School Board Meeting Date: April 20th, 2016 Pt1

I would like to welcome, welcome to the April 20 regular board meeting.

Welcome to our student representative, Luke Elkenfritz from Ingram International School.

Luke will have an opportunity to provide, yes?

I know, but I still want to talk about him.

to provide comments regarding his school later in the meeting.

I would also like to welcome back our board office manager, Theresa Hill.

Great to see you again, Theresa, and to thank Lauren for her work in the board office doing Theresa's leave.

Director Harris has a late obligation and might not be here tonight.

Miss Ritchie, the roll call, please.

Director Blamford.

Here.

If everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which we stand, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We do not have a recognition item for this evening's meeting.

So tonight we have a presentation from the Seattle World School Choir.

And I would like to invite the directors to please go in the front row for the performance.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

My name is Amy Mel and I'm the Choir Director at Seattle World School and McClure Middle School.

And this afternoon we're going to be showing you a video actually.

The Seattle World School Choir used our Creative Advantage funds to partner with Jack Straw Cultural Center and we went and recorded a song professionally that we've been working on in choir.

And I brought some students down to introduce themselves to you and they played a big role in the video you're about to see.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jung and I have been a student at Seattle World School for one year.

I'm from Vietnam.

So at school, I sing in the choir and I study music.

And sometimes I play the violin.

This afternoon, my name is Padung Kiet and I have been a student at Seattle World School for six months.

I come from Thailand and I play guitar in this video.

Thank you.

There comes a time when we hear a Santa call, when the world must come together as one.

There are people dying, and it's hard to lend a hand to life.

We can go on, pretending day by day, that someone, somehow, will make a chance.

We all are part of a great big family, and that too, you know, love song.

We are the children.

We are the ones who make a better day.

So let's start giving.

There's a choice we're making.

We're saving our own lives.

It's true, we'll make a better day, just you and me.

So they know that someone's scared.

So their eyes for help will not be in vain.

We can't let that survive.

No, we cannot turn away.

Right now, they need our helping help.

Somos amor.

Somos amor, Lord.

Somos la luz que alumbran con ardor lo más oscuro.

There's a choice I'm making.

We're saving our own lives.

If you would make a better bet, just you and me.

When you down it out, there seems no hope at all.

But if you just believe there's no way we can fall.

Oh, let's realize that the change can

We are the ones.

We are the children.

We are the ones who make a better day.

So let's start giving.

There's a choice to make it.

We say we all won't lose.

It's true.

This is me.

This is me.

This is me.

This is me.

This is me.

This is me.

This is me.

This is me.

We are the children.

We are the ones who make a better day.

So let's time give in.

There's a choice we're making.

We sing it all online.

It's true, we make a better day.

It's true to make a better day just you and me.

For Seattle World School for that wonderful performance.

Thank you very much.

What's your name again?

Amy Mel.

Thank you Amy Mel for bringing your wonderful music to us.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you.

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

All right, thank you World School for that presentation.

Thank you to Stephen Nielsen for sitting in for me while I was sick and while I was gone.

See if I can make it through my superintendent comments here without coughing.

So getting better but not quite there yet.

Recognitions.

We received notice recently that we had 16 schools that qualified for the Washington Achievement Awards.

This is the seventh year that they've presented those awards.

They look backwards at the last three years and they recognize schools based either on outstanding performance compared to their peers and or growth.

So 16 schools a little bit more than we have up there is schools of distinction a little bit different process but similar for both of those.

Last year I think we had 23 and I'm guessing that the participation rate caused some of that change for us.

As Director Patu has already noted I'd like to welcome Teresa Hale back and I'd like to thank Lauren for her work in keeping the office open.

Again we welcomed Anya at the last But welcome to her and a big thank you to Erin as she's tried to kind of work through all of the transitions over the last several weeks to make sure that we continue to provide service.

So thank you to all of you.

As part of our closing the opportunity gaps we have had several of our schools participate in race and equity teams.

They come together on Saturdays several times during the year spend an all day Saturday here take some good ideas and go back to the school to work on implementing those ideas.

As part of our SEA collective bargaining agreement And we've gone from 11 schools last year to 22 schools this year and we'll make another bump up to at least 30 schools next year.

Theory of action is that if we really look at our equity gaps and if we look at some of our implicit biases and learn about culturally responsive skills that we will create a culture in the schools that's more welcoming for all of our students and that they will be better able to perform.

The district's race and equity department was invited to present their work at a national conference last week.

Bernardo Ruiz, Anita Garcia Morales, Fran Partridge and Abraham Rodriguez Hernandez presented on our behalf.

And they were very well received and Philadelphia and Arlington Virginia were two of the districts that said we want to know more.

Can you tell us more and we'd like to begin implementing.

Under district goals.

Excuse me.

Eliminating the opportunity gaps is goal number two and as we know that issue is attracting interest in our community.

The mayor has made it a focal point for the summit.

We've had several of those meetings and there is at the back And for the board members there's a list of engagement opportunities that includes I think some of those summit opportunities.

They're having community conversations throughout the city and they're having a day long summit on the 30th of April.

And then Director Patu and I and some of our principals and teachers are on the advisory team that will be working over the next several months to bring recommendations to the floor about What the city might do either I guess directly through city all through city funding I guess but what what the city might do on their behalf.

