based and impact assessed decisions to the board and community. Seattle's children deserve that. Thank you.

The next speaker is Isaura Jimenez Guerra.

Hi I'm Isaura Jimenez Guerra and I'm going to cede my time to Ashley.

I'm reading on behalf of Mr. G. Dillon's teacher.

My name is Tillman Giebel.

I'm an educator in Seattle Public Schools and currently teach fourth grade at Dunlap Elementary in Rainier Beach.

Dillon is my fourth grade class.

He's kind, compassionate, respectful, and a bright child.

I only have known Dillon since the start of the school year, but it does not take long to see what a great kid Dillon is.

He has many friends at school and is familiar with our staff.

He loves to play soccer and makes jokes with his classmates.

Dylan clearly has roots in the community and has been at Dunlap since kindergarten.

Dylan and his family are immigrants from Guatemala.

Both of his parents work hard to support their three children, the youngest being their two-year-old daughter who Dylan helps take care of.

Dylan's family is under considerable stress and hardship due to their current situation.

I see every day in the classroom for Dylan.

I see this every day in the classroom for Dylan.

Students come to school to learn, to make friends, to feel joy, to feel safe.

However, we know that without basic needs and security met outside of school, it can be extremely difficult for students to thrive.

Dylan has mentioned to me on several occasions how afraid and sad he is due to the threat of deportation.

I see how stressed he is and how the situation occupies his mind at all times.

I ask you put yourself in his shoes, a ten-year-old child of immigrants whose family is looking at being torn apart.

This is a traumatic and devastating experience for anyone, especially a child.

I've held a meeting amongst my students to discuss the potential of losing Dylan and his family.

I ask students to reflect and express their feelings as well as show support for a friend and classmate.

Many of my students as well as myself are children of immigrants.

They are upset, confused, saddened, and disturbed at what is happening to Dylan's family.

As a teacher, I'm trying my best to navigate the situation and I would be lying to say that this didn't affect me as well.

I care for all my students and want to see the best for them.

It hurts me to think of the effect that this deportation could have on Dylan and other students and families.

Currently we are doing our best to stay strong for Dylan and to show support for his family.

My class recently took our first field trip to Carkeek Park.

Students were laughing and smiling.

Dylan was amongst this joy and I wish I could bring this experience every day.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Genevieve.

Good evening board members.

My name is Genevieve Walker and I'm a South Seattle mother of two children.

My eldest daughter started kindergarten at South Shore this year.

I'd like to share an experience and ask this board to consider their role in preventing similar events from happening to other families.

On September 15th, after school pickup, my two girls and I were enjoying our new school community at the Upper Playground by South Shore when several shots rang out.

I looked up to see a shooter and two others in the playfields 100 steps from us.

I grabbed my youngest and we dropped down as I yelled for my kindergartner to get down from the climbing structure.

The shooter unloaded their gun, not injuring anyone, and then ran away.

The shooter was clearly a child, a teenager, Then we heard another child cry out.

I'm never coming back to this park, he said.

The same thing happened last week.

Later, I learned that this was the third instance of shots fired at the play fields this month, that month.

During daylight and while families were present, why did a child have a gun?

What made them feel so unsafe that they chose to fire it near young children?

Many in our community believe the violent events in September were partly caused by Seattle Public Schools' decision to move the interagency school from Columbia City to the Southlake campus.

We feel this move happened without meaningful community input, without adequate notice to students and families, and without a clear public explanation.

We still do not understand why students were placed at a campus in a neighborhood unsafe for them, one where many now feel they must defend themselves or avoid school entirely.

We don't know and can't know whether the September 15th shooter was an interagency student or even involved in this manufactured turf war.

And yet, it is horrifying to learn that SPS's rezoning decision has created unsafe conditions for many, and therefore all, of the 1,600 students that attend school in the Rainier Henderson Corridor.

The next speaker is Evan Peterson

Hi, my name is Liz.

I'm Evan's mom and this is Evan.

I'm gonna read on her behalf, but these are her words.

Hi, my name is Evan.

I'm seven years old and in second grade at South Shore.

I experienced gun violence at the park by our house last year.

People started shooting and my mom was holding me.

I thought we were going to die.

We saw the police and I thought that they were the bad guys because I saw their guns out and it made me very afraid.

After we were done hiding, we ran with our friends to their house until it was safe to go home.

Now I feel worried all the time.

I feel scared that someone might break in or that somebody will knock on the door and then we will answer and then they will shoot a gun.

At school, I feel afraid being on the playground and nervous there will be a shelter in place or a lockdown where you have to shut everything and you can't talk.

You have to be silent and you have to lock all the doors.

I go to Kids Co after school and we don't go on the big playground at school anymore.

It's because if a shooting happened it would be harder to run inside in time.

A lot of times the gate to our school playground is locked so we have to play in the area for the little kids in front of the school instead.

I wish we could have a bigger area to play in because it's small and kind of boring.

It is closer to the door though so I'm glad we would be able to make it back inside if we needed to shelter in place.

I wish the grownups could make it better, like make the schools a little more safer.

Maybe there could be people that go outside once in a while and just make sure that nobody's who's coming around with guns.

Maybe there could be cameras on the trees around the school and not just outside, inside too, so they could see if anyone's trying to sneak in or anything.

We don't go back to the park anymore.

I'm afraid that it might happen again.

Like I know it probably won't, but I'm not really sure.

I'm also afraid to be at school sometimes without my mom.

I have a lot of stomach aches and headaches now.

Sometimes I bite my nails until they bleed.

I'm afraid to sleep by myself at night.

I think my body is trying to tell me something.

My mom says the more we talk about this, the more people will listen to help figure out how to help us feel safe.

She tells me I'm brave, even if I don't believe her sometimes.

I don't want to just feel safe, I want to know that I'm safe.

My friends and I deserve to be safe going to school, the park, the store, walking places, anywhere.

Please do everything you can to help us.

Thank you for your time in allowing me to speak and thank you for letting me say what I think and what I feel.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Enrico Abadesco.

My name is Enrico Abadesco.

I send my time to Annabelle Andreessen.

Good evening.

Safety is clearly on top of mind of our communities.

I am reading a statement by Will Deposoy, a third, fourth, and fifth split classroom teacher at Dunlap.

A couple of months ago, our class started missing a student.

Victor was with me the previous year as a fourth grader, a quiet, shy boy from Mexico, interested in getting better at English and learning.

He made solid friends with his classmates, particularly two other boys who did a lot of translating for him and for me in my teaching to Victor.

At family conference, his mom showed care and concern about his progress, and it would be her or his older brother from high school diligently picking him up at the end of the day.

I remember how Victor would do his very best to sit up close with his notebook with his buddies on either side while I taught, trying to listen and copy notes.

He'd bring home many books, especially on geography.

And he was always volunteering his recess time to take care of our salmon aquarium with water changes or taking care of our school garden by getting the hoses linked up and the spigot turned on to water our vegetables.

He eagerly went on all of our field trips, whether it was watching the Nutcracker, snowshoeing in the Cascades, or just taking a walk around the neighborhood.

In our classroom studies of Washington geography and in his everyday experiences with other classmates from around the world, Victor was taken care of and making this country his home.

I asked to continue teaching him in fifth grade as I could see his confidence in English was growing over the course of a year.

According to our Spanish-speaking staff, his father was lost to violence in Guerrero, Mexico, and the family, especially the boys, were threatened by gangs, often enough that they had to leave for their safety.

They were not criminals and no threat to any of us at this current administration tries to paint them as.

In fact, they were a welcome addition to our network of families that support our school.

We as staff looked forward to all the progress he would make this year as he got ready for middle school.

And then in October, all of a sudden he was gone.

Monday, then Tuesday, until I texted Thursday and found the mother texting back from Mexico.

She had responsibly gone to her asylum hearing and was declined, and so had to make the difficult choice to return to a place where safety for her and her kids was not guaranteed.

I am unsure about the legal counsel or any support she had during the hearing, but the consequence was an empty desk in my class for that week and a loss of motivated student and great kid.

His entire class, especially his two buddies, were visibly upset and we wrote goodbye notes while our staff tried to find ways to keep the lines of communication alive.

We mourned for the times Victor's smile would appear when he learned how to say something in English or when he was with us doing something fun, like releasing our salmon he helped raise into Lake Washington.

If he had stayed, we know he would have been the future neighbor you'd want to have around.

We wish he and his mom would have had a stronger chance, and now we want every student we have at Dunlap, like Dylan, to know that they don't have to face a deportation hearing alone anymore.

Victor's family deportation back then in October leads us to protect Dylan now and to keep any student, no matter who the administration targets next, free from fear while learning in our classrooms in the Seattle Public Schools.

Defend Darlene and her family.

The next speaker is Abe Diaz My name is Abe Diaz and I'm ceding my time to Megan Lee

My name is Megan Lee and I have been a teacher at Seattle Public Schools for eight years.

I was also the first grade teacher of the student whose family is facing deportation orders.

My school, Dunlop Elementary, has a transitional population where students frequently come and go for a variety of reasons.

However, as a direct impact of attacks on immigrant rights and an increase in visible ICE activity in our region, I've seen more drastic changes within our school community.

Today, I'd like to share my experiences of the impacts on my six and seven year old students.

Last year, two of my students missed weeks and weeks of school without notice.

Their attendance became spotty, although the girls loved school and didn't live far from campus.

It became clear that their families were struggling to feel safe bringing them to and from school.

Another student never came back to school and we found out later that her mom moved them out of the country, one of several self-deportations at her school that year.

Her friends made her belated goodbye cards and asked when she could visit.

This year, the office got a call from one of my student's parents.

She said they were moving, and after some probing, added that they were moving back to Columbia.

This time, we did have enough notice to say goodbye, take pictures together, and give hugs.

My class had time to prepare for the change in our classroom community.

Her mom asked if we had an online school option so her daughter could stay in touch with her classmates and teacher.

It's hard when a student leaves my class.

Each student adds to the energy level, the personality, and the joy in our community.

It's devastating when they leave without notice, even more so when I know it wasn't their family's choice.

I take their names down from our line order list, their self-purchase from the bulletin board, and their cubby labels.

I adjust rug partners and clear out their desks.

I remind their classmates that they've left the school, even though they'll always be a part of our Dunlap community.

It's a true loss and one that can be mitigated if families felt supported by our school and district and if they felt safe enough to ask us for help.

Dunlap is not the only school facing these losses.

We need to come together and make our support visible.

I'm calling on the board and district to condemn ICE presence in our communities.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chai Kernita.

Hello, my name is Chi Cornetta.

That was really heartbreaking listening to all of your stories.

Thank you for coming and sharing.

I'm actually here tonight to talk about enrollment.

I'm a parent of two SPS elementary kids who are here tonight.

But first, I'd like to welcome all of the new board members.

I and many other parents feel very optimistic that SPS is headed in the right direction with this new leadership under the new board and the new superintendent, Ben Scholdiner.

I thank you also to Drs.

Paula Montgomery and Drs.

Torres Morales.

for truly engaging with the community before making meaningful changes to highly capable services.

I really appreciate people's willingness to talk to me at SPS, everyone from teachers to principals, and even the superintendent himself.

I've met many families who have left SPS because they felt unheard and I told them that in my experience, it feels different this time.

I think this time it feels like it's getting better.

Maintaining good communication and actually following through are key to rebuilding trust with the community and making things better for students.

This fall I went to several highly capable engagement sessions and I was impressed by the turnout.

Over 100 people at some of them, or most of them actually.

So I went to the enrollment info session on November 13th and I was surprised to see that I was only one of two families there and I was like, what happened?

Did SBS reach out to existing families and importantly to interested families?

SPS is facing a financial crisis because we've lost so many students to private schools, charter schools, home schools, and neighboring school districts.

Many of these students still live in Seattle and we can bring them back, but we need to tell them about all of the great educational opportunities that SPS has to offer and all of the new deadlines that they need to meet in order to access these choices.

I sent a question to the enrollment department and their response was like, families can get their questions answered by going to an enrollment session.

And I was like, but what if they don't know about the sessions or they have to work and they can't make it?

How is that equitable?

So I understand that things evolve and change with each session as new questions come up, but it would be nice if all of this information is easy to find and available.

Changes need to be communicated clearly and promptly to all families, especially if SPS wants to grow enrollment rather than shrink it.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Linda Rigger.

Hello, my name is Linda Rigger, and I will be reading a teacher's testimony from Dunlap Elementary.

My name is Krista Short.

I'm a multilingual teacher at two schools in South Seattle.

My students are children of immigrants who have experienced immigration themselves, oftentimes under extremely traumatic circumstances.

Now as ICE targets people in the streets all over Seattle many of these families are feeling that this new home that they have made that they have made is no longer safe regardless of their immigration status At several schools across the district families have reported to their children's teachers that they no longer feel safe in this country and must make the hard decision to leave Other families have shared that they have received summons to immigration court and are worried.

They won't return home from such appointments Some families have decided to self-deport rather than risk detention.

And then there are students and families that just disappear, leaving their teachers and classmates wondering if they are safe.

For those that stay, there are many families who don't feel safe bringing their kids to school when they know ICE may be active in their neighborhood.

This results in accumulating absences and missed learning for our students furthers from education justice.

As educators, one of our highest priorities is ensuring the safety of our students and in these times, that must include the safety of their families as well.

We are calling on Seattle Public Schools to do better to support our families and ensure their safety in our community.

Seattle Public Schools should have protocols in place to alert families to any active threats that may impact their ability to either drop off or pick up their students from school.

Additionally, establishing one mile safe zones around every district building would further allow families to feel secure bringing their children to school and reduce absences for these students.

The district should also do more to connect families to resources about how they can keep themselves safe or where they may be able to find immigration and legal support.

Furthermore, the district needs to communicate more clearly and accessibly with their families about the steps that they are taking to keep them and their children safe in the light of the current political environment.

This means communicating clearly and directly to families in their home language, not through emailed links to webpages full of legalese.

We are calling on you to help Darlin's family and the many families like hers across the district.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Torres Morales.

The next speaker is Gloria Ramirez.

You'll need to press star six to unmute.

Okay, we are going to move on to the next speaker.

But we will come back if we see your number.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Jackins.

My name is Chris Jackins box 84063 Seattle 98124. My compliments to all the speakers today.

You're doing a very nice job.

Thank you very much for being here.

Our newly elected school board directors thanks for being on the board.

Please improve board oversight asks that items be removed from the consent agenda for district staff to first give an overview.

On the new superintendent three points.

Number one does the board want the new superintendent to produce results for Seattle that match the results in its current district.

Number two in the new superintendent's current district according to the 2023-24 Lansing Michigan annual education report 12 out of 24 schools 50 percent had a status whose performance is in the lowest 5 percent of all schools in the state.

Number three I do not find this inspiring.

Was this information previously withheld from the board.

On the $1.7 million Rogers Elementary construction change order please vote no.

Save this money and instead provide $68,000 a year to the general fund budget.

On the $2.2 million Microsoft contract the board report notes that the action enables use of generative AI.