Director Geary was at the Rainier Beach session and the students talked about increasing student safety so that's something the city could do directly on their behalf that would certainly benefit us and our students.

And then we're also developing plans on what We might do as a district that we might do with existing funds or things that we would be glad to accept more funds for.

We have heard from several foundations within the city within our region and nationally that they're interested in our work.

We had a nice opportunity this last week.

The Wallace Foundation tracked me down.

They I went through a referral process nationally to find out who was doing good work and they heard about Seattle and somehow they tracked down my personal email and they sent it to my personal email and when I didn't respond soon enough they found somebody else in the community to send it in and when we did respond and say we would be glad to submit a planning grant They responded with great enthusiasm so no guarantees but nice to know that our work is being recognized and always I think better to be asked than to be asking so we'll we'll do both.

As a result of the board's work a year ago in terms of setting up the moratorium for elementary suspensions that resulted in a plan not only to put a moratorium in place for elementary suspensions but to provide support for all of the schools K-12 in terms of I won't go into all of the details but there was some training and development and some support for schools that was included in that.

And as a result suspensions district wide were down 30 percent I guess last fall fall of 15 versus fall of 14. So schools continue to do that work.

RULER continues to Be rolled out we're in our second cohort we're up to about 50 schools across the district and we now have about 25 schools that have signed up for PBIS positive behavior intervention system which is kind of a framework that lets them know whether they have some of the right building blocks in place at their building.

Goal four is early hiring HR as we heard recently at a board oversight session.

Is on track to do early offers to 215 teachers many of those in hard to fill areas and some of them at elementary where we hire a large number of teachers each year.

In addition to that they have been able to move up the timelines.

So we go through by contract, we go through phase one which is transfers and phase two and then phase three and phase four to get to open hiring.

So HR hopes to get to open hiring by Early May which is a month or more ahead of where we have been in recent years.

Nine principal openings have been filled.

Six more remain and for both teachers and principals that becomes a little bit of a transition time over the summer as people take jobs elsewhere or make later decisions to retire.

At the district level as we know Ken Gotch our assistant superintendent for business and finance moved back to Chicago.

We have some outstanding candidates for that position and are in the process of interviewing so hope to be filling that position soon.

Guillermo Echevere has been leading our start of school work.

He's moving to Oakland so we told him to be sure and send postcards back.

Telling us about what he's learning in Oakland and what we can use here.

Jeff Miller in labor relations and Jackie Ko communications have resigned recently and so we'll be working through that process.

And Aaron Bennett will be transitioning to a new role as Executive Director for Government Relations and Strategic Initiatives, a position that was earlier held in Charles' office with Barb.

And then tweaking it around the government relations, recognizing that next year, the promised year, for full funding of McCleary is upon us and the levee cliff will be solved and all of those things will be taken care of without any need for us to be intervening at all.

Anyway we expect it to be a busy year and we should probably think about that as Maybe one of our goals for this next year and that it has huge implications for Washington and for Seattle going forward for the next many, many years.

Updates.

I was at Garfield this morning with Mayor Murray, Chief O'Toole, Ted Howard and the GSA team from students from Garfield.

We learned that Garfield had the longest standing gay straight alliance in state from the early 90s and we were announcing the fact that we've been partnering with the city in putting placards in each of our schools saying that our schools are a safe place if students feel that they're Being treated unfairly, inequitably either through speech or through violence or implied violence.

So I'm glad to do that with the city.

Open enrollment is kind of phase two of our enrollment process.

Phase one was assigning everybody to a neighborhood school and then figuring out how many spaces we might have for open enrollment.

We're now kind of finishing that process and notifying families whether they got their choices or not.

And you'll note that the numbers continue to go down not by a lot this year but by a little.

So we're down to about 30 percent of our families got their requests met.

Two reasons.

One we continue to grow and two we've used up a lot of spaces about a hundred with the smaller class size teachers that we've gotten from the state.

Capital program director Harris asked at the last meeting with regard to seismic condition of our existing schools.

They are part of our BECCS and BTA levies and we've had two reviews 2009, 2012. Priority one improvements which are life safety will be completed with the BEX IV and BTA IV capital levies.

So still not quite I mean you can see the end from here but still a number of years to go to finish out that work but on track and on progress.

Classified reduction in force as we've said earlier our budget year is kind of a radically neutral year.

We hope that there aren't too many significant cuts in the budget.

We were disappointed that the legislature did not take care of either the levy cliff or the per pupil inflator which would have given us the opportunity to collect taxes that our voters had already approved.

So as I say we hope we won't have to make actual cuts in the overall budget but it won't be a year when we have a lot of new money.

We do work to reduce RIFs reduction in force.

We have not had a RIF for teachers in a number of years.

We do each of the last few years have some classified RIFs probably for two major reasons one Grant funds go away.

And secondly a school I suppose a school may under the city family and education levy they may decide that they don't have enough money to do everything that they were doing last year or they may change the focus and direction of how they spend that money.

So we certainly do everything we can to place those individuals elsewhere and to honor the seniority provisions and work through the collective bargaining process.

Right now we're anticipating about 24 rifts and by contract we've agreed to notify them by April 30th.

Teaching and Learning Technology Vision, about a year ago the Technology Department hosted a city-wide summit and then a series of town halls across The district and part of that was to talk with students, parents, community members about what should our vision be for technology?

What should that look like?

So as a result of that we now have video that identifies some of that.

So I'll invite Carmen up and he'll probably invite us down so that we can go sit where we can see the video.

You want to come down now?

Sure.

I want to thank whoever scheduled my video after the Seattle World School video.

Yeah, thanks a lot for that one.

So I don't know how I'm going to compete with that.

So as everybody's coming down, I want to kind of set the stage here.

A couple of years ago, about the time I arrived, they did a...

Yeah, I'm not really talking to anybody, am I?

Steven's over there going, turn around, turn around, go look the other direction.

Thank you.

A couple of years ago we had the CELT, the Center for Educational Leadership and Technology come in and do a review of the information services at the district and their number one recommendation at the time was that the district needed a vision on how technology would help to improve teaching and learning across the district.

So as Dr. Nyland said, you know, we put together the summit and imagine a room about this size with 15 tables, eight people at a table and each table had a student, a parent, A teacher, a principal, a community member, a technology business leader, a district leader, all sitting there discussing not what technology should we use, but how should that technology be used, how should technology be used to improve teaching and learning and that learning experience.

And it was so funny to watch the chief technology for Microsoft make a recommendation and a fifth grader go, No way, you know, and it showed the interaction.

The result of that was 45 sketches that were then made into this video and across the wall over here you'll see approximately 15 of those sketches that came out of that and then were made into this video.

So, you know, before we click play here, I just want to quote our chief of schools, Mike Starosky, when he saw this and he told me I could share some of his comments.

He said, ''Wow, this is a first-rate production.

It's quality messaging and branding.

He said, ''I connected with the clouds, and I liked how they kept appearing for emphasis.

The perspectives of what it might look like for a student, a teacher, and a parent, and what the benefits might be were reasonable and inspiring.

This was progressive and informative.

There's nothing rocket science in this video.

We're not talking holographic teachers coming in from afar.

We're talking our students, our parents, our community members saying this is how today and over the next few years we'd like to see technology be implemented in our schools to improve the learning experience for all students.

And I do mean all students across the district.

So we're going to hit play.

What would learning look like if we took full advantage of digital network technologies?

Here's a look at one day in the not-so-distant future.

Hmm, more data coming in.

Hopefully one of these folks will be able to help.

My mom is always checking on our school's website to see what I'm working on, and then starts the morning at-home quiz.

How's your geography home coming?

It's going great.

Good.

Along with seeing our kids' assignments, we can easily sync up the school event calendar to our family calendar.

During a long workday, I can keep in touch with what the kids are up to at school.

Hey, Dad.

Hey, should you download the book for tonight?

Yes.

I love the fact that I can do so much with the laptop I got from school.

Hey, Micah, do you want me to help you with your graph?

Like getting help from Jen, a high school tutor.

Micah, here's an example of the graph.

We're designing an app to teach life science to middle schoolers like Micah.

Each group in class is working on different parts of the project.

This group is learning more about mitochondria.

And these folks are composing the music for the app, while they are creating the artwork.

I'm online with an app developer.

He's showing us how to develop and test the app.

Soon we'll be sharing a beta of it with Micah's class.

So I tell you what, I'll send you a couple links and you guys can download those and work on those.

Some students in our class are creating a video or slideshow for the project.

Our team is creating an e-book.

We're excited and a bit nervous because our projects are being shared with the local community, including with scientists.

Our classmate is still sick, so we're connecting with her to share what we've been working on.

Using digital tools, I can evaluate student progress in real time to provide the right kind of learning support and to assess their learning.

Our classrooms are set up to be flexible with a presentation area, project areas, and quiet areas.

Classrooms are set up to work for all students.

The kids' assignments let us know how they're linked to state standards.

Oh, that's right.

Michael's tests are soon.

Time to see what the kids have been working on.

Our kids are really engaged in class projects that include their interests.

We've been using music to learn math.

I've been using this app to monitor my fitness goals.

I can share my progress with my track coach.

Although our personal fitness data is private, we can still share it anonymously with the rest of our health class.

Do you want to look at our health data?

Oh hey, I forgot to text Micah.

And we want to focus, first with the course focus and then with the fine focus.

Our students are able to use the tools they need, sometimes virtually, sometimes physically.

We're collecting lots of data.

What's really interesting is using the data we've collected at our homes.

After reviewing our data, I shared with the class the science app that Jenn's class built.

Working together, we've created curriculum and shared it online so teachers across the district can draw from it.

We've also designed a variety of projects so students can contribute to learning resources.

My brother and I can easily work on our class projects at school and at home.

Tomorrow, a mystery class is joining us online.

So, we're coming up with questions to figure out where they're from.

During family reading hour, I can often join them.

Hi, Dad.

Want to start reading?

Okay, great.

Good day, human type life forms.

I like to use the translation tool.

That's pretty cool.

That's what a day in the life in Seattle might look like.

If we took full advantage of digital network technologies.

That's the vision.

Using digital technologies, Seattle students are empowered and fully engaged in their learning.

Every student has a digital device with video, audio, and text capability.

An internet connection they can use whenever and wherever they are.

So the thing I want to quickly wrap up with is this.