Please have a public discussion and vote no.

On progress monitoring the district is gathering data using computer adaptive tests.

I oppose this approach.

Results are less comparable.

It also asks harder questions until students fail.

That harms learning.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Manuel S. Lai.

Buenas tardes.

My name is Manuela Slai.

I am a Latino community advocate and student safety chair for Seattle Council BTSA.

I want to welcome the newly elected school board members.

I look forward to collaboration between the school board and communities across the district.

I'm here to talk about the need of deep, intentional, inclusive community engagement and how that is directly connected to student safety.

Seattle Public Schools must partner with families because safety is a team effort.

To be a team player, you need to be accountable to your team.

You need to...

Transparent with your decisions and unapologetically inclusive and respectful of all players.

You have and you will listen to testimony this evening that reflects the reality of students' struggles and affirms the need to listen to parents, students and staff before making decisions that impact entire communities.

Decisions like staffing, facilities, safety and security measures, enrollment, bail times.

I ask members of the school board to ask the right questions from staff and district leadership, follow up on the answers and information given, ensure implementation happens and hold the system accountable to do right by students.

When families facing deportation feel unsupported, when students with disabilities have no appropriate restrooms to use, when parents exercising their right to appeal disciplinary action are intimidated, the system needs to be held accountable to their promise of safe and welcoming environments.

No student is safe until all students are safe.

we have an opportunity to create change together with a new school board an incoming superintendent and a renewed commitment from the public to work in collaboration always centering students.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Samantha Fogg.

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Okay we are going to move on but we will come back to you.

The next speaker is Glenn Thistle.

Hi, I'm Glenn and I cede my time to JRM.

I'm J.R. I represent and as a SPS alumni and as part of South Seattle we find SPS complicit in the deportations of our families because you do not have a sense of responsibility for your family safety that extends beyond the classroom.

We demand that you take a more active role in the fight against ICE in our communities.

This school year more than recess or finals the greatest worry for working class migrant families is ICE.

Darlene and her two sons, a Seattle Public Schools family, has two days to present proof of self-deportation or arrest, detention, and deportation.

In two days, Darlene's two sons' desk could be emptied.

They'll be torn from their friends, their childhood, their education, their entire lives for Guatemala, where no relatives or place to stay waits for them.

Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, Afghan, Somali, Samoan, Tongan, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Mexican, Salvadorian, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, and many other migrants of Rainier Valley gives this district the diversity they take so much pride in.

Yet so many South End families from the Global South face threats from ICE and other predatory institutions that rip up families like the military and the recruiters.

The military and the industry of war are a big reason why many of us are here in the first place.

The military and the recruiters often especially target and take advantage of our students facing insecurity due to their families' immigration status and unstable conditions created by U.S. imperialism and militarism.

Board members, provide the genuinely safe and welcoming schools for your families.

SPS promises in school board resolution number 2 0 1 6 slash 17 dash 12. Ally with your community and foster the relationships that allow families to speak out like Darlene's so that all migrants can be defended.

Our campaigns allow for wins like the recent halt of deportation and temporary restraining order against ICE of another migrant Qiyaji.

Take a proactive approach to the issues facing immigrant families.

Facilitate the immediate release of emergency funds, connect families to your network of legal counsel, have research done about disappearing families and enforce training related to immigrant rights to all employees district-wide.

Migrant students and their families cannot accept your silence on this matter any longer.

They need answers and action now.

Defend Darlene.

The next speaker is Sabrina Burr.

My name is Sabrina Burr immediate past president for Seattle Council President Seattle Council PTSA and D7 area director.

Kinsera Njerra meaning how are the children.

I will tell you our children are not well and we are failing our moral obligation to their future.

Every student is a legacy to their family and every and even some make legacy for this district.

Our decisions impact students, staff, families, and the communities we serve.

Decisions cannot be made in silos without proper engagement and open, honest communication with all impacted.

we have it written in policy.

Policies and guardrail violations you continue to ignore or enforce.

The ones you have never heard, you never held our previous superintendent accountable for.

In Southeast Seattle, Seattle Public Schools has created conditions that not only put our students and staff in danger, but the surrounding schools and the Southeast community as well.

Parents of four schools work to coordinate a safety meeting with SPS and SPD about community safety.

What I heard from these families was heartbreaking.

Many of them, along with their children, experienced neighborhood gun violence on multiple occasions for some.

Looking to partner for solutions, our schools are unresponsive, unprepared, and lack the resources and skills needed.

These trauma experiences affect students' learning, sense of being, and safety.

Many of them are on their first steps in their journey through Seattle Public Schools.

Interagency to Allen Sugiyama High School has decreased in attendance by more than 50%.

Students, we have failed the last opportunity to fill the gaps of us under-educating them.

We do not want to see another loss of life that could have been prevented, nor Seattle Public Schools' false narratives or stories.

We want action, transparency, honesty, authentic communication, are the foundations for trust and it is necessary for healthy relationships.

We must end these emotionally abusive relationships with students, staff, and families.

Let's embrace healing-centered engagement.

Let's move from fear to love.

Let's restore trust and be calm about the business of our students.

Thank you.

The next speaker is June Ivers.

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June, we can see your number.

Press star six to unmute.

Thank you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can.

Thank you, school board members for showing up for our communities.

My name is June Noe Ivers and I'm a community storyteller and a co-treasurer for the Student Voices with Seattle Council PTSA.

We are in the crossroads of great systems change at a global, federal, state, and local levels and have incredible opportunity to support our community and our most valuable resource, our children.

As anxiety, trauma, and harm continue to chip away at the mental health of all of our children, I want to take a moment to frame and focus our lens on the Interagency and Bridges program that stands as a critical need in shaping our budget and infrastructure.

These programs meet the need to support them as they transition through life.

Let us set our students to succeed and not pull up the ladder behind us.

As we rapidly head towards budget writing and given that some of our schools and programs are less well known and understood by the school board and have been neglected by the previous superintendent, the louder conversations from the community has been resistant to change but our reactionary governance based in protection of the status quo is continuing to chip away at the students who are shunned from being present in this conversation.

I request that the Board conduct a work session focused on those programs and schools serving our students most excluded from the access to power.

Budgets are a moral document set with intention.

In order to know how to effectively budget, you must be fluent in the needs of our students.

We ask that the staff and the students from these schools, not just the administrators, be given the opportunity to present and share their stories.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Michelle Campbell.

Michelle Campbell, if you're online, you'll have to press star six to unmute.

Okay, we're going to move on, but we will come back to you.

The next speaker is Janice White.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

This is Janice White.

I had the honor of participating on Saturday as a panelist in a statewide summit with educators and advocates working to reduce restraint and eliminate isolation in Washington schools.

Thank you to Director Rankin for attending as well as to the Seattle educators and families who were there.

The data about restraint and isolation shows that black students, students of color, and students with disabilities are disproportionately affected by these harmful practices, especially students at the intersection of those identities.

Students who don't feel safe in our schools are not going to make academic progress.

While the school board enacted policy to eliminate isolation in SPS, there is still a lot of work to be done.

policy 3246 calls for an annual report to the board the report for school year 2023-24 was not published on the district website until July 2025 more than a year after the 2023-24 school year ended that should not be acceptable We also know that there are many unreported instances of restraint.

We need to make sure that educators and families understand that the reason for reporting is to identify schools and individual students in real time who would benefit from technical assistance to reduce those restraints.

You should be asking what systems are in place to recognize when technical assistance is needed and how that assistance is being provided.

In addition, we need to shift from using outdated behavior management practices that are not effective and instead adopt culturally responsive and evidence-based frameworks that focus on addressing the reasons some students are not able to meet expectations in order to prevent concerning student behaviors which lead to students being restrained.

The next speaker is Huiling Yang.

My name is Hueyling Young.

I seek my time for Nathan.

Hello.

Today you have heard from Darlene and her story in her own words.

You have heard from four different educators at Dunlap who have shared testimony about the impacts that ICE has in our classrooms.

And just before this board meeting, the South End community rallied outside of this building to make our public fight.

You continue to insist that your policy for ICE exists and it is sufficient.

We are telling you that it is not enough and that SPS students, specifically working class migrants, are being torn from our classrooms and our educators feel unsupported having to navigating ICE arrests on their own.

We are calling on Seattle Public Schools to not something passive like emails to resources.

Use your political sway and financial resources to halt the deportation of Darlene and her family.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Olive Sao Nugo.

Good afternoon.

My name is Olive Goh.

I'm a parent of two children who attended Beacon Hill International School.

My child, James Duggar, was struggling at Beacon Hill.

Rommel Bradford was the one caregiver and educator who gained James' trust.

Because of Rommel's consistent care and attention over two years, James is today a thriving sixth grader.

Rommel has been under investigation by Seattle Public Schools since June 2025. We believe the grounds for his investigation are flimsy.

No parent or student has complained about Rommel.

To the contrary, many have stood up for him in this investigation brought about by another teacher at Beacon Hill.

Rommel, if terminated by SPS, will reduce even more the presence of black educators at Beacon Hill International School.

In the last year alone, Beacon Hill has gone from six black teachers and support staff to two if Rommel is fired.

We therefore believe Rommel's investigation to be part of a pattern of bullying and harassment of black educators at Beacon Hill International School.

Black educators are already underrepresented in our community.

Students of color like my sons need educators like Rommel for their belonging and thriving.

If anything, Rommel's relational approach to teaching is exactly what our children need more of, not less.

Termination by SPS of Rommel Bradford would contradict your mission of racial equity, to focus on students of color who are furthest from educational justice.

As you listen next to my fellow parents, ask yourselves this, would we be here today discussing potential dismissal of a white or Asian woman teacher, writing letters to her students, sharing her personal experiences so that our young people feel seen, heard and supported?

The next speaker is Warlena Wheeler

Hi, my name is Marlena Wheeler.

I am a parent of students at Dunlap Elementary and Rainer Beach High School.

I have had the pleasure of meeting several parents in crisis.

We're all in crisis together.

There was a shooting during the daytime, I believe the first week or second week of school.

I met one parent that led to meeting many parents that were impacted not by that shooting but actually several shootings.

I'm a native of South Seattle.

I'm also a victim of gun violence and know how to navigate in situations where no one will respond.

So what's sad is that I've been meeting with these parents and other community members sharing how we can pretty much support each other and how do we move forward?

How do we get therapy for our kids?

There's nothing available for elementary school students.

We were brought into a meeting that we pretty much fought for for about a month.

to meet with Seattle School District.

We were brought into a room with people that are not decision makers.

I'll be honest, it was an insult to our intelligence.

It was a presentation, had nothing to do with what we wanted to know.

There are parents here that have never experienced this and they never should.

I think it's a shame that we're spending time and money on things that don't make sense.

and people aren't showing up because they're uncomfortable to have a conversation so I'd rather you be uncomfortable don't want to hear what we're saying than to have one of our kids harmed or killed and no one knows what to do if you don't know what you're doing or need someone else to step in step in that position say that I'd rather hear we don't know or we're working on it instead of sending people in the room together that have the same questions for the district that was a presentation that pretty much had an organization that has questions for the district and possibly how they can help.

That was parents that have questions and not sure what the answers are to those questions.

And we all were putting in a room with pretty much the battle each other.

I don't know.

We didn't get anything done and we have organically been coming together to see how we can support each other and show up like this.

where we can get some questions answered and possibly you can understand where we stand.

There is no support for organizations that know how to respond to gun violence.

No one at the school has been trained to respond to gun violence and yet we have to send our kids every day when they're under, they're traumatized.

and then they potentially can be held under behavioral concerns or sent to the office where the parents may not be comfortable with letting the school know what's going on deemed that they will be victim blamed or we don't know how to respond to that or just a number of different things.

I've been sitting with several parents listening, understanding, and then also my child was sent from another school's district to Seattle because of a similar situation.

So at this point, it's not just a Seattle thing.

It's starting to look like a state thing and we want answers.

If my daughter still wants to say something, I'm going to give her the opportunity to.

My daughter has been impacted by gun violence several times.

And when you ask for help, everyone always refers you back to the school.

Is your school is your child's school age?

OK, reach out to the resource person.

Reach out to this person.

They're not trained.

And I don't blame them for not having an answer, not knowing what to do.

They're not trained to respond.

And if they do respond, it's usually cause harm.

So I'll let my daughter say something because she just has a little bit to say it's impacting her.

Check your kids backpack before they go to school and we want to feel safe and respect it.

That's it.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Yana Parker.

Press star six to unmute.

Hold on.

Now press star six to unmute.

Hi, this is Yana Parker.

I'm not being allowed in the building for the testimony.

Can somebody open the door?

Hello?

Yes, we can hear you.

Staff is letting you in.

Let's move to the next person.

We will come back to you when you are physically in this space.

Okay, the next speaker is Jasmine Cortez.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Jasmine Cortez.

I'm a 2025 graduate of Interagency Southeast location and I'm here to talk about my experience and my concerns currently.

During my time at Interagency Academy I had a positive experience because being in our own location in Columbia City gave me and my classmates an opportunity for a safe, supportive and welcoming environment.

teachers were dedicated to teaching students without having to worry about threats out in the community and inside our school and we felt safe and ready to learn but in October 2024 fights between different campuses and agency were reported to the district more fights have happened before and after and currently recently and both in both outside schools and in neighborhood parks.

All incidents are reported to the school administration and the school district and central office.

This year's decision to move interagency into a building together with an existing high school without listening to students, families and staff is unacceptable and irresponsible.

An unnecessary bet on student safety and well being.

This decision was made behind closed doors without consulting to our school communities.

I worry about the students and the school district, and I want the school district to review their decision and put the student safety first.

Also, I support the creation of an associated student body in interagency academy locations.

Students have the right to organize and have their voices heard and the district leadership to have responsibility to listen and avoid dangerous situations like the one at Allen Tiyumbaya building.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Yana Parker.

Good evening.

Sorry about that being late, but the weather is great.

So my name is Yana Parker.

I'm a parent and I serve on the Board of Seattle Special Education, PTSA.

As you heard tonight and before tonight, Bridges program, about the Bridges program, there is a harmful pattern overall of no urgency when students with disabilities need support.

Teachers are doing everything they can, but the Southwest Adult Transition Program is still not a safe space.

It should not take two weeks to hear back on a student's urgent medical issue.

Compliance is often prioritized over students' needs.

The district likes to say that parents are equal members of students' teams, but disabled parents, they don't get accommodations and they are not treated as necessary.

They are treated as optional.

For example, after years of using Zoom for a real-time transcript, I was told by staff that they could not provide it because, quote, our school is not a DHH school site.

When parents don't receive records in advance or cannot access meetings, they are not equal members of their child's team.

Accessibility is not an extra.

It is how disabled parents access meetings and participate in their child's education, and that's how we are recognized as partners.

Your Section 504 policy is built delay into this system.

It is unsafe to allow 25 days just to decide whether to evaluate and another 30 days to quote-unquote evaluate when 504 process rarely involves testing.