One is, you might see a simple six-minute video.

What I see is 45 sketches From our community, from our parents, from our students that all came together and said this is how we want to utilize the technology, this is how it can help.

The other thing I wanted to point out was we shared this, this has been shared and other people have seen it and Cisco, one of the major corporations has said they've shown this video to their experience center down in San Jose and they're adjusting how they've laid out their experience center based on our video and what our students said they want to see as a classroom of the future.

And the last thing I'd just like to leave with is that This is being translated right now into four other languages.

The Somali language is already complete and we have three other languages that we're doing voice over so that basically every student and every parent and every community member can share in what this vision is.

So thank you.

Thank you Carmen.

As you can tell Carmen's got a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for this.

We're delighted with that.

And depending on where you go in the district you'll see parts of that already in place.

I was at Cleveland not long ago and part of their data in a day called for us to visit classrooms and gave us a list of questions to ask.

I went to an engineering class and one of the questions was how does the teacher monitor your work and I was blown away with one of their pieces of software was that they were doing their experiments they were drawing them out they were answering questions about how their theory would work from an engineering standpoint and it was all being Kind of recorded against the standards embedded in the software and then it was showing up on the teacher's screen to show A are students participating B which of the skills are they getting which of the skills are they not getting.

So it was highly interactive and looked like highly engaging from the standpoint of students.

We have several listening opportunities coming up.

African American scholars initiatives meetings on April 27th and May 3rd.

I think that's part of the conversation about our opportunity gap and our framework for closing that and feedback from the community.

The city summit we mentioned is on April 30th with other community conversations still to come, although those are wrapping up.

Boundary changes meetings on April 21st and 26th and then international schools dual language programs community meetings on April 26th, May 3rd, May 12th and May 19th.

A couple of highlights from recent school visits.

I was at TOPS just before the break and had an opportunity to get an update on what they were working on.

They were doing some interesting work in terms of the cultural responsiveness that I reported on earlier and a book that they were reading together and some websites that they had found to download some lessons.

And they were seeing a reduction in the number of students being referred to the office which would be our hope that if we can create schools that are more engaging and that reflect the students culture and see the students with their identity that they bring to school that they'll be more engaged and do well.

Licton Springs is one of our smallest K-8 and as we often hear from every school but particularly the smaller ones staffing for small schools becomes Very challenging particularly as enrollments change and you either add or subtract a teacher but really what you need is part of a science teacher, part of a math teacher, part of a literacy teacher and so figuring that out is a challenge.

They have a native focus.

They have a project based focus and they have it tied into standards.

So they had recently had a community celebration where the students came and had the three part foldouts and shared what their project was about.

Cascadia also at Lincoln is part of our highly capable pathways and they've been doing a lot.

They're I think one of our pioneers with regard to the ruler work and deeply embedded in the school and I think every PTA meeting they have prior to the PTA meeting they have a session on ruler and so they're really embedding the social emotional concepts in the classroom and with parents at home.

And Olympic View just east of Northgate has a fairly large ELL population and that was kind of as I say here that was kind of one of my highlights.

I try not to interrupt what's going on in the classroom and just be there to observe.

But teachers do periodically after all the kids turn around and look and they're interrupted already say I'd like to introduce you or does anybody know who this is?

And so I was introduced as the superintendent and they asked the students if anybody knew what the superintendent did.

One young man eagerly was just off of his seat saying I think they have superpowers.

I wish.

Have not had that response in all my years.

Probably won't again.

And so they were doing, they're piloting a reading adoption, Reading Wonders, and they're doing closed reading mainly because of their analysis of their test scores and their identification of ELL students and the skills that they need in literacy.

So this was an interesting variation on our plan to close the opportunity gap.

They had identified their ELL students as being one of the groups that had the largest gap and then they had figured out from an instructional standpoint what might work best to get them there.

Testing was underway in all of those schools not raised by any of the principals.

I asked about it and they seemed to be OK.

I think Olympic View said that they had had seven computers that didn't work on one of the days of the testing and I do understand that Roosevelt has been our most challenging location.

with quite a few technology issues with regard to the testing.

Good news, Ballard High School Journalism Award.

The students who work on the school newspaper, the Talisman, have achieved a high honor.

They took home best of show award from the National High School Journalism Convention.

4,000 students attend and Talisman won best of show.

Awesome.

Student jazz musicians win awards at the Next Generation Jazz Festival in Monterey.

Maya Hunter from Roosevelt won the high school vocal ensemble division, receives a partial scholarship.

Trombonist Jack Atwater from Jane Addams Middle School won outstanding soloist in the middle school big band division and instrumental section awards went to the saxophone section at Eckstein Middle School in the trombone and rhythm sections from Jane Addams Middle School.

Tonight under agenda items Clover Cod will be introducing the calendar for the 2016-17 school year and we are pleased that part of our bargain with SEA was to create not Probably quite right to call it a perpetual calendar but to at least outline the framework for each year's annual calendar.

We were a bit delayed in getting that in place this year because we had to go to the state board and ask their permission for some waiver days for conferencing.

So we've done that and I think this means that, Clover can answer that when she comes up, I think this means that we will be able to put the calendar together earlier for subsequent years so that parents can know farther in advance what that student calendar looks like.