That can mean two months for a child drowning while waiting for basic support.

It is especially harmful when a student has just been evaluated for special education and recommended a 504 plan.

I have two sentences left.

Students should not have to wait again for another bureaucratic step to receive basic accommodations.

Please fix these policy flaws to keep our children safe and this wait to fail approach that allows the district to drag their feet.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Christopher Fontana.

Good evening.

The five of us have a sequence of speakers.

It would make much more sense for Stefano, who is a couple speakers after me, to precede me.

So we have to keep in order, and we actually only have two more speakers left on the testimony list this evening.

Thanks for your service.

Good evening.

I'm Christopher Fontana.

My son received one of the letters at Beacon Hill International School from Mr. Bradford.

As it happens, I've provided professional development to thousands of educators across the country, including nearly a thousand Seattle Public School educators, including the entire staff of Beacon Hill International School.

These professional development trainings and coachings focus on building culturally responsive relationships and inclusive, equitable learning communities where students feel belonging.

These letters, these supposed letters, rather than provoke an investigation, should earn Mr. Bradford the highest rating on the revised Danielson evaluation model that the district uses.

Based on my 38 years in education in our biased educational system, I firmly believe that the allegations against Mr. Bradford were born out of racist, anti-black sentiment by staff at Beacon Hill International School.

I have observed BHIS staff who do not have cross-cultural competencies, who do not teach with culturally responsive practices, who are unconsciously anti-black, and who are lost and or conspicuously silent each time race or racial equity comes up in conversation.

White SPS educators who have made any attempt to move forward on their own racial identity journey know that when it comes to conversations around race, silence from white colleagues amounts to complicity with the status quo which centers whiteness.

There is a dangerous disconnect between what Seattle Public Schools' HR department believes is appropriate teaching and what principals actually use to evaluate teachers.

In a district that claims to hold racial equity as a core value, I request that this board step in to prevent yet another character assassination of an outstanding and exemplary black male educator.

Thank you.

We received word that Michael Schloss will not be able to provide testimony tonight.

I'm gonna go back to the people that we missed and then we will move into the wait list.

Gloria Ramirez.

Gloria Ramirez.

I think we're going to move on.

Just to clarify, we don't see Gloria Ramirez.

No.

We don't.

Samantha Fogg.

For the record, my name is Samantha Fogg, a parent in Seattle Public Schools.

Seattle Public Schools cannot make our family safe on its own, but our communities, our city cannot keep our children safe without you being deeply engaged in this work.

Thank you to Director Smith, Principal Benz, and former Director Sarju for attending the Allies and Deafhood training this weekend.

PTO for hosting.

Understanding civil rights is the first step to being able to make sure that our students receive them.

As threats to our students and community increase and federal protections disappear or become threats, directors, you can no longer rely on the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to be a backstop or to be the mechanism that forces your hand.

You must vote to support our district in honoring civil rights and also hold our district accountable, not just performatively, but in our buildings and in our classrooms.

This is on you now.

Keeping our children safe requires you to be actively engaged with our city, our CBOs, our police departments, our youth.

It requires you to speak out and advocate on behalf of our children with our city, with the federal government, with the state.

It means understanding that our children need to be able to get to and from school.

And when you move a school, sometimes you change the safety of that route.

and families need to be able to safely gather before and after school.

It means knowing enough about what's happening in communities to support our families and students, and knowing that moving and versatile around creates life-threatening situations.

You must engage with our students, interagency, bridges, virtual options, Decisions that are made in your name or by you have safety consequences.

We need to work together, our school buildings, central office, across our city, across our state, with our families.

Our state legislature is dropping pre-filed bills now.

And some of them, like Senator Valdez's 5855, have a direct impact on the safety of our families.

And I hope that you will advocate for law enforcement to not be masked.

Like Representative Berkowitz 2116 which will be about funding and then there are bills that are more directly about you.

Experience and expertise in navigating this difficult legislative session will be critical.

School safety is community safety.

I heard that from Director Yun tonight and I really wanted to reiterate that and to thank you for considering your role in the policies and making sure that they keep our children safe and that you'll understand whether or not they're being implemented.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Michelle Campbell.

Oh, you're unmuted.

Hello, my name is Michelle Campbell and I'm a mom to a fourth grader at Sandpoint Elementary and secretary of Seattle Council PTSA.

I want to thank everyone who has taken time tonight to testify so far.

I also want to thank everyone who is listening to and receiving this testimony.

Both take courage.

It's clear that we have a lot of work to do together.

I listened to the school board audit meeting yesterday afternoon.

A few audits discussed were concerning PTA and CBO partnerships.

One of the findings was a lack of reliable and structured volunteer vetting process.

This is a safety concern and should be addressed immediately.

Anyone that interacts with students must be properly vetted.

This is the responsibility of the district and it's not negotiable.

I think SPS office, SPS central office has just one volunteer coordinator for the entire district.

so I can understand why this is a current liability.

I also understand that the district is having to make really hard decisions when it comes to balancing the budget year after year because of a structural financial deficit.

We know we are not lacking community opinions about how this deficit should be solved.

We are, however, lacking urgency, an authentic coordinated effort, radical imagination, reciprocal accountability, and decisions that center students, community values, and foundational beliefs.

Safety is not negotiable.

Solving a structural financial deficit requires structural change.

We cannot simply tweak around the edges.

Improving student outcomes is going to require a deep examination of all our adult behaviors, naming what we see, and working together to create a safe and sustainable system where all our students can thrive.

Thank you.

Moving into the wait list, the next speaker is Stefano Mazzilli.

Thank you and thank you for your time.

My name's Stefano Mazzilli and I'm also a parent at Beacon Hill and speaking about the decision on Rommel Bradford.

So SPS will decide Rommel's future based on whether his conduct warrants termination because he's a safety threat or just remediation.

We feel that termination is not warranted, though a case may be made for additional coaching and guidance.

I would like to focus on the facts.

In three key areas we understand SPS will judge him on.

First, teachers must not share personal experiences as a way to build rapport with students that can be considered leading to grooming and exclusionary behaviour.

It is a fact that 60 plus parents signed up in support of Ramell, positive influence on Beacon Hill children after being made aware and shown some of the letters that are being used in this case.

none of those parents or students who received letters had shared that this was unacceptable.

We can provide any of those testimonies and would like to see any counterfactual.

Second, supervisors have considered that Rommel's boundaries with students may require further guidance, but none have reported him as a safety concern, ever.

Will he be terminated because he chose to build rapport perhaps wrongly in this way?

Third, teachers may communicate equally and must communicate equally with all students in their classes and then not select individuals which could be perceived as crossing boundaries.

If it is not a school safety violation then this is about teaching this teacher better boundaries.

Teach him and let him show that he can be better with those boundary decisions and perhaps time management in future to avoid such accusations.

We want SPS board to recognize that this potentially is actually repeated bullying and potentially motivated by anti-black racism.

This needs your investigation at Beacon Hill and consideration in the decision on Rommel Bradford.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Lisa Querido.

Good evening.

My name is Lisa Corrito.

I am a mother of two who have gone through Beacon Hill International School.

My youngest is still there as a fifth grader.

In May 2024 my husband Christopher was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Rommel Bradford knew of this diagnosis and went out of his way to take care of our son, checking in on him every day, letting him know he was cared for and supported, and encouraging him to stay focused at school because that is who he is and what he does.

Mr. Bradford has been by far the most influential and positive educator in both of our children's lives.

So we were surprised and shocked when an SPS investigator spoke with us in mid September when we learned that Mr. Bradford was under HR investigation for letters he wrote to students like the one he wrote to our son.

We brought copies of this letter in case anybody would like to read them this evening.

This was hands down one of the kindest and most supportive letters we have ever received about our two children from any educator.

One that I'm sure any parent would be touched and moved by.

We were and remain shocked again to learn that this letter was considered to have crossed boundaries for sharing too much personal information.

In this time of massive era defining change it is educators like Rommel who bring their heart and soul to their work and who honor students on their own individual journeys.

That is what allows me to stay hopeful.

Losing Mr. Bradford would be a disheartening and tragic loss for SPS and the entire community.

Thank you.

If there is still time we would like to invite a student to speak on behalf of our mail.

So we have technically hit our limit of public testimony speakers this evening but I appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

I'm told per policy I don't think we can make an exception for our policy but we will go have a break and directors will have an opportunity to go and speak to the student during the break right here right following our public testimony.

just to make sure that we are staying within our policy and our rules and keeping a fair process for everyone including folks who did not make the public testimony list this evening.

I think that concludes our public testimony.

I want to just thank everyone who came out this evening took time from their busy lives to provide with us testimony for so we can best do our jobs.

I specifically just want to uplift and recognize the fear and concern expressed regarding ICE and hoping that the folks here who spoke are willing to work with the board and staff to figure out how better we can support our families and students.

With that we our public testimony has concluded.

We are going to take a five minute break now opportunity for transition as we move into work and opportunity for board directors to also talk a little bit talk with folks in the audience.

So we will come join back together here at 620 I think I can't quite see the clock 620 yes.

We are gonna join back together here.

We have a lot to get through on our agenda this evening.

And I realize I'm the only board director up here.

Director Rankin, I'm gonna pull you back.

I'm present even though I'm not at the diet Director Smith is also here we need one more director and we can continue on Mindset.

I have a lot to do this evening, so we have reached the consent portion of today's agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director Mizorahi.

Just so folks are aware, Item 7, BTA 5, approval of Microsoft Enterprise license agreement has been removed from the consent agenda at the request of Director Smith prior to the meeting.

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

I would like to remove Item 9 for John Rogers Elementary.

Item 9 removed from the consent agenda.

May I have a revised motion for the consent agenda as amended.

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Second.

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

Call all in favor of the consent agenda as amended signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

So we will move to items removed from the consent agenda.

And we'll start with the item, the approval of the Microsoft Enterprise License Agreement.

May I have a motion for this item?

I move the board of directors to authorize the superintendent to execute a 12-month contract with Dell Computer Corp to provide Microsoft Enterprise license solutions from January 1st, 2026 to December 31st, 2026 for a total not to exceed amount of $2,267,626.

Take your time.

2,267,626 plus Washington state sales tax with any minor additions, deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the purchase orders.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

Vice President Briggs has made the motion and Director Mizrahi has seconded.

Director Smith, you requested that this item be removed from the consent agenda to allow you to abstain from the vote due to a conflict of interest.

Would you like to provide any further comment?

No further comment.

I have a conflict of interest so I will be abstaining.

Do any other directors have questions or discussion?

Director Song.

I do have a question.

Is there a reason why it's a 12 month contract and not a longer contract?

So let's call up Carlos to come up to the podium and answer questions here.

Good evening, directors.

Yes, we're trying to negotiate some credits, and this was the best way to get the most amount of credits for this year.

And once we go through this year of contract, we'll be able to negotiate better credits on the newest contract.

Further questions?

All right, let's see if staff will please call the vote.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Aye.

Director Smith?

Oh, she's abstaining.

Oh.

She needs to say.

Oh, yeah.

She abstained.

Yeah, yeah.

Sorry, I know, sorry.

My teens is low, I click on unmute and it takes a second.

I abstain.

Director Song?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Lavallee?

Aye.

President Top?

Aye.

This motion is passed with six yeses and one abstention.

Moved the other item pulled from the consent agenda John Rogers Elementary construction change order number 24 to contract P5186.

Can I have a motion for this item?

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute construction change order number 24 in the amount of 1,702,439 plus Washington State's sales tax with any minor additions, deletions, and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to make any necessary actions to implement the change order.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Second.

Vice President Briggs made a motion for this and Director Mizrahi seconded, sorry everyone.

Wondering staff wise, Dr. Buddleman, are you speaking to this or for questions?

And then I assume Director Lavallee has some questions.

Settleman, Assistant Superintendent for Finance.

I have Amanda Fulford, the project manager on this project, with me to help answer any questions.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

As this is the 24th change order on this project, can I get some ability to know what the overruns have been?

And if this is within a normal range, for an increase at this point, light point in the project.

Yes, absolutely.

Can you hear me?

There we go.

Yes, perfect.

I'm a little shorter.

Yes, so to your first question, to your second question, excuse me, this is a typical amount you would see for a contract this size for the scale of the replacement project that we did.

This was actually, it encompasses a lot of unforeseen conditions that we were wrapping up with a contractor.

Not to get into it too much, but John Rogers is approximately a nine acre site and we ran into a lot of water issues on site.

We actually found that there was some storm water running off the hill onto the property once we took up the existing drainage.

which contributed to a substantial amount of dewatering over what we had anticipated in the contract, as well as a lot of unsuitable soils.

So that is the primary cause contributor to this contract change order.

Superintendent Podesta.

Just to make one point, there are many, many change orders on big construction projects that a change order doesn't equate to a cost overrun.

We structure these contracts allowing us to make decisions on the way and work with our contractors so I wouldn't want to leave the impression that 24 means 24 cost overruns.

We constantly monitor contracts and adapt to conditions and give our contractors directions, and those are contractual change order.

Again, that isn't equivalent to an overrun.

Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you.

Director Song.

I have more of a request versus a question.

I think in this bar, it's hard for us to gauge the size of this change order without knowing the cost of the overall project and the combined sum of change orders.

So in the future, I think it might just be one addition that we could have in here that would help us bring this into context.

Thank you.

Other directors?

All right, can we please have a vote on this item?

Director Rankin?

Aye.

Director Smith?

Aye.

Director Song?

Yes.

Vice President Briggs?

Aye.

Director Lavallee?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

President Topp?

Aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

All right, we're off to officer elections.

I'm told this has to happen after the consent portion of the agenda, which seems like a bizarre part of our policy, but that's where it fits.

So the first regular board meeting in December is our annual organizational meeting where we conduct officer elections.

We'll now move to the election of board officers, and I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Podesta, who will preside over the election process as secretary of the board.

Superintendent Podesta.

Thank you, President Taub.

I'm thinking for a week, should I grab that gavel and just pound it?

Just in case you guys get out of line.

So let me walk through the process for each officer position, President, Vice President, and Member at large.

I will take nominations from the board.

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

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

Compliant with state law and board policy, the voting will be conducted in a roll call format.

The voting concludes at the point when one nomination receives four or more votes.

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

So in summary, nominations, discussion, and then votes.

And then at the conclusion for all the positions, the election of all the positions, the elected officers will have an opportunity to provide remarks.

And officers are seated right away for the rest of this meeting, if I believe I have that right.

So, nominations are now open for the Office of President.

I would like to nominate Director Topp.

And I failed to note that seconds are not required, but they certainly would be accepted.

I second.

I second.

Are there any other nominations on staff?

Could we call the vote?

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I said you had remarks.

See?

There are opportunities for everyone to make remarks.

I'd love to speak to the nomination, if that's OK.

I don't know.

What is that?

Director Mizrahi.

Can I try your?

I think it's been a busy year and I think President Topp has done an exceptional job navigating a lot of very complex issues, not least of which is going through the process of engaging with the search firm and navigating that whole dynamic, all the community engagement that we did through that and then eventually hiring a new superintendent.