And then related somewhat to tonight's agenda I'll give you a brief update on ESSA.

Every student succeeds replaces No Child Left Behind.

I was at a session on Friday with a representative from Washington DC to talk about ESSA and what the implications are for schools.

Coincidentally she's a former employee and former assistant superintendent in Seattle.

A thousand pages of law and they're in the process of finishing up public testimony.

I think that's closed now and they will be writing rules I believe rules and guidance in the next 30 days.

So there will be more to come on top of the thousand pages.

At a high level we're still expected to test at state level rather than the national level college and career standards, the equivalent of common core.

Do not have to adopt common core but we do have to if we were going to change we would have to adopt something that was equivalent in terms of college and career ready and then to have a statewide common test that Allows the state to identify kind of rank order listing of schools and identify low performers and make plans to intervene for those low performing schools.

Some of the other areas that I'm not sure I understand yet it appeared the focus of the meeting that I was at was how can we do a better job of preparing principals as instructional leaders and don't know what part of the thousand pages that came from so there may be Must have been a reason why we were focused on that area and there may be more to come on that.

One of the ones that got my attention was the issue of supplanting and I thought I knew what that meant.

Typically it means that whatever money you got last year you have to maintain that level of funding.

In this case the rules that they have written and I believe that this is rules not in the law so this could change.

Is that we would have to demonstrate how much money we spent per pupil per school.

So this has been an ongoing challenge during my entire career that teachers get paid based on seniority and degrees and then they have seniority privileges to transfer to schools that they would prefer to go to.

Over time oftentimes that means that teachers move to richer schools and our title one poorer schools end up hiring more new teachers that have less years of experience fewer degrees and therefore are paid less.

So if the feds require us to do per pupil expenditures first and then put title one funds on top of Did we treat everybody equally?

That could mean that we would have major changes and some collective bargaining issues to address in terms of how would we get to that equal equitable well equal funding I guess first in order to make sure that the title funding is equitable and is not supplanting what they think we should be paying for.

So more to come on that that has the potential it was evidently a sharp contention point between Lamar Alexander Who is the cohort of Patty Murray in getting the legislation passed begging to say that that's not what we intended.

And the new Secretary of Education saying it's a fundamental equity issue and we're not likely to bend on it.

So I don't know who will win that contest.

And then later on the agenda tonight you have the resolution with regard to assessment and coincidentally I think maybe even after that was posted or right about the time it was posted, we received notice from OSPI telling us that we were under, well, they notified us that we had 40 schools that did not meet the 95% participation rate requirement.

And directed us to come up with a plan for the district and for those 40 schools to increase participation.

Based on that I am asking that the resolution on the agenda tonight be postponed until the May meeting to give us an opportunity to talk further about the implications and potential consequences.

And or I'm fine with the rest of the resolution and or removing the opt out portions of it.

I'm concerned about the jeopardizing state funding by getting a notice one week saying that we'll increase participation rates and passing a resolution the next week that at least has the appearance of encouraging more opt outs.

So I have more to say about that but we'll wait until we get to that point on the agenda.

That's the end of my remarks.

Okay, thank you.

Again welcome Luke Ilkenfritz from Ingram International.

Luke is a member of the 2016 senior class, student body president, the varsity swim team, captain and is an international baccalaureate diploma candidate.

Luke plans on attending the University of Oregon next year.

Congratulations Luke and would you like to provide any comments?

Yeah, there we go.

Alright, so I was told by Principal Flo to brag a little bit about Ingram.

But first of all, I went to North Beach Elementary, then Whitman Middle School, and now, as she said, I'm at Ingram High School.

So the student population at Ingram has been steadily growing over the four years that I've been in attendance and we were all led to believe that is due to the immense growth of our IB International Baccalaureate program at Ingram.

So when I was a freshman, the junior and senior classes who were taking IB classes was a total of less than 50 students and now the juniors and seniors who are enrolled in IB classes is a total over 300 students.

And that's relevant because coming up in just a couple weeks are our IB exams.

So I'm sure the same thing is happening at Chief Self and Rainier Beach High Schools where tensions are rising, IB teachers are stressing, IB students are stressing.

So that's the big thing that's going on at Ingram right now as our IB population is bringing in students and growing.

But on that note of our student population growing, we were recently We recently applied for a building extension and we were granted that.

So I believe in 2018 or 2019 we're going to have a new addition to our building which will bring our total student population from around 1,200 now to 1,500 students in the next few years.

And a side note from Principal Flo, we recently cracked the top 10 public high school in Washington ranking.

So it's big news for us and yeah.

Thank you very much.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Point of information.

Items removed from the consent agenda takes place when?

After the motion.

Thank you.

Okay, approval of the consent agenda has been moved and second.

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

I would like to remove item six, award of contract P1448 for purchase and installation of portable classroom modules.

So we are going to actually do a vote first taken for the remaining consent agenda items and then we'll come back.

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Okay, so now I read the motion for the agenda item that has been, okay.

Okay, here is the motion.

This is item number six is that correct?

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute purchase contract number P1448 with King County Directors Association KCDA for the purchase and installation of two single portable classroom modules and seven double portable classroom modules In the amount of $941,450.88 plus Washington state sales tax in the form of the draft contract attached to the board action report with any minor additions, deletions and modifications to be necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the agreement.