I think we talked it was it the last meeting?

It feels like a long time ago, the last full meeting.

And I think rightfully all my fellow directors were very complimentary of the work that President Topp did during that time.

And I think probably a lot of people in the public don't know, but the president role is taking on a lot of work.

Already these are jobs that are a lot of work and that are not fully compensated or really compensated at all.

And whoever takes on the role president is agreeing to do even more.

So I think it is a total gift to this board and to our our school system that Director Top is even willing to do another term.

But I think more than anything, we have a lot of change happening right now.

We have a new superintendent coming in and a lot of change in the city.

We have a new mayor, a new county exec.

And I think that having some stability in that presidential role to carry over for the start of this new superintendent's tenure will be very valuable for our whole system.

And I hope that you'll be willing to do it again.

Any other directors have comments?

Director Rankin.

Yeah.

I mean, it's not necessary to second, but I'll second what Director Mizrahi said and also take this opportunity to kind of reemphasize something I said earlier in the meeting, which is that we have a very inexperienced board.

as a whole.

And the stronger the board as a whole can be, the better for Seattle students and for all of us.

And that the role of the president, and I'm not sure why you want to do it again, but it is one of additional responsibility It's not one of additional authority.

The authority belongs to the board as a whole.

And so bigger picture-wise, I think a lot of other districts have a rotation.

It's not a political jockeying for something.

It's not a, all right, it's my turn.

I'll do it.

I'll run the meetings.

I'll put in the extra time.

I think, ideally, that's where I would love to see our board get.

is that any one of us, any one of the people occupying the seats fully understands our authority and role and could lead as president.

But I do think there is a lot of change happening and that Director Topp, Director Briggs, and Director Mizrahi have worked well together as a team.

I think bringing on our new superintendent and with lots of different relationships up in the air and our need to be integrated with so many different systems, maintaining some stability where we can is a positive thing right now.

And I appreciate all three of them for being willing to take on that added time.

But yeah, I just kind of wanted to state that for the health and robustness of the board as a whole, my sort of future vision would be one where Ideally, anyone would be prepared to take on that responsibility and just ensure that the role of the governing board is equally borne by all members with appreciation for someone who's willing to do the extra time and run the meeting.

So this is a long way of saying I support what Joe said, and I encourage us all step up our game, I guess, in a way, or continue to be engaged in what it actually means to be on the board.

So we're not reliant on individuals that together were a really strong body.

Any further comments by any other directors?

All right.

Sorry for jumping the gun before Ms. Worth.

Would you call the vote?

Director Briggs?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

The nomination of Director Topp as Board President has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Great.

So again, we'll move through the process and invite officers to make comments when we elected all three.

So now nominations are open for the Office of Vice President.

I mean, spoiler, I would like to nominate Director Briggs.

I'll second that.

All right.

Would any directors like to make any comments?

Make a comment.

I think and I alluded to this in my oath of office speech, I'm really looking for really significant changes to how this board is going to be doing its business and over the course of campaigning I heard from a lot of the public that this governance framework has really not been serving our district very well and in fact three of us participated in a Seattle Times webinar and Ryan who was moderating it said that there were a lot of questions about student outcomes focused governance.

So I haven't had an opportunity to engage Director Briggs about her plans if she were to serve in the leadership role, but I open kind of discussion about what kind of changes she would anticipate.

Further comments?

I don't know.

I'm not sure if that was a direct ask to Director Briggs or just generally.

I mean, it's up to the board.

It's not up to the vice president.

So I don't know.

Are you just interested in what my perspective is?

So I don't have a particular allegiance to student outcomes focused governance.

I do think it's important that we have a governance framework that has been noted in multiple audits and reports over a period of many decades that it was is very important for the functioning of the district for the board to adopt a policy governance model.

So I think that it would be very misguided of us to ignore that direction.

best practices policy governance framework, I'm totally, I'd be happy to use the WASDA framework.

That is the state sanctioned version that all the other school districts in our state use, or at least it's a reference for them.

So yeah, that's basically my feelings on the topic.

If you have any follow-up questions, I'm happy to answer.

I'm wondering if you're planning to continue to engage coaching services or consulting services from the people who lead the student outcomes focus governance.

Again, I don't think that's my choice.

I think that would be a board discussion.

So I don't have a, I would be open to having that conversation as a board.

Any further questions or comments regarding this nomination?

Yeah, I didn't want to say this now, but it's been brought up.

We didn't implement it.

We're not doing student outcomes focused governance.

It's been weaponized.

It's been misconstrued.

We need a framework to make sure that we do the job of the board.

We don't have that.

We're not using one.

We do need change desperately.

and so can we just stop this nonsense?

Like seriously, I know people ran on it to repeal it.

Congratulations, it's repealed.

Like there's nothing to, What we have to talk about as a board and with the next superintendent, and one thing I'm very excited about the next superintendent about is he really understands board governance and the role of the board superintendent relationship.

And I think that conversation will go very differently with a person who wants to engage in that relationship and understands the importance and doesn't see the board as an annoyance, as has been the case for many, many years and several superintendents.

And so student outcomes focused governance I mean, nobody's, as far as I know, engaging in the training at this point.

And if there were to be a contract renewal, the board would have to approve that in a public meeting.

So it's gone.

It's done.

It doesn't happen.

It hasn't been happening.

There's even an audit from 2024 that describes the ways in which it has not been happening.

initial contract was not brought to the board for approval the first time around.

And I was eating lunch in the cafeteria earlier today.

I kind of disagree with your characterization.

I do think student outcomes focused governance has been present in this district and a very specific concern that I have was I ran into some staff members while I was at the cafeteria, and I was having a conversation with them.

The staff member saw her supervisor, and she saw some district leaders, and she immediately expressed to me that she was going to get in trouble for having a conversation with me.

That is the overhang of this governance framework, and I really would like us to move forward where we are able to have regular conversations with staff members as board members.

We're all one team.

We're all working together, and that is the change then.

The framework does not bar staff members from having conversations with board directors.

so I think this is not the right time for this conversation.

I would be thrilled for us to have an actual honest and open conversation about this when it's scheduled for the agenda because it's been weaponized and politicized and it ultimately hurts children.

I appreciate this discussion.

If we could have any further comments related to the election of officers, that'd be great.

If anyone has more comments to make on that subject specifically, and if not, could you call for the vote?

Director Lavallee?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Yes.

Director Smith?

Aye.

Director Song?

No.

Director Top?

Aye.

Director Briggs?

Aye.

The nomination of Director Briggs as Vice President has passed by a vote of six yes and one no.

Great, thank you.

So nominations are now open for the Office of Member at Large.

Do I have any nominations?

I would like to, oh sorry, yeah.

No, no, go for it.

and nominate Director Masurahi.

Second.

Are there any other nominations?

Hearing none would any directors have comments they'd like to make?

I have a few comments just because, Director Mizrahi, I have come to rely on you on this board as someone to seek advice from and when things get difficult to kind of help navigate how to move forward.

I think you bring a thoughtful, calm, steady presence to difficult and high-stakes conversations.

I really appreciate your ability to push on issues when things really matter and to keep students at this center.

I'm super excited for you to continue in this role as member at large and you're very good at seconding items.

Any further comments?

If not Ms. Worth could you call the vote?

I have one.

I just I also want to echo I appreciate Joe's support of when things are difficult and being level-headed.

And something I appreciate also is he intrinsically understands that no one board director has authority, that everything should be done as a body.

I feel like transparency is a great strength of Joe's and that's especially important as a board officer by our policy, by law, the officers don't get to decide things that are not voted on by the board.

And I just appreciate the kind of common sense straightforwardness that Joe brings to that role.

Great.

Thank you.

Last call.

Any comments?

Otherwise, Ms. Worth, could you call the vote?

Director Mizrahi.

Sorry, we're next on the list.

Director Rankin?

Yes.

Director Smith?

Aye.

Director Song?

Yes.

Director Top?

Aye.

Director Briggs?

Aye.

Director Lavallee?

Aye.

The nomination of Director Mizrahi as member at large has passed unanimously.

Thank you, congratulations President Topp, Vice President Briggs and member at large Mizrahi.

So apparently I need to read the new officers into the record.

Everything old is new again.

Read the new officers into the record.

So for the record Seattle Public Schools Board of Director President is Gina Topp.

Vice President is Evan Briggs and member at large is Joe Mizrahi.

So now I'd like to turn it over to President Topp for any comments you would like to make.

Yeah, I don't have any specific comments other than I think that what we saw a little bit this evening is some of the things that I hope that we can address at our retreat, some of what, which is sort of talking through how we want to govern as a body moving forward as well as I think putting in a place a code of conduct for how we as members work together and I saw that, I've heard that from many different directors wanting to kind of have some clarity about how we have a working relationship since there are differing views.

I don't have any other comments.

Are you passing it back to me?

Am I recessing?

I'm going to pass it to Vice President Briggs to see if she has any comments.

I'm very honored to serve in the role of Vice President for a second year.

That's all.

Thank you for your service and member at large Ms. Rahi do you have any comments?

I think I've enjoyed the collaboration with President Topp and Vice President Briggs over the last year.

And gosh, this mic is just not great.

I'm going to scoot back here.

See, that works.

And I think that it would be nice to do that for another year.

And I do think that it's clear that there's going to be some choppy things that we have to work through as a board.

you know we can all do that together and hopefully we have lots more time and space for those maybe difficult at times conversations but they're important ones too.

So congratulations to our new board officers and I will reluctantly give the gavel back to President.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

All right, and agreed.

Thank you.

I look forward to working both with Vice President Briggs and Director Mizrahi again.

I think we make a good team, but with that, we're going to take a brief recess to reset for the remainder of the meeting, and I'll call back the meeting at Let's do seven, but let's really try to be in our seats by seven and we'll be, oh no, we'll be up here still because we're going to do introduced items.

So we still have a lot to go.

So seven, please, please.

I'm actually going to say 658. So that way folks are back.

658. We can keep going.

All right.

I'm seeing nodding heads that we should keep going.

Perfect.

So we will move into the introduction items.

So the first item for introduction is approval of the negotiated 2026-27, 2027-28 school year calendars.

I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Pritchett Goodman to introduce this item.

Good evening, Dr. Sarah Pritchett Goodman, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources.

again introducing our negotiated school calendars for the 2026-27 school year and the 2027-28 school years.

Approval of this item would I'm sorry.

Approval of this item would approve the calendars as negotiated with SEA and our other labor partners who participated in the process to develop our calendars.

Calendars have been created using the formulas as outlined in our approved Seattle Education Association CBA.

I will note that these calendars for the next two years do include a day in between semesters.

We had went away from that.

that day in between semesters when we were able to go to remote instruction during inclement weather.

So that was brought back in as we've changed or OSPI has changed guidance on remote work or remote school during inclement weather.

We invited all of our labor partners to come in and talk with us and discuss the calendars.

Again, we considered all the options and both SEA and PASS have agreed to the attached calendars in the documents and I'll pause there for any questions.

Director Lavallee.

You already knew I had a question.

I just wanted to check.

I know we've had problems with our calendars in the past, conflicting with different religious holidays.

For both of these years, we double-checked various religions that are practiced within our schools to make sure that start dates, graduation dates, and more don't conflict with those.

We have looked at we have a standard set of holidays that are included in the calendar and then we pass out to all of our schools guidance around the various religious holidays that are observed and practiced by our students and staff.

And we have given guidance to schools to encourage them not to have those particular types of larger events and things of that nature on days that would be considered religious holidays and such.

but also for our start days and our start of kindergarten days.

I know those have conflicted in the past, specifically with Jewish holidays.

So can I get confirmation that those have been factored into this calendar this time for these next two school years?

the start date for the school year is part of the formula that's in our collective bargaining agreement and that is the first Wednesday of September so that piece is started I will note that around the start date for kinder and check that and I can speak to that when we come back for approval.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

This is actually such a good example of where board time and our authority as a board has been disappeared into other functions over the course of decades.

So under RCW 28A.330.1007, the board has the power to fix the time for annual opening and closing of schools and for the daily dismissal of pupils before the regular time for closing schools.

So in my experience over the last decade and what I can see reading back, somehow this board obligation as community representatives has been of both bell times and of start dates and end dates of the calendar has been given over to contract negotiations with SEA.

So we approve it, but this is a really good example of when people call boards a rubber stamp.

We've already pre-approved it.

We've already said it's between the union and the district, and we will vote yes when the time comes.

And that's actually, I mean, that's how this all works.

Like, spoiler alert, that's how this all works.

So the school calendar is one of the few things that impacts every single student, family, staff member, community member.

And yet the decision is made, I see you talk to representatives, but it's ultimately between one of 13 labor partners and district staff, and the board doesn't have a say in this process.

so I don't know how far back this decision goes but I believe that when it comes to the setting of the school calendar that that is a way bigger issue and also of course SEA and its members are part of the broader community but the fact that we have 13 labor partners and we represent the full community and it's ultimately being decided by one labor partner and district staff this thing that impacts so many people.

And there's also, we don't, there's nothing here to show, you know, I know a lot of districts around the state and around the country are exploring modified calendars with a shorter winter break and more frequent breaks throughout the year.

I'm not suggesting we do that.

I'm just suggesting that the community, the full community should have a say in our school calendar.

And I would ask I don't know, the board and superintendent, how we can reclaim the authority as representatives of the full community over what the calendar actually looks like in that process.

So it's not so much about these dates specifically, but that we have the board as an entity has given away the community's voice in the school calendar historically.

Did you want me to?

Yeah, if you have any, I don't know how far back, like I said, I don't know how far back this goes, but I think there's a lot of reasons I think a lot of community members would be interested in talking about the school calendar, and the structure as it is now doesn't provide that.

Correct.

I have one comment, and then Dr. Pritchett Goodman can correct me if I'm wrong, because she's always smarter than I am.

To the extent that these are driven by labor contracts with all our labor partners, those are also approved by the board.

So I wouldn't say that that has been completely delegated.

I think we could think about the timing of this discussion and are there parameters that the board would like to set for those negotiations.

Ultimately, we do have to negotiate with a lot of people.

I'm not saying that would be simple, but I guess I just would like to say the board has a hand in those discussions as well.

The actual language within the contract predates me, obviously, goes back a number of years.

And it would require a negotiation, so we're up for negotiation.

The way the contract language reads right now gives us some specific timelines in which we need to bring this before the board.

So I'm happy to work with our partner in this particular instance with SEA because it would be looking at a waiver of the language that they currently have now and if they're open to negotiations around the contract that would affect next year and the following year.

I was just going to say, I think that you brought up a problem and also then brought up a potential solution to it, which would be engaging with the board and I think other folks in the community, not just the board, but I think it's a community discussion prior to the conversation with SCA.

And I think that would probably be a good future order of operations that might just make this feel like we have more say into that process.

And I did look, and it doesn't look like the two start dates conflict with Rosh Hashanah.