This item was heard in the operation, sorry, second.

And then I'll need the committee chair to state.

Thank you.

Sorry for jumping ahead.

Recommendation.

This item was heard in the operations committee on December the 17th and then again on March the 31st and was moved forward for consideration by the full board.

Move with the recommendation for approval.

I'm sorry.

So have there been any new revisions or new?

Can staff please come forward?

Associate Superintendent Flip Herndon for Facilities and Operations.

Not that I know of, not since introduction.

Okay.

So directors have any questions?

Director Perk.

Thanks for this.

I actually wanted to pull this off the consent agenda partly just to recognize the importance of it under our current capacity work that's being done and I just really wanted to highlight that and this is something that has gone through operations.

It's had a lot of consideration and has direct impact for schools Hamilton, Leschi, Mercer Middle School, Viewlands and West Woodland.

And then I had one question.

In the documentation there's a timing where substantial completion dates are listed in the contract but it indicates July blank.

Will all of these units be placed in July?

Is there a target to do that or is the date more flexible?

It is more flexible than that.

I mean of course we would like to get them placed as soon as possible but we want them there obviously before school starts so that's our hope is to get them placed as quickly as possible.

Thank you very much.

Do directors have any more questions or comments?

Ms. Ritchie for the vote.

Director Peters.

Aye.

Director Pinkham.

Clarify this is a vote to remove it from the agenda right no.

Okay aye.

Director Blamford.

Aye.

Director Burke.

Aye.

Director Geary.

Aye.

And Director Patu.

Aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

We're now going into our board comments and if you still have more to say, you can always comment again afterwards.

Don't always waste your hand at once.

Director Pinkham.

Well, first of all, thank you to World School for the performance and thank you to Luke here for sharing his words.

And I feel like I haven't been here in like three weeks, which I haven't.

I was out sick as well, but glad to be back.

Wanted to definitely welcome Theresa back and thank Lauren for her service while Theresa was on leave.

for the video, The Day in the Life of the 21st Century.

Thank you for that effort and the push to put it in more languages and I would like to see if we can challenge you to put it in the Lushootseed language to acknowledge the indigenous language here in this area.

As well as I did notice a lack of special education students in it so it would be nice if we could probably include a video like that but with more special needs or more diverse students in the video so we can see as we move on to the 21st century everyone is included.

Other announcements I have personally, the University of Washington is having their engineering discovery days this Friday and Saturday on the UW campus as well as the University of Washington is having its spring pow its 45th annual this Saturday and Sunday at their Heck Edmondson Pavilion.

And plus tonight, which I hope to see if I can make, the UW is having a lecture series on the indigenous learning of Indian children which starts at 7.30, runs from 7.30 to 9. So if anyone can make that, I think that would be definitely something to look into.

I do have planned a district one community meeting this Saturday at 2 p.m.

at Lake City Library.

Hopefully you can see people there.

And I do want to announce that I may have to change my June community meeting which is currently scheduled for June 4th.

That may be rescheduled but I will try to get the word out as soon as possible.

And as I think I mentioned before my May community meeting I'm willing to take any requests from communities and I'll see if I can fit a schedule in and attend their meetings.

That's all I have for right now.

I just want to say thank you.

Dr. Geary.

Would love to also thank the Seattle World School Choir for that presentation.

I think that was a lovely tie-in to using technology in our presentations and the combination with the arts and how We don't have to focus on one at the cost of the other and when you bring them together it creates something that we can share everywhere.

Just lovely.

Welcome to Luke.

My son graduated from Ingram's IB program so I recognize it's a great program and I'm glad it's growing.

A word to those people who recently have contacted me about the enrollment in I just wanted to let you know that letters will be going out to clarify that that was In error how the enrollment happened and that you should be getting updates on the true enrollment for your students and we're sorry for any concern that that has caused you.

A special congratulations to the District 3 Roosevelt High School and Eckstein Middle School for their strong showing at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

I know people who were there personally and it's such another it's just another really exciting opportunity for our Musicians, we have so many great musicians across this city and the fact that they continue to show so strongly in these national events is a feather in our cap.

I did attend the Rainier Beach Summit and Felt very welcome there and a couple of points I wanted to make, not as familiar with that school but that the love that they showed for their school as students was overwhelming.

That what they wanted the mayor to know is that they loved their school They love how they feel that they are a family within their school, that it is a safe place for them to be.

They felt a little disgruntled by the fact that they're used as an example of something that always needs to be improved.

As if though there's something wrong with them.

And they didn't like that messaging because they felt strong from within.

And what Director Patu and I heard from them is that they wanted more city protection on the outside so that they could feel safe in coming to school.

So that they could be assured that their families would have housing.

Those were the messages that we heard loud and clear.

But it was so touching to hear those kids talk about their school and how much they love it and how they find family and feel accepted there.

Really beautiful.

Thank you.

To the John Rogers community, it is my understanding that the boundary issues are still being worked on.

So keep making your concerns heard.

They are being considered and we are trying to work out the issues that keep arising in that area.

And then on April 30th I will be holding my community meeting at 11 at the Montlake library.

I apologize to those people who wanted to get in touch with me but are going to the education summit instead and if you would like to make special arrangements please contact me and I am always happy to talk with people if that is a conflict for you and you feel you need to reach out to me.