There's probably other concerns, but that one we can check that box.

Director Song.

I submitted a question in advance and I think the answer was shared with the full board around when graduation dates are set and I didn't get a full answer.

I think that can we communicate to our families the timeline for when we will make a decision about graduation dates because families are necessarily making travel plans.

I know This year in particular is kind of complicated because of FIFA but I would love to set expectations not just this year but going forward for when this district will determine with its high schools the graduation dates.

By what day will we be able to communicate to families what date their graduation is and the location.

Absolutely, I think this current school year was complex because of Memorial Stadium and finding another location to hold our graduation.

So we certainly will take that under advisement, although it doesn't particularly pertain other than knowing when the 175 days have passed so that we can start having senior graduations.

So certainly we'll take that back to the folks that are making that decision around graduation dates.

to start planning for the 27 year as well.

But any clarity we can provide to families right now around FIFA, because Memorial Stadium, we have known, was going to be under construction for some time.

So it's been a point of stress for families.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Pritchett-Goodman.

Absolutely.

I would just say, I do think, just to close that out a little bit, this is an introduced item, bring it back to next month's agenda, but I do think that there are some questions to be answered here.

I think that were unanswered this evening, and I hope that we can get some responses from staff to the full board about those issues.

With that, we'll move into our second item for introduction, Amendment to Board Policy Number 4311, School Safety and Security Services Program.

I'm going to pass it over to Director Mizorahi to introduce this item.

Yeah, thank you.

So this is, I would classify this as cleanup and clarification.

So I know for those of us that have been on the board longer, we're probably getting tired of talking about 4311. But in the conversation that we had, particularly around the SRO decision, there was a lot of community feedback and questions that made it clear that there was a lack of clarity around what that moratorium did and how that rule extends and whether or not officers in the course of their just daily work or whatever were allowed to access school buildings because of the moratorium.

So I think we had pretty good clarity from the questions that we asked that the moratorium actually had nothing to do with that and that we had policies that were pretty clear on that point that officers still had access to the building.

Should they need to come in to respond to an emergency or take a statement from a student or a faculty member, or even the example that was given where you have an officer who's stationed around the building.

Can they come in to chat with the principal and tell them about what's going on?

Can they come in to use the restroom or whatever?

And there was some feeling in the community, and I think, I don't want to speak for anyone, but I think maybe a bit on the part of SPD as well, that what the moratorium did was it made that level of engagement impossible.

And I think whenever there's a miscommunication, you can get into all sorts of questions about how that originated and why that's the case.

But I think that obviously we bear some responsibility for that.

And the onus is on us to be as clear as possible in our policies.

And I think that hopefully this change, like I said, is just cleanup and clarity, because I don't think it actually changes any policy.

will make that more clear.

So I think for folks who are wanting a deeper change to 4311, I think, unfortunately, I don't think this is it for you.

And for folks who are worried about a deeper change to 4311, good news, this isn't changing that much.

So either everyone's going to be a little happy or a little bit upset, depending on whether you're a glass half full or glass half empty person.

I think that the main takeaway here is that obviously, I think, based on even the testimony today, there's a lot more conversation to be had around safety.

I think that's a huge area that we all want to be engaged in and talking about.

This is not that conversation.

This is just cleanup and clarification based on feedback that we got around some maybe lack of clarity in the community around our policies.

I'm just going to read, because it's a very simple change.

So it's just adding the sentence, nothing in this policy otherwise prohibits or constrains the district from coordinating with law enforcement agencies and officers for emergency response or for allowing access to the district schools and facilities consistent with state laws and applicable district policies and procedures.

That's it.

And then it moves around this as a general rule sentence.

So the last thing I'll say is that for people who are really closely watching, you say, didn't we already talk about this and pass this?

We actually did pass it as part of an amendment to our 4311 amendment, but because the underlying amendment didn't pass, the change to the amendment also didn't pass.

So we've already kind of talked about this, we've already discussed it, but it actually didn't change our policy because the underlying change didn't pass on the SRO thing.

So that's where we are, that's what I'm proposing, and we'll have a chance to talk about it next meeting, I guess.

Questions or discussion?

Director Rankin?

Thank you.

Yeah, I think, so now I'm the only one on the board that was around at the time of the moratorium and voted on that.

And it has been a challenge since then, and there have been multiple police chiefs since then.

But much like the misconstrued arm of SOFG with staff, the misconstrued arm of moratorium.

I've had police officers say to me directly, well, you said we can't come into your buildings.

And I'm like, no, that's actually not what we said.

So I appreciate the clarity.

And I'm wondering, I don't think a lot of SPD is probably watching our board meeting.

So what the action or what sort of any implication of passing the policy would do.

Does that allow you, Superintendent Podesta, to more clearly maybe send a memo to the police chief that restates that, that they can say this is the official word from the school district and feel more confident sharing that within their ranks for clarity or is there is there something else like what else can we can we do to and and also I can't let this policy be brought up without repeating most of the time when police come to our schools it's because somebody inside the building who is supposed to be there has called them

We can continue to reiterate this point to them.

I think we've had several staff discussions.

Myself, previous superintendent, have had this conversation.

Usually what we hear Their concern is, but what does the board think?

We're happy to send a letter, but I think you taking this action and maybe the board also drawing attention to it might make some sense.

And if the, you know, Gina as board president on behalf of the board can assert something that's in our board-adopted policy, that could be a joint letter or we could all sign a letter being really clear that, like, this is the board's intent and this is our commitment to whatever needs to happen to take that out of the equation.

and then also in terms of clarity, I think MOU aside, SRO aside, think that having clarity and some of the issues that were brought up in public testimony today too about when is it a school matter, when is it a police matter, having an MOU just entity to entity or maybe not even MOU but like agreed upon rules of engagement for clarity about just when there are things that permeate the veil between schools and community with the same members of the community, how can we support consistent agreements and understanding between the school district and the police department for our community and understanding who has authority when, how we do work together.

and how it ultimately is in service of supporting students.

I still think that's something I would like to see just administration to administration that would help with some clarity for a lot of these issues.

We've made that offer in the past, then we'll continue to say, you know, over an umbrella of written understanding of how the engagement, we think it's a good idea.

It obviously takes two to tango, but we'd like to do that.

Well, anything that the board can do to support that, that would be great to know.

Thank you.

Director Lavallee.

Yeah.

I wanted to, sorry, hold on.

I forgot to print out my, well, I did print them out.

I left them on my printer.

Your ending comment where you bring as a general rule, I wanted to get a little bit of clarification around the wording in that.

Because it says, as a general rule, law enforcement activity should take place at a location other than school premises.

um when you're talking about that does that bar someone like you know detective cookie runs a chess club down in rainier beach does that bar detective cookie from doing a um chess meet up in one of our south end schools at some point in time.

Yeah, no, I appreciate the question.

So one, just to clarify, that as a general rule sentence is currently in 4311. So nothing about the amendment changes that, but I would say my understanding, and Director Rankin as being the only person on the board who was here when this policy passed, maybe you can speak to it, but I think this is exactly the type of clarification that we want, right?

That nothing about our current policy would bar Officer Cookie from engaging, coming onto campus to do the chess club thing.

But we want to make that clear.

And so I think the simple answer is that, yes, he can do that.

And he could probably do that now, but under his policy.

She, thank you.

She can probably do that now, and we'll have even more clarification that she can do that with this new policy.

Thank you.

Other comments?

Director Yoon.

Thank you for the clarity, Director Mazzari.

This isn't a question but a comment.

I just want to recognize that there are a lot of hurt feelings in the Garfield community because they put months of research effort to create the SEO pilot program that reflected their community values and addressed some of the school safety concerns they have.

You know, parents, students, staff, PTSA, they took a lot of time to draft this community at MUU, and they did everything they were told.

So I just wanted to recognize that there are a lot of hurt feelings in this community, and they may feel undervalued and unheard right now.

Trust was broken, and the emotional investment, because this is not an easy topic for anyone to talk about, they made in creating this thoughtful program was essentially unheard.

So I just wanted to recognize that there are these feelings in this community.

Thank you.

Other directors?

All right.

Again, this is only up for introduction, but Director Mizrahi, I appreciate you taking the time to do this sort of cleanup and clarification.

I do think it's important that the board take an action here, and I look forward to this on the agenda.

We are now going.

Director Rankin.

Sorry about that.

Thank you.

I would love to know if, when this comes back next month, if we can hear an update also about a letter or any other action that may be needed.

That would be helpful.

Thank you.

All right, we are now going to move to the tables for our work session.

I'm going to say this now before we get there.

I think we have probably about, just looking at the time, we want to keep about each session to 45 minutes so we can get through each portion.

After the presentation, I'll kind of gauge amount of time, but roughly 45 minutes each to get us through.

So we'll head to the U now.

All right.

So our first presentation is on the budget.

The second one is an enrollment update.

I'm actually very excited for the budget presentation.

Not so much for this meeting, but for some of the future things that I think will be happening with the budget.

Maybe some outcroppings of what happened.

I don't know if that's the right way to say it.

budget, ad hoc budget committee.

But with that, am I passing it to Dr. Buddleman or Superintendent Podesta?

One or the other?

Dr. Buddleman.

Thank you.

I think I just heard the board president say you're not looking forward to this presentation.

I'm looking forward to this presentation and even more to the January presentation from some of the things that you've previewed for us in this study session.

I'll turn the mic off so we're not making some background noise.

Thank you.

You good?

So today we're presenting the year-end financial report and sort of a summary of it.

There's the F-196, which all school districts is how they report their financial information.

This is posted online for Seattle Public Schools.

It's not yet on OSPA website for all the school districts, but ours is posted for folks who want to go into the deep level of detail here.

Tonight is just a or summary of this information.

Part of the objective here tonight is to continue to demonstrate listening and understanding, and so trying to make sure that there's shared understanding of this information within this U-shaped table, within the Seattle Public Schools staff and students and families, and the community writ large.

So we're just trying to get to a place of better understanding.

So some of this information is just straight from the report.

We'll go through that and other visits are different attempts at trying to explain it a little bit differently for the communities who are interested in this topic.

I've got the clicker, but it's not working.

Was that me or was that you, Carrie?

Alright.

Thank you.

So there are two board policies that we'll talk a little bit about tonight.

Board policy 6030, which requires an annual financial report to the board.

There's a formal report attached to the board agenda.

And again, this is the summary of that.

And then board policy 0061, which is the newer of the two policies related to financial reporting.

and you can see some of the level of detail there.

I just want to highlight that the second bullet point around a formal report that shows historical actual spending and enrollment data in conjunction with year over year trends and student outcomes at the building grade district and demographic levels is not something that Seattle Public Schools is currently putting together ourselves.

That's mostly a description of the OSPI report card information that's shared across the state of Washington.

We do have folks internally, since this policy is relatively new, looking to see if that's something we can replicate simply with Fort Seattle Public Schools, but just wanted to highlight that that information that's described there is currently available in the OSPI report card.

I think that's a great source of information.

because it gives people the ability to compare with other schools, with other districts on how those trends relate to the rest of the state, state of Washington.

So just wanted to highlight that, that we're in compliance but in that way on that part of Board Policy 0061. A few sort of foundational pieces of information before we get into the meat of the presentation, just For those who don't live their lives on fiscal years like some of us do, our fiscal year starts September 1st, about the school year start, and ends August 31st.

It's not a calendar year, it's not July 1st to June 30th, as many other government entities are, and it's not the federal fiscal year, but this is September 1st through August 31st, which is typical of school districts in the state of Washington.

and again the following information is straight from the F-196 report which is a hundred and something page, 94 page report that is published on our website now.

We do submit that to OSPI, they do a review of it, auditors will come in and review this to make it a sort of an official financial audit, an audited report sometime in the next few months and then we'll have an audited financial report based largely on the information in this in this F-196 report.

One other thing I want to highlight is there's some good questions in terms of understanding around why we categorize some of the things we do.

And one of the answers to that is because that's what the state requires us to do so we can have like-to-like comparisons across the districts in the state of Washington.

So I'll get into a little bit more of that as the presentation goes on.

Here's a good example of that.

Tonight we're gonna talk about information in a variety of ways.

Programs, activity codes, and object codes.

And so that's another way that the state says you should present the information.

it's confusing for everyone involved.

I've gotten some questions recently around is there a way to do kind of a relational database look at these.

In the F-196, there are attempts at that.

So there's starting on page 42, here's the program basic education.

Down the left side of the page it lists the activity codes and across the top it lists the object codes so you can see in basic education how much is spent on goods or purchase services in instruction.

So that is available it's not the level of detail we're presenting tonight but I want to make sure people are aware that that sort of information is available in that F-196 report.

Said a little bit about this.

We have tried in the last few years to make sure this information is accessible on our website.

And so the monthly reports that we do to the board are all there.

The F-196 is already there from the year that ended, August 31st.

And then our budget pages are there as well, as well as the audits.

highlight this resource for people who want to access the more detailed information on their own time.

We get to the meat of the topic here.

So the first page here that I have highlighted is some of the key takeaways from the year end.

And again, this is the year that ended August 31st of 2025, five months ago.

so teaching and teaching sport is continuing to be the largest area of spending looking at it by activity and it's continuing to increase a little bit and that's in large part because other areas of the district are decreasing and we'll get into some detail about that later another highlight is that state underfunding in certain areas continues to be a significant issue for Seattle Public Schools and many school districts in the state of Washington germane to Seattle Public Schools.

Our fund balance is becoming increasingly more important and it's continuing to decrease.

Fund balance is essentially count and speak for a savings account of sorts or your equity if you think about it in that way.

While all of that's going on, student and family needs are continuing to increase.

And we heard lots of testimony tonight around different needs in the community.

And inflation continues to be a challenge for Seattle Public Schools as it does for most entities and most people right now.

This report we're going to go through.

We're going to spend most of our time on the general fund conversation.

That's the operating fund.

That's what operates the schools.

That's what operates the district.

The capital project fund is what builds the buildings and does major maintenance to the buildings, primarily funded by the levy, the capital levies.

And then there's a debt service fund.

I have some good news on that at the end of the report.

And then the Associated Students Body.

Spoiler alert.

It's a teaser, not a spoiler alert.

So there's good news in here somewhere.

And then the Associated Student Body Fund is accounting for all the financial activity related to fundraising and fees for students' optional activities at school.

So just to highlight a few things, and of course if directors have questions along the way, happy to entertain those.

This is the way of looking at our general fund resources.

So this is the monies coming into Seattle Public Schools over the last three years in the different categories of funding.

I do want to highlight a couple of things.

That first line, the local levy, so that's the levy that City of Seattle residents voted yes on this last year.

And the legislature allowed school districts to have more authority to raise more money locally.

And so that number will go up next year.

You'll see it's been pretty consistent.

It's driven by enrollment and by the cap that was previously there.

that cap has changed, that number will go up a little bit next year, and it'll go up a little bit more the next year as we collect more levy proceeds.

The other part I want to highlight is the two lines that start with state, state apportionment, and state grants.

Together those are about two-thirds of the revenue coming into Seattle Public Schools, 67.04%.

So the preponderance of revenue coming into Seattle Public Schools continues to be from the state of Washington.

and then the third number I want to highlight is the second to last line there, the fund balance.

So that $23,700,000 is the amount of money we had to use from our savings account or the fund balance to make sure that we were able to cover all those expenses, that $1,195,000 or $1,195,000 in expenditures.

three sort of key things.

The levy is gonna be changing, state funding continues to be the most important, and then we did use around $23 million from our fund balance to pay all the bills last year.

This is just a graphical way of looking at that for those who think that is easier to digest.

The first way of looking at the expenditures is by program and so a few things I want to highlight here.

The furthest to the right column shows the percentage change from the prior year and you'll see the total change is around 5% and there's a few things that increased significantly more than that, special education, more students with more needs.

The state also has responded with some more safety net funding that Seattle Public Schools has been taking advantage of.

and vocational education and skills center.

So that's increases in enrollment in those programs.

There's been more offerings of CTE programs and students are taking up on that and skills center enrollment was up last year.

and then one of the more confusing parts of our financial information is this category that the state mandates we use around compensatory programs and so that is not what some folks think about as compensatory services that are provided to students where the district hasn't served them.

This is a category of spending from title funds, from learning assistance program funds, from the Head Start program, and some other things that are not typically considered sort of this compensatory services.

So this is the way the state categorizes that.

I've been working with the incoming superintendent on some more information on how to share that information a little more broadly, but just wanted to highlight that.

That's a title, it's LAP, it's Head Start, it's other programs.

It's not what some might think of as compensatory damages spending.

And again, just a graphical way of looking at that.

Another way of sort of looking at the information is by object.

A couple things to highlight there.

First, you'll see the Spoiler alert, Seattle Public Schools is primarily staff is the primary expenditure.

It's always around more than 80%, and in last year it was 81.83%.

Some of the growth in those numbers is driven largely by COLAs or cost of living adjustments, funded in part by the state.

It doesn't necessarily mean staff is growing, but it means the expenditures for staff are growing.

The other couple things I want to highlight are supplies and materials and purchase services in particular.

So there's lots of questions that come up around purchase services.

The largest things that are in that $179 million are things like insurance premiums, utilities, special education services, transportation, the bus contract is in there that's in the neighborhood of 40 or 50 million dollars, running start contracts we have with the community colleges where we pay them for their running start students, and then legal services so that 179 million dollars is not just services that are extra for a school district.

Much of that, the majority of that is those things like insurance, utilities, special education services, bus services and things like that.

So I just wanted to highlight that.

That's the largest number below the salaries and wages portion of it.

I might see some questions in some eyes, but I'm not going to go there unless someone wants me to.

Let's keep going and do questions at the end so we can see how much time we have.

And the final way is by activity.

Again, people business, the majority of spending is in teaching and teaching support.

Combine those two numbers, it's in the neighborhood of more than 70%.

Here's where we're gonna spend quite a bit of time taking a deeper dive.

So the fund balance for Seattle Public Schools and many other school districts is becoming increasingly important.

This is a detailed look at what makes up that $97 million that we had at the end of August.

and you'll see there's different categories.

Some of them are called restricted or non-spendable and then there's a whole bunch that are called assigned.

The difference there is the non-spendable or the restricted are things that are sort of off limits to balance the budget by law, by rule, or just by common sense.

The inventory in the warehouse isn't going to pay the payroll in any given month.

The assigned are things that the school district is making choices around.

So Seattle Public Schools has some carry forward, so schools that don't spend all of their discretionary money get to carry it forward from year to year.

There's a levy with the city of Seattle, essentially a grant program.

where there's some extra funding if the school district performs at a certain level that accumulates over years.

There's a legal reserve that's at $11.5 million.

That's an estimate of what the spending on legal cases might be, sort of a projection on that.

And then the big one there is a sign one time.

So of that $97 million, in order to balance the budget for the year we're in currently, 25-26, we used $48 million to come up with a balanced budget.

Add all that up there's $4 million left over and that's the amount that we would have available to help to balance next year's budget if the district and the board choose to use that to help with a budget balancing solution for next year.

The next few pages are details on that and again I just wanted to highlight that.

restricted and assigned portion of that.

for the board and for others.

Here's a graphical picture of the same thing we're talking about.

You'll see that in the 2021 school year, at the end of that school year, the fund balance was in the neighborhood of $180 million.

Now it's 97, a little bit more than half what it was.

The green there that's the rainy day fund so the district and the board decided as part of the solution over the last few years was to eliminate that fund to help balance the budget and you'll see that's why there's no green part of the bars in the year that we're talking about tonight.

Different way of looking at this beginning fund balance for this year was 121 million Add up all the money that came in, it was utilized to meet the expenditures, subtract out the expenditures and it's 97 million is what was left in that this year.

So a 23 million dollar dip into the fund balance for last year.

That's a lot.

I'm gonna keep going.

So a question that necessarily has been a big part of the conversation at Seattle Public Schools the last few years is around the structural deficit.

So trying to be, and I think I shared some of this last time, but we've nuanced a little bit of it for this year-end report.

So what do we mean when we say that we have a structural deficit?

And it just simply means that we're expecting to spend more money in the giving year than we are expecting to bring in.

So it's like a family, if you have a certain amount of income coming in and your budget says you're gonna plan to spend a little bit more, that's what this simply is.

So structural deficit, your spending is planned to be more than what you expect to bring in in any given year or into the future.

Some of the things that are causing this here at Seattle Public Schools.

Again, I highlighted a few of those earlier.

Costs are increasing faster than the revenue.

So one example is compensation.

The state provides funding for COLAs, cost of living increases to school districts.

for sale public schools, they don't provide enough for the number and the types of employees that we have.

So initially out of the gate, if we had one employee making $50,000 a year and the state said give them a 10% raise, they're underfunding that 10% raise by a certain amount.

So that's a big part of the structural deficit since we're a people organization.

and staff costs are a big part of that.

And in any year that numbers are between seven and 11 million dollars for all the staff across the district.

Inflation we're all acutely in tune with.

Legal expenses continue to go up.

You saw on the previous slides, the fund assigned legal monies has about doubled the last few years.

So there's been more litigation going on than had been in the past.

Student needs can be an increase.

As facilities get older, there's more need to maintain them.

Transportation costs go up for obvious reasons.

Whole litany of things where costs are increasing faster than the money coming in.

Things like special education, transportation, culinary are funded specifically by the state, but not enough for Seattle Public Schools.

So for example, transportation services are underspend by more than $10 million each year for the services that we provide to our community, bilingual, similar equation.

Declining enrollment is a part of this equation.

The district's enrollment isn't tanking.

It's going down, not significantly each year, but it is going down, continuing to go down, and the school districts are largely funded based on their enrollment.

and then district choices.

So we had a consulting group come in and work with the staff, with the board on some of the choices the district has made and how they compare to what other districts that they work with or other districts across the country or in the state are doing it.

So they highlighted some of the choices that Seattle has made around transportation, the elementary school portfolio, the configuration of other schools, some of the supports we provide to schools and classrooms and instructional assistants, and there's a whole 190-something page report on that, but just wanted to highlight some of this is just the Seattle Public Schools choosing to do operations the way that it does and provide the things that we do in the way that we do.

questions around how we project, so the budget team, the accounting team get together and we figure out what all the different levers are that might contribute to increasing that deficit, changing that deficit, and for this year that we're talking about, so about this time in 2023, all the information came together and said if we bring in as much revenue and enrollment is what we think it's going to be and if the expenditures are what we think they're going to be the difference is going to be about a hundred million dollars in that year so if everything went off as we hoped it would or planned that it might that difference would be a hundred million dollars you'd spend more than a hundred million dollars more than you would bring in the 24-25 school year Then we start the budget development process, because that's not a tenable situation.

So in that year specifically, to work towards this balanced budget, which is a requirement for all school districts in Washington, the district relied on a mix of different solutions.

One of them was an Interfund loan from our capital fund.

and we used some of that fund balance which I talked extensively about earlier.

We made some reductions in central office, we made some reductions in school staffing and school per pupil funding I think in that year.

There was some additional state funding that came in sort of at the last minute at the end of the legislative session, $50 per for pupil, for some maintenance operation expenditures.

That was one-time funding, doesn't continue into the next year.

We should get that on the legislative agenda to continue that.

And then we delayed any repayments back to the rainy day fund or the economic stabilization account.

There's a board policy that says we should be repaying that, so every year we don't.

We bring it to the board and say, do you want to do this, or should we keep using that to help balance the budget?

The last few years we've used it to balance the budget.

All that happened, we ended up saying, okay, if everything goes exactly as we planned, we'll have $78 million coming out of that fund balance to make ends meet.

that's not exactly what happened.

Things were different because it's a school district and it's very complex.

So you'll see there sort of summary level and this is a slide that I think we'll continue to refine over time to get a little bit deeper in detail as to what some of the things are and what some of the levers are.

We have a group of staff in the district sort of working on the how to better predict all of these things.

There's 10 areas we've identified that have potential for big fluctuations.

So the summary of what happened for that school year is enrollment was a little bit higher, so that came with a little bit more revenue.

Some of our planned expenses didn't pan out as we intended or we thought they might, so there were some vacancies.

The district does rely on some of that vacant positions to happen throughout the school year, and it uses it to offset some other costs each year.

There were some plan expenses that were not lower than projected, but were higher than projected.

So there was some netting out there.

There was that $50 per student at the end of the legislative session.

And then there were other changes around interest rates were higher than anticipated.

Capital programming that helps supplement the operating fund didn't happen exactly as we anticipated.

There were emerging needs that happened throughout the year.

I think there was $11 million in emerging needs that were covered by some of the vacant positions and other things.

And legal costs went up.

So those are some examples there.

So instead of that $78 million that we thought we might need out of the fund balance, we ended up needing that $23 million to pay that $1 billion, $195 million in expenditures in that year.

It's a lot.

So the bottom line here is the district has not run out of money even though every year we have $100 million deficit.

We do things to mitigate that and then operations happen.

And so we've been making those reductions.

The legislature's come through a little bit in the last few years.

Last year in particular with that local levy cap change was fairly significant for Seattle Public Schools.

and then our results have been a little bit better.

So those expenditures that weren't realized have been higher than those that were unanticipated the last couple of years and then we've been using some of our savings, some of that fund balance to cover that shortfall.

So bottom line here is that fund balance is dwindling.

It doesn't, without structural changes in the revenue side or the expenditure side, that will continue to dwindle to a point where it will not exist anymore.

Trying to think about this a different way that may be more accessible is thinking of a family.

So family thought their salaries were $100,000 in total for a year.

They sat down, they did their budget, and it was gonna be $110,000 for all the things they wanted or needed to do.

They looked at their savings account and said, okay, to do all those things, we're gonna need to use $10,000 from our savings account.

The year happened, they decided not to do some of those things, $3,000 of those things.

So now they're saying, we only need to spend $7,000 out of our savings account.

And then one of the family members got a raise at work.

So something to the positive happened sort of unexpectedly.

So in the end, they only needed to spend $5,000 out of their savings account to meet all their expenses for that year.

Even though they thought it was gonna be $110, it was $105 by the end of the year.

So just a different way of looking at that.

and then a third way of looking at that is just using one of the many complex departments at Seattle Public Schools as an example.

and I'll try and be brief about this.

So transportation is something that has lots of variability in it.

So in this given year, they're anticipating expenditures going up by $3 million and that that would make the gap between what they're receiving from the state and from between that and the expenditures from 19.6 to 22.6 million dollars.

So that's the underfunded part of transportation.

As we went through that second process in the bigger example when we went from 104 to 78, part of that 78 million was transportation saying, hey, we can do some changes to our routes.

I think that was year there were 12 routing changes that came to the board and that will save us approximately $6.7 million.

So instead of a deficit of $3 million being added to it, we're saving $3.7 million from that deficit, part of that 104 to 78. but then the year happened, there were some preschool places, preschool locations added, bus transportation was part of that and it sort of consumed some of, most of that savings for that year.

So just, there's a dozen or so different departments that are pretty complicated like this and they're all feeding into trying to project how all the, the financial information will be happen each year departments like mine are very simple it's me and one other person if we're here we kind of know what we're going to spend but departments like transportation are much more complex that's the end of the operating or the general fund part of this I can keep going just a few more slides capital projects similarly projects a budget in this year it was They're projecting to spend $631 million.

They only spend $443 million.

Part of that, this was the year where Alki was slightly delayed and some other larger projects were delayed.

So they had planned as if these things were going to happen on a timeline.

They didn't.

And so there was some savings there.

Alki is still being built.

I think at least a couple of you have toured it recently.

I think it's close to finished.

I'm not sure.

But so it's catching up now.

So that was in large part why there was a change there from what was originally anticipated.

This is the good news.

So the district took out a loan to, well, I don't know if it's good news.

This building was financed by the district through a loan or through bonds.

Next year on December 1st, 2026, we will pay off that bond or that loan.

So this will no longer be a part of the financial statement after next year.

So we'll have a party on December 1st to celebrate that.

And then the final part of this is the ASB fund and so this is again the optional non-credit extracurricular events or activities that happen in schools and they all budget for that separately at each school.

I think tonight you endorsed or approved an ASB formation for interagency so those types of activities are happening in many of the schools and they each put together a budget and this is a compilation of their budgets and what happened in the 24-25 school year.

Thank you, Dr. Buddleman.

So we are going to go around and we're going to take questions.

I'm going to do something similar to last time.

I don't want to limit anyone's questions because I know this material is extremely important, but I also know Dr. Buddleman is willing to take questions outside of this time as well.

So we'll just go around keeping questions or comments to roughly two minutes and then we'll see where we're at and see if we have any time to do more than that.

But again, I don't want this to feel limiting.

There's lots of time to answer questions.

So we'll just start with Director Lavallee.

Hey.

All right.

When I'm looking at the general fund expenditures by program, where you see regular instruction, special instruction, vocational education over the past three school years, you see some pretty large increases, one of them being special education.

At some point, can we get information as to more?

Because it increased by $60 million from 2022 to 2025. So at some point, can we get more detailed information of where increases are happening and what is happening with them so that we can start to really know where those increases are and if they are, I mean, not the word appropriate, but if they are, if we've kind of accounted for that increase and why it's happening.

Absolutely, yes.

My next question is within the actual results slide.

It says 20 something and the print is cut off.

It's closer to the end of the document.

Where you were talking about that what actually happened over the course of the 24-25 school year said enrollment for 24-25 was higher than anticipated and some planned expenses were lower than projected.

You said vacant positions, sick leave, et cetera, that have been unfilled.

Are those positions that are trying to be filled or because they are left vacant, are they just vacant for the year where somebody actually needs an additional person in that school?

I think it's a combination of things.

The district tries to project the number of positions that will be needed to serve all of the needs around things like special education, multilingual services, and sometimes the needs are greater or smaller than what was anticipated.