Thank you.

Dr. Burke.

I want to share my colleagues gratitude to the Seattle World School for their entertainment and their celebration and I want to thank my deus mate here Mr. Ilgenfritz for sharing the evening with us and the experience.

I want to give kudos to Board President Patu and Steven Nielsen for their work on last night's Seattle Speaks panel.

They were exemplary in highlighting the needs for additional funding from the state and how we can put it to good use.

Thank you for that work.

I also want to follow up on the issue of school assignments.

Those should be available online for all families who are looking for alternative school assignments.

I've definitely been getting an increased volume of email from concerned families and so my advice, my ask to you is a mix of proactive communication and patience.

There's a lot of resources online.

The assignment plan and guidelines are online.

And if you find conflicting information there, which I understand people have found, please share with admissions and help us improve our messaging so that it's tidy and consistent.

One of the things that I wanted to do just sort of as a self audit was to check our feedback channels and we have phone, email, fax and in person channels for admissions if you have concerns.

So I took the liberty of calling admissions and within 15 seconds I was talking to a person.

And when I asked questions about highly capable within less than a minute I was talking to another person that was a specialist in that area and both of them were cordial, informative and that's before and after I identified myself as a board director.

So I want to thank staff for the work that they're doing because it's really critical how we present ourselves as a public face.

I want to mention I've been meeting with building staff, leaders, teachers on what I consider to be an MTSS listening tour and I wanted to publicly share that request to staff, to building communities that if you have experience with our MTSS framework with the implementation I'd love to talk to you and learn more about it.

We really aspire to learn from and replicate our successes and that also means we learn from our missteps.

I look forward to ongoing conversations about MTSS.

I also look forward to ongoing conversations about assessments.

I understand that there's a lot of moving pieces around that and the concerns that Superintendent Nyland brought up as well in his superintendent comments and look forward to having additional conversations as a board to figure out how we can provide the best possible solutions but also stay compliant and not put our funding at risk.

I would like My hope is that that conversation will continue today begin today and continue through whenever it needs to to reach the best conclusion.

My next community meeting is Saturday April 30th at the Fremont Public Library starting at 4 p.m.

4 to 5.30 p.m.

and so if you're at the education summit and want to do a little bit more come visit me afterwards.

Look forward to it.

Thank you very much.

Dr. Blanther.

I'd like to join my colleagues in congratulating the Seattle World School and in particular students Hyeong and Padung Kiat.

Hey I think I got that right but he's not here to tell me that I got it wrong so I'll assume that's right.

For their presentation it is always inspiring to hear great things coming from the Seattle World School.

I think one of the biggest celebrations that we could have based on what we've heard today is that 30% reduction in the number of suspensions as a result of the resolution that was passed last year or the moratorium on suspensions.

I am thrilled that we are interrupting the school to prison pipeline and I believe very strongly that the steps that we took are having a significant impact on that phenomena and so I hope that at some point when the time is right that we can look at that policy and see if it can be applied at our middle and our high school levels as well.

I want to thank Luke for coming and blessing us with his presence today and wish you the best with your IB tests next week and at the University of Oregon.

I'm excited about that and go Ducks.

And my next community meeting is on this Saturday the 23rd between 10 and 11.30 at Douglas Truth Library and as usual I'm expecting a large crowd and we'll have a rich discussion on a lot of issues.

And finally I'll close with the fact that yesterday I showed up at Aki Kurose Middle School expecting to engage with a number of community members for a meeting that was on my schedule.

Unfortunately it was set for May the 3rd and so I showed up and Very serendipitously got the opportunity to walk around through the school and engage with some of the students and teachers at the school and learned a lot and as I was looking at the student work that's prominently displayed on the walls came across a board where the students at the school had the opportunity to write a thank you note to A teacher or a staff member at the school and I took a couple pictures of them and I just want to read just a couple of them so that you get a flavor for what's going on at Aki.

The first one, Dear Miss Jenny, thank you for helping me in my class work.

Even if I don't raise my hands, you always help me.

By Taiwan, Taiwan.

And I thought that was a really nice one.

And then the second one, thank you Mr. Wendell for everything you did and said to me and thank you for your mini sermon in the Mormon.

In the morning from TJ Fuller and so there were so many of these that were up on the walls.

I wish we had time and attention to hear them all but we should take every opportunity to appreciate the hard work that goes on in our schools and I just wanted to take a second and thank the instructors who are responsible for these thank you messages.

Dr. Peters.

I'll join my colleagues in thanking the World School Choir for the rendition of We Are The World, a very appropriate choice for them.

And congratulations to the school retroactively for their graduation class of 2015. That was their first graduation class, so well done.

And thank you also to Luke for joining us and good luck with your tests and your future pursuits.

Sounds like you're on the right track, so well done.

I know it's a lot of work doing the IB program.

I would also like to once again congratulate the Ballard High School paper which continues in its admirable track record of winning awards.

It's an award winning publication and as somebody who's been trained as a journalist myself that means a lot to me.

I know the work that goes into it so well done for keeping up that tradition.

And then to those in my district district 4 I encourage you to take a look at some of the updates on what we are going to be doing with the Magnolia elementary school building as we bring it back online.

There was a report out of our BEX committee our oversight committee on April 8 which gives some Plans that are very exciting to help us address the overcrowding that's happening on Magnolia and Queen Anne Hills where we have a lot of new families moving in and a lot of families having kids.

And then speaking of my community I had a chance to meet with some community members from McClure and take a look at the school and see some of the challenges we have with some of our older buildings.

I was specifically looking at the gym they have and it's a vintage gym let us say.

And the question was, how do we fund projects, isolated projects like that?

And that's a really good question.

So this is something I will take up with staff because not all these projects are on our levy to-do list, but they still are projects that need to be done.

So what's a creative way to fund these projects and how can the PTAs and families help with that?

And another issue that has been brought to my attention from the community is how can we make sure that our smaller high schools offer college prep classes.

In other words significant numbers of AP classes and IB classes because right now we don't have enough at some of our smaller schools and the kids are being directed to running start which is a wonderful option as well but it might not be enough.

You literally have kids running out of classes to take.

And so that seems like an area where we need to take another look so that our schools can all offer a comprehensive education to our students.

I will also be visiting John Hay Elementary School later this week to take a look at their capacity challenges and to just check in with the school so I'm looking forward to that.

My community meeting will be on May 1st at the Magnolia library from 1 to 3. It is on a Sunday.

I apologize for that.

The Saturdays were all booked.

And then finally I just want to announce that there's going to be a spring college fair this Saturday April 23rd from 12 noon to 3 p.m.

It's the Pacific Northwest Association for College Admission Counseling and it will be held at Seattle University.

So those of you who are checking out colleges I encourage you to go take a look at that.

Thank you.

I also want to say thank you to the Seattle World School for a wonderful video performance and also wanted to welcome Luke again for coming and sharing with us good news about his school and also my son is also a former duck so you're going to enjoy it.

Yes, I too was touched by the Rainier Beach High School students as we were set through the meetings that Director Geary and I were about and that what their complaint was that the outside crimes that happens around their community seems to put a damper on their school.

They want people to visit their school before they actually criticize them because of what's happening around their school and I think that's a great idea because it is a wonderful school and the kids there talked about how they love their teachers and how they enjoyed each other and they are a big family.

I want to thank you for the Rainier Beach students for their comments.

I also want to congratulate all the schools who actually are in the 2015 Washington Achievement Awards for a job well done.

And I changed my community meeting to April 23rd because we're having on the actual date that I have my community meetings is April 30th, which is actually going to be the Education Summit.

Being on Education Summit Advisory Council, we were told that we need to be there from the beginning to the end.

So I encourage you to join us on April 30th at the Education Summit.

It's from 9.30 to three o'clock in the afternoon.

And that is the end of my comment.

And we're now into our public testimony.

We have now reached our perfect testimony and I will now offer to directors, repeating myself.

The rules for public testimony are on the screen and I would ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I would note that the board does not take public comments on issues related to personnel individually named staff.

I would also like to note that each speaker has a two minute speaking time.

When the two minutes have ended, please conclude your remarks.

And I will call three names at a time.

Our first three name is Anna Smart, Mary Ann Serbo, and Chris Jackins.

Hi everyone my name is Anna or Quinn Smart and I'm a junior at Ingram High School.

I'm in the IB program, I'm secretary of ASB and I'm captain of the gymnastics team.

When I was first looking for high schools when I was in 8th grade I was immediately drawn to the warm friendly atmosphere at Ingram and almost three years later the community of Ingram is still my favorite part about going to school every day.

Being on ASB, I get a really exciting chance to be involved with planning events for the student body and discussing the issues that we face at our school and how to combat those.

So recently Ingram has been buzzing with events and activities.

Just before spring break, we had our spring spirit week, pep assembly and school dance, which are all traditions.

And we also held a March Madness themed food drive where we had homeroom classes compete to collect as much non-perishable food they could for the local nonprofit Northwest Harvest.

Spring sports season has begun and we're really excited that this year has brought us a lot more athletic success than we've seen in the past.

And also our girls soccer team this year won the statewide academic award for having a cumulative GPA of a 3.9, so we're very proud of them.

Our spring musical opens in two weeks and our arts department just traveled to California to compete, so there is a lot going on and as Luke mentioned, IB tests are coming up in May, so students are studying hard.

Although the exciting events of the year are keeping morale high, students at Ingram are always looking for ways to better the school.

So this year one of the main things that ASB has been focusing on is partnering with our GSA, the Gender Sexuality Alliance and trying to get gender neutral bathrooms at our school.

We strive to be as accepting as we can to all parts of our student body.

So we have looked over district policies and we're getting signatures of support from our students in order to successfully implement that at our school hopefully.

So it's really exciting to watch Ingram grow.

We've been adding more and more students.

We're running out of classroom space.

So we're so happy that the proposal has passed for a 500 student addition to be added in the next four years and we can't wait for that.

So thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Mary Ann Serbo.

Chris Jenkins.

My name is Chris Jackins, box 84063, Seattle 98124 on the resolution on testing and opt out rights.

Thank you for bringing this resolution forward.

Please don't delay this work.

Is there a mechanism for entire schools to opt out of smarter balance testing?

On the contract for portables, is the district strictly under state order to reduce all K3 class sizes?

Five further points.

Number