Remember, we're doing this fairly far in advance of when the school year actually starts.

So that's a portion of it.

A portion of the vacant positions is also things, custodial staff, maintenance staff.

There's some fairly significant turnover in some of those jobs for lots of reasons.

And so there's some vacancies in there that accrue over time.

The budget does assume that we've got all those positions filled because that's the intent.

But it's not always how this actually plays out.

Those are a few examples of what makes up that vacant position savings.

OK, thank you.

and I'm gonna lean on my friend Fred if he wants to add anything at any point to any of this.

We have also instituted for non-represented positions mostly in the central office a hiring freeze which is not and this has been going on for a few years some of those positions we continue to carry so I think that's created a bit of a vacancy because we we will make those final decisions as part of a sustainable budget.

Is this a position we go over?

So there is a small number of positions that are kind of intentionally vacant, but that's not the bulk of it.

Mr. Massoudi?

This is more of a clarifying question, but I know you gave the example with the family and the funds with the family.

In the actual results, I'm just kind of confused.

What actually does it mean that only $23 million is used?

What happens to the rest of the funds?

Because there's $78 million.

Ask it one more time, I was focused on the family.

What does it mean that only 23 million of the funds were utilized?

What happens to the rest of the funds?

The rest of them is that 97 million that remains, and so there was 121 million.

We did not end up having to use 78 million of that to pay the bills that year.

We only needed to use 23 million.

And so the rest of it is maintained in that fund balance or savings account is what I'm using as shorthand for that.

Is that helpful?

Great.

Thank you.

Great question.

I just wanted to compliment you and your team.

This general fund balance with the detail of all the things that are assigned or restricted and then having the supplemental kind of text explanation of what those line items are is very, very helpful.

because I think that fund balance has been somewhat opaque in the past.

I do have some clarifying questions about some of these line items.

So when it says restricted revenues for carryover, cash received not spent but has legal restrictions from labor contracts or government agencies, is that just related to COLO or?

An example of that is sub reimbursement.

So there's a category of funds when a teacher or certificate staff members out of the building and a sub is not found and there's some funding that goes to that building to make up for that in different ways.

So it's restricted by the labor agreement and it accrues into that school's pot for lack of better way of saying it.

So it's restricted by the labor agreement is the largest portion of that.

And so it accrues to the school and do they have to spend it on substitutes or are they able to?

This is a very complicated question.

They can spend it on different things.

They can spend it on things for the school.

They can spend it on the teachers who are most impacted by the absence of that other teacher or that other staff member.

There's conversations around other ways they can use it.

The district and SCA have a memo that tries to outline all the different scenarios and how those will be handled.

The other question I have is between the assigned one time and then the assigned budget balancing.

So in the text part it says that a portion of the one time, I guess I'm just confused, why we are zeroed out on the 25 for budget balancing if some of the 49 million is going to go to budget balancing.

So zeroed out because the superintendent and board haven't decided yet whether to move that $4 million up to that budget balancing for the 26-27 year budget.

So once that decision is, if that decision is made to use that to help balance 26-27, it would just move up to that other category, the assigned to budget, to balance the budget for 26-27.

Okay, now I understand it's going forward.

And then around assigned legal reserve, there's a pretty significant increase between 24 and 25. I know we've talked about it, but I think it would be helpful to share with the board.

Yeah, this is the projection for what the likelihood is in terms of case or settlements that are currently active at Seattle Public Schools.

So that's the district's and the legal team's best estimate for what might be needed to settle or take care of any of those legal cases that are active.

And was the change in the statute of limitations something that happened between the 24?

There's been a change.

And I don't know the specifics of this, but you can get back to folks on that if you need it.

But there was a change where some cases from longer ago are now sort of back eligible for litigation.

and I'm looking at the attorney to my left to make sure I'm saying these things right.

And so there is in part some of the changes have impacted this.

There's also some insurance, so insurance only covers back certain types of cases for a period of time.

Some of those cases have come forward, which is also contributing to a larger number there.

So looking in terms of the actual results, unanticipated one-time legislative funding, that for the 24-25 school year, was that the retroactive?

That was the $50 per student.

And that is truly one-time, it's not ongoing, okay.

And that was in part, I think, and I don't want to speak for the legislature, They're not an insignificant number of districts who are having significant financial difficulties and so there's some cash flow concerns for some of them and that would help them to make sure that they could meet their cash flow needs through the balance of that year.

And I think my final question, and maybe it's going to get very complex to explain, but the Interfund loan.

So in a sense, we didn't end up using the Interfund loan because we had enough of our fund balance to end the year in the black, but now what do we do with the Interfund loan?

So the easiest way to explain that is by looking at this.

So the district is required to have a balanced budget.

One of the ways we could have balanced the budget in that year was to utilize or assign some of these things differently.

So we could have taken the legal reserve or the levy performance reserve and assign that to the budget balancing line.

So your questions are connecting here now.

The district didn't want to do that.

That was the time when we were trying to determine around the number of schools.

And the loan was essentially to buy a little bit of time to make some difficult decisions around the budget and not to encumber those things to balance the previous or the future year's budgets, but to leave them sort of where they are.

back to what actually happened.

We didn't actually need to use the loan proceeds because results were better than the budget anticipated.

And we didn't have to use these.

The reason I'm spending so much time talking about these, and thank you very much for all the questions, is because now we're back to that same position where loan is not an option, it's not part of the law or the OSPI rules right now.

And these are the things we'll need to start talking about if we can't come up with structural changes that are sufficient to offset it.

and I love the question and if that doesn't make sense, I'm happy to try and explain it differently in the future.

Dr. Mangelson.

As of right now, I don't have any questions.

Thank you.

You're my favorite board member.

Sorry.

Director Smith, we skipped you on screen.

Director Smith.

I'm unmuted.

I don't have any particular questions, but I do want to second Director Lavallee's comments about looking forward to a deeper dive on the special education spending.

I know there's increasing need of students, so that's when spending goes up.

But if there are ways that we can make our services more efficient while still delivering and services students need.

That's something I would look forward to.

And I would also like to request maybe a deeper dive in the future on the capital spending and how that looks with, I think, our creative uses of being able to upstate buildings and how that looks.

I would be interested in that in the future.

But no questions on this report in particular.

Thank you very much for all this information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Smith.

Director Rankin.

I had the opportunity to participate in a two by two.

So I got a lot of my questions answered.

So I'm not going to repeat them.

But I do want to repeat the thanks for the way that this information is being presented is something we've been asking for and pushing for for a long time.

And so I want to recognize both of you for being responsive to that.

This is positive movement and I look forward to more linkages between how we're spending and how students are doing.

This is technical and interesting and it's important that the board understands where our money is going, but the most important obligation that we have is to approving a budget that aligns with meeting the needs of our students and the expectations of our community.

And so, yeah, I appreciate your movement towards your storytelling.

is, and I would also just suggest that, you know, years back there used to be more opportunities for the community to have, there would be community engagement sessions on the budget that board members were invited to attend, but it was a community session, it wasn't a board meeting, and some of the way this is presented I think would be really helpful for community members too.

yeah part of this is informed by a couple meetings we had with community recently the PTSA group and the strategic plan task force we presented similar information got lots of feedback from them presented them with a potential draft survey they hated it so we're revisiting how that might look there's some budget questions in a survey that will be going out on the strategic plan in the near future and so we're trying to lean into how to better communicate this information because without this information we can't come up with solutions that are satisfactory to the community or with the community.

I also really appreciate that you are saying they hated it.

Truly.

You were there.

And that that's being taken seriously.

It's important.

Director Lavallee and I bonded over a different way of approaching the survey possibly in the future.

Director Yuen.

Director Mizrahi.

One question on slide 11. I'm going to say something and then you tell me if I'm not understanding if I misunderstand things because it's leading to a question.

So on the On the income side of things, there are certain things, certain buckets of money that come in that we spend on whatever, operations.

And then some things that come in that are for specific programs, like under federal grants, for example, where there's money that's for school lunch program.

You can't spend that on teachers, right?

So jumping ahead to page 13. I don't need an answer to this now.

I think it'd be helpful to know which programs there's a delta between what we're getting reimbursed and what we're spending and which ones are sort of like matched up.

So like for example, on compensatory programs, if we're spending $95 million, are we getting $95 million to then spend on that?

My point is an increase there doesn't matter if the income matches the expenditure.

So I can give you a few examples.

Yeah, that'd be great.

So part of the calculus, there's a limited number, but there are some, and they're significant, that are restricted in the way you're describing from the state or the feds.

So for example, special education spending, the district spent, I want to make sure these numbers are at least somewhat comparable in the neighborhood of quarter billion dollars the lack the spending that was not funded by the state or the feds for that spending was the deficit was about a hundred million dollars so it was a hundred million dollars less in revenue coming in for special ed than there was in spending for sale public schools multilingual similar story The difference there is about $29 million.

Food services is around $6 million.

And transportation is in the neighborhood of $19 or $20 million.

So those are sort of the big hitters in terms of what the restricted spending from the state of the feds are.

And that's a big contributor to that bottom line.

is super important for us because it's A, what we need to advocate to increase the income side on, but then also try and figure out internally why are we spending more than we're getting on this.

So that's helpful.

So your question made sense.

It was perfect.

President Briggs.

I also don't have any specific questions right now but also want to echo the thanks for just all the information and the different I see the effort that was put into presenting it in a variety of ways and I think that's so helpful and it is really true that for some people a grid really resonates other people want to see a graphic like a pie graph and so I appreciate you taking the time to present it in a variety of ways and make it as accessible as possible.

Thank you.

And I do, if I have one more minute, I want to thank Linda Sebringer, Executive Director of Budget, Kristi Magger, Director of Accounting, for helping to inform much of this.

And then also thanks sort of the participation of the community around how this would be more approachable information.

Of course, ask Fred.

I run everything by him.

He says, this doesn't make sense.

Can you make it more sense?

Make it make more sense.

So thank you for that.

We're trying.

I do have one question just because it's could Superintendent Podesta you preview a little bit for us and I know it's probably not fully ready for prime time what we should be expecting come January.

So in January we want more members of the senior leadership team the cabinet to present their budgets and last few years we've talked about just really how we're handling the deficit and what we'd like to do since there's new directors, we're entering into many transitions, we're trying to finalize a strategic plan, people to have departments at some level, a combination of departments without making this a six hour meeting.

Describe just what's in their budget and I don't literally mean in a zero base fashion but just describe this is what this program is, this is how we spend, and this is how we're prioritized in a manner that's consistent with the district's goals, the community's goals that we're all working on.

end with and given our financial constraints and in any other reallocations we've made of resources to meet the goals, what we're not going to do.

So I think this conversation will occur in a different sequence and there will be some different faces involved than we're used to.

We are still figuring this out and we haven't done it this way before so we're going to ask for a little bit of grace but I think it'll be again it will be moving in a better direction than we've had these conversations prior.

Thank you.

Director Song.

That's very exciting and can I make a request that along kind of dovetailing what Director Mizrahi was asking about, the departments that have kind of those larger gaps between funding and program spending, they could spend a little time explaining how much of it is underfunding from our state and federal government and how much of it are specific program choices.

That's a great suggestion, thank you.

Dr. Buttelman, did you have something to add?

Just one final thing.

We published the annual report as part of the board packet.

I made a mistake on a formula, so there'll be an updated version.

It's just a small mistake, a billion dollars.

So you'll see an updated version on a very specific part of that report.

So just don't be surprised.

There'll be an update.

There was just a formula that got messed up a little bit and was caught too late to update it for this meeting, so.

Appreciate that.

Thank you so much, Dr. Buddleman.

We're only like five minutes behind what I was projecting, which is super exciting.

We're going to move into the enrollment update.

We'll give a moment for staff to transition over, but we're going to power through.

So if you need to take a break, please take a break through the presentation.

Welcome Director Manu and Dr. Campbell but I will I guess pass it over to Superintendent Podesta to kick us off.

I think we need to get the right, we do have a slide deck.

We need to get the right slide deck up.

And is this incorrect?

Yes we have updated slides.

So this slide deck that we have is incorrect.

We are getting a new updated slide deck.

and being mindful of time, I will turn it over to Dr. Campbell.

Good evening, directors.

It's a privilege and honor to be with you tonight.

Appreciate all that you do.

I just want to highlight the fact that for some of you, this is really familiar territory.

These are some things that we began talking about last year as sort of corrections to how we were approaching enrollment.

I think one of the main things that emerged last spring as we were working with enrollment was that we have a couple of processes that come online.

We assign students, we build budgets, we assign staff and to a certain extent those things feed into each other.

but we were very mindful last year of the fact that as we think about enrollment, we think about our families and our community, we really want to honor what our families and students and communities are saying through the choice process.

That when they say, I would like to go to a different school from my neighborhood assigned school, which that could be an option school or it could be another neighborhood school, that they're telling us something about what they think is gonna be the best fit for their student.

And we really wanna honor that.

So, In all that we're doing right now, we want to maintain that as our core priority and our core value, which is to honor what our families and students tell us about what is best for their student and update our processes so that it matches that and can really honor that.

So with that, I will turn the time over to Phel Manu, who's the phenomenal leader of our enrollment planning team.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome, new directors.

It's great to see you.

And congratulations, President Topps, Vice President Briggs, and at large, Dr. Mizrahi.

This evening, we're going to do an update on enrollment.

But as you notice, we omitted the enrollment update, so there was conversation.

The numbers, yeah.

Yeah, it was as far as the numbers.

the budget office updated you beautifully on what was happening and so there would have been confusion if we provided the enrollment projections versus the actual enrollment because of the timeframe and the view that we provide that data so we're gonna delay that update and would like and look forward to updating you in sometime in January probably another work session but it'd be really great to kind of deep dive into the enrollment planning side of that whole enrollment process and so just wanted to clarify that.

So today's overview is we're going to summarize some of the changes for the school choice lottery timeline.

There was conversations last year's spring if you can recall some of you that have been here about expanding choice and it's all about choice and so Just want to really hone in on some of those changes that we decided to do based on those conversations with families.

We've also heard feedback even prior to that about when they're notified versus all of the other state or federal admission guidelines with preschool, private school, charter schools.

and so we were really thoughtful and intentional in looking at how we can consider all that but also plan better and create better conditions for our staff, our educators and ultimately a welcoming environment.

on day one, on the first day of school.

We recognize that choice is very much on everybody's mind when it comes to the new year for the next school year and it's a huge process and so with this change and moving that timeline forward a month instead of February in the past, we have now moved it up to January.

so we're gonna go over that process and the rationale behind that and then share with you how our engagement is going.

I know we heard some testimony about how only two families showed up at one site but we gained momentum and so we had over 450 actually show up to our events both in person and virtually so we're really proud of that and we'll share some of that community feedback.

and then we'll do some outlining on next steps to move into that earlier open enrollment timeline and some key milestones that we'd like to update with you through this progress.

Go ahead.

Okay, so what's changed?

So our open enrollment now begins January 5th through the 31st.

So that's a whole month where families can participate in open enrollment to be considered for priority.

Those priorities are considered sibling and then GeoZone.

GeoZone represents an option school.

It doesn't have a boundary because it's not a neighborhood school.

So you do have to apply during this month to obtain a priority if it's applicable.

We will extend the school choice process through the deadline of March 31st but starting February 1st through March 31st that is a late application process so we'll go into that a little bit more and then the waitlist dissolvement of all of our waitlists will then be May 31st Now this timeline when it shifted people asked during our feedback in our engagement about how this works because they're used to a August 31st dissolution.

So we shared with families to keep in mind that the timeline that we are using is the same months that we're carrying as we did in the past.

So, for example, the wait lists started in or were created for May and June.

We did not move any wait lists in July and August.

And so three months.

So for this new timeline, it's also three months of duration.

Yep.

and so again what we are reiterating is that planning piece and we want to work smarter and knowing and understanding that our landscape has shifted significantly from a growth mentality to now declining enrollment and we can say that out loud but we now have to be smarter in how we look at those seats for example at space so that we can optimize that opportunity but also be mindful of sustainability.

So I think we talked a little bit about the rationale just three key components improving planning staffing and staffing folks earlier provide families with more timely decisions and before the springtime and so they they're having a deposit put down on a certain preschool or private school they have time to make a decision and they'll receive that decision early rather than after spring.

And can you share when families will receive notification of their assignment if they requested a choice seat?

Yes, and it'll be throughout this slide deck but notification will now be February 24th versus April, mid-April.

And then as far as our communication rollout, we did a multi-function approach, we did emails, we have done newsletters, and of course our engagements in person and virtually, we'll go over those aspects of how that turned out and feedback with our communities.

So the total events that were held so far were seven, two virtual and five in-person sessions.

We had a in-person session at every region and we have three actual virtual sessions and two we've already conducted.

Like I said, over 450 families attended these meetings and it was absolutely phenomenal and overwhelmingly positive.

Families had great questions, they came in really curious, wanting to understand.

You know, some people use different adjectives of their questions that they weren't concerning, they were just curious and really needing understanding.

And so a lot of them had individualized questions and so the staff was able to stay after even after the event had ended to really have them get clarification on what they need to be doing with their family to be more informed and so families really resonated with that and so they were hoping to have more virtual in person so we're going to be looking at that but as far as scheduled ones we have them scheduled for another virtual event in January, plus our admissions fair that is coming up as well in January.

So this is just So as you can see in November we did a bunch of events and then three in December and just the virtual event last night which we had over 200 families attend that virtual event.

And each of those events had interpreters available in all of our top five, six languages including ASL.

and all of those interpreters were there regardless if it was needed or not, so we had a full complement of languages available for families.

I will add that many of our interpreters are from our admissions team, so they were also able to provide really specialized support for our families during their time.

So these are some of the key questions that came up throughout our attendance school tours highly capable eligibility and testing our dual language immersion programs and pathways preschool and then just some questions around choice seats and and then policy assignments and how that worked.

This is pretty small, but here's some themes that we heard.

Marnie, if you want to read it.

A desire for clarity and simple guidelines on steps and timelines.

Sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming when you think about all the different things.

A family who applies for choice can put up to five choice options.

And then they would be wait-listed for their first choice if it's oversubscribed, if there aren't seats.

but then families wonder, okay, then how do I decide which is my second and which is my third?

They wanna know that they're gonna have the optimal opportunity to receive their first choice assignment.

And again, one of the things we reassured them is that we're opening the window earlier and we're opening it wider.

So the aim is to actually provide as many choice seats, and I know the number 85% has been floating around, 85% of operational capacity.

So operational capacity is the familiar term that you would see in the facilities master plan that you saw a few weeks ago.

That's the capacity that we're using.

However, many of our current schools, including some of our options schools that are very popular and many, many choice requests come in for them are over 85% capacity.

Some have wondered, does that mean you're going to make us smaller?

Absolutely not.

That is, we're not going to make a school smaller as a result of this.

Our aim is to provide as many families as possible with their first choice, with that which they have told us through their actions is what they think is going to be best for their student.

So we're certainly not going to cap anybody.

The aim is to assign the students to see what the demand is, assign them before we build budgets and staffing so that we're not constrained by the staff.

And again, that's the thing we heard last spring.

You say you're full.

The building's not full, yes, but we have all of our staff.

Why are you assigning staff before you're assigning kids?

So again, this timeline allows us to assign as many students as we really think is going to work within that building space.

And again, we're not going to constrain it.

We do have to be thoughtful about what's physically possible.

But in most cases, many of our buildings have some capacity.

do those assignments early so that we can then move into that budget and staffing and have that be more solid and readier so that we're not doing those adjustments later in the school year.

So we also redesigned our website.

Our enrollment website is much more clear.

We worked with our web development team to make sure that it's much easier to navigate.

We had requests for translated materials and multilingual support.

So those choice forms are available as an interactive online form, but they're available in translation as PDF forms in all of our top five languages.

Again, interest in school tours.

Families are used to school tours happening more in February.

Most of our schools are moving their tours back so that they can accommodate that.

they want lots of updates through school channels and so we're really working with our school leaders as well in many cases those are trusted people within their communities and also working with our community partners and including our preschools and there's a strong interest in choice and or option schools so not just option schools many of our families are interested in choosing into another neighborhood school so we always want to re-emphasize that it's not just our option schools Again, trying to find that right fit for our students.

Lots of questions about preschool.

A lot of families want to know if they automatically can move from preschool into their kindergarten.

Some of our preschoolers are enrolled in SPS.

That's typically if they're in a developmental preschool program.

And they are enrolled in Seattle Public Schools.

They don't need to re-enroll.

But most of our preschools, you do need to do that enrollment step.

lots of interested and highly capable certainly you heard tonight from the community member about that stem and dual language immersion so again just interested in those opportunities

So our next steps is we're gonna continue with our engagement on information sessions and these are additional events that I mentioned earlier.

January 15th, Saturday event, January 10th, our admissions fair and then January 31st, we're going to have another Saturday registration fair and this is the last day for on-time applications for priority consideration.

That seems to be a rush for families and so we are opening up the John Stanford Center on a Saturday to help families get last minute things done for them for registration and school choice.

So we'll provide live, in-person support on that day.

Another question that families had a lot was, If I apply right on January 1st, does that put me ahead of the line?

It does not.

Any time during the month of January, you are within that window of on-time applications.

So there's no benefit to getting it in at 12.01 a.m.

on January 5th versus 11.59 p.m.

on January 31st within that month.

So we want to make as many opportunities as possible for families to show that choice again, so that we can plan for what our families are telling us they want and need.

That is the goal.

We have been engaging with preschool providers.

We just had a recent virtual event there with them, 100 directors of the City of Seattle Preschool.

And so we're continuing to work with our early learning department to provide more virtual events or in-person events with them.

We're doing early communication pushes in all of our languages for registration and school choice.

We're continuing with that.

and then we're just going to continue to monitor and prepare for with our progress on the shift with this new timeline and then we'll keep our board regularly updated with key milestones.

And we will be looking at the impact of this on our families, looking for those indicators.

Is this resulting in more families?

We have good evidence from last spring.

Many more families received their first choice assignment.

Again, that is our goal.

So we want to make sure that that's clear.

And also a reminder that first comes enrollment.

The first task is for families to actually enroll their students in Seattle Public Schools.

Most of our families, 90% of our families, they're good.

They get their neighborhood school, they're fine.

So again, this focus on this choice and early open enrollment is critical because it is an important factor and an indicator in our community.

But it's also, we don't want it to totally eclipse the fact that our goal is to have our families in our city and in our community feel really good about our schools, to know what's great about our schools.

January 10th admissions fair event.

Lots of our neighborhood schools are there showing out.

They're sharing.

They have displays.

Their staff members are there.

And we told our families it's a great opportunity to get to know the feel of each of these schools so that you can actually see many, many different schools rather than going to individual tours.

So again, enrolling our families is first and foremost what we want to do.

And then if they want to exercise choice, that is a part of that as well.

And that concludes our presentation.

And we'll take questions.

We're going to go around the U this way this time.

Again, don't want to limit questions, but we will wrap up at 8.55 this evening.

So if we want to continue the conversation, we can definitely do that, but it won't be this evening.

So we'll start with a member at large, Ms. Zarahi.

Yeah, thank you.

And first of all, I think as a director who was talking a lot about this process and waitlist last year.

Really appreciate all the work that's gone into this and the clear indications of just listening to what community was asking for.

And before I ask the question, I just want to say, fully expected that there may be things in this that we're like, oh, that didn't work.

And we're trying new things.

So I hope you all feel like you have the grace to you're trying something new, you're listening to community, and that may lead to unintended consequences.

And we'll figure that out the next time we do it.

So I want to say that as a board member who was pretty interested in this last time.

Just a few quick questions.

So the 85% capacity is something that I've been getting asked a lot about.

You answer my question, that you're talking about operational capacity.

not the teacher capacity because we haven't assigned teachers yet.

Okay.

Correct.

And then just for my own knowledge, what's the magic behind 85%?

What's the reason for 85% and not 90%?

Why are we settling on that?

That's what we typically use when we think about, that's both capital and enrollment, but it's really, it's what our capital department likes to see our schools at.

It gives us a little bit of flexibility, particularly in our neighborhood schools, because we know that families and students are guaranteed a seat, so it leaves that additional capacity, but many of our schools are well over that 85%.

It's just a target for us.

It's not a constraint.

Yeah, totally.

That's helpful.

And then on, so thinking about either if it's folks who are trying to choice into a non-option school or people who are trying to go to an option school, they're not in the geo zone.

I know that last year, one of the criteria for deciding who got assigned was the impact that it may have on their neighborhood school.

That's not something that we're looking at now.

Right.

Yes, there was a level of protecting the surrounding schools and so that staffing capacity helped with that process and looking at how many seats to fill in a certain school.

But we've removed that because we are now going to staff as much as we can and then we would cap it off and determine the staffing from there.

Yeah, enrolling and then staffing.

And I think it's a good thing to bring up, because I would anticipate, and we have already modeled it out, some schools that are really gonna feel this.

They are going to get smaller.

And so we will have to decide, we cannot let, and I've said this before, we're not gonna let schools die on the vine.

That phrase was brought up last year, when we were talking about school closures, that's not an option.

should go to a school that is not able to thrive.

So that means we will have some decisions to make about these schools that are very small.

And that will be something just to anticipate right now which schools, again, we can anticipate which schools will be impacted based on historical choice patterns.

And those schools will likely become quite a bit smaller.

Got it.

And then my last question, then I just have one comment.

With the earlier timeline, what happens, and I guess it was true with the later timeline too, what happens with families that move to the district after the timeline?

And particularly thinking about maybe families that move here that are heritage language speakers in a target language of a dual school.

So that's a common movement of migration for us that we take a look at.

But for example, after the waitlist actually is dissolved, those seats that were left over that weren't filled or are unfilled because of attrition, then new enrollment students can request an option school upon request at the time of enrollment.

Those seats are also dedicated for hardship appeals.

that we need to review as well, and then also program placements.

So there's a myriad of programs that are looking for space, and so we coordinate with those applicable departments to see if there's space in those particular schools.

And if I can add, I think one thing previously that if you did move in in the summertime and we had that waitlist going through the summer, you really didn't have an option.

Now that will be open because we're dissolving the waitlist.

It actually makes it more accessible to families.

So I think that's really important.

I understand the heartburn around that in some ways.

But at the same time, this actually opens up the possibility of being a family that may be experiencing more turbulence and maybe more mobility in your life and that you actually would if there were space becoming available that you would have access to that seat.

I also want to point out that after those wait lists are dissolved and you still aren't in that school that you think is right for your student, you may then do a transfer appeal.

So that is not the end of the line.

You still have that opportunity to submit that transfer appeal.

But it does open up, as you say, the opportunity for families that are just moving in.

Yeah, that makes sense.

That's smart.

My last point, not a question, but just, you know, I think it'll be interesting to see come, you know, mid-January, are we getting the same level of of applications and requests that we did in previous years, and that'll be an early indicator of how is this new timeline, how is it being communicated, is it too early for families?

So I think we'll know that early on, and I'll be interested to see that.

Absolutely, and we'll provide that update with you.

And I think we're looking at demand, assignment, and then staffing, and we think that that's really the right sequence to do it in, and we'll know what that demand looks like right away.

It'll give us much clearer information about how to really sustain and support and staff our portfolio of schools.

So if you recall earlier when we were meeting with the prior board about this, we actually looked at, well, what if we did it in October?

Or if we really wanted to radically change this.

So we tried to play it out.

We felt like one month earlier is actually gonna get us some benefits without completely just taking it to ground zero and starting all over again.

And as Fau said, We are holding those wait lists for that same period of time that we were previously, we're just not holding them through the summer.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just really appreciate how organized the community engagement sessions are.

I can attest to the social media planning, because I've seen that on the Instagram, I follow the Seattle Public Schools.

I know there's been a post for every engagement session, so thank you for that.

I also saw that first thing on the website whenever I opened it.

I was going to join one, but I had a conflict.

I just want to thank you for that.

I don't know how relevant this would be, but last March, my middle school counselor reached out to me for a family engagement session happening at Hamilton.

They were asking for high school student panelists to come on and speak about experiences they have at their high school to give more insight about their specific high school, the parents who are choosing high schools for their students.

So I just want to let you know that is happening and maybe that could somehow tie in.

I don't know if the district's like involved in that, but

Thank you so much, and that's often something we do up in a high school, middle school principal for our risers, so that families can come in and hear from students.

You know, here was my experience.

So really that's a case where, I mean, I think we look at the different levels of communication, the school level, where you can do that and bring those students back is really wonderful.

It's great that you were asked to do that, so thank you.

Appreciate that.

We also have students that attend our admissions fair for those schools that they're in and they're it's such a difference and they participate and speak their truth to other families if they're looking at different schools and it's really powerful and impactful.

Dr. Rankin.

Thanks.

It's very late.

This is a long meeting.

And I am not totally clear why we, so this is not to say anything about anybody's work.

It feels like this could have been a memo to the board.

This doesn't feel very governance level.

This feels very in the weeds, operational, and people are interested in it, and that's fine.

I just don't know that we need to keep everybody here until almost 9 o'clock to have this conversation.

The conversation I would like to have is still the bigger picture that's missing is We don't have a good description for our community or the board about what the portfolio of schools is that we offer.

Why you might want an option school.

They've been largely just determined by vibes.

And so, you know, I would really like us to be more clear and more consistently supportive of those programs.

Because, I mean, ever since I've been a community member, people have always or they're going to close option schools, which by the way, I've never said I want to do, just to state that for the record.

it's always been a worry because they're a different program but they're treated the same under the WSS and other formulas as a regular comprehensive neighborhood school.

That's not really sustainable until we actually define what is it that this program does differently and how might it need to be staffed differently or treated differently, we're gonna always have this thing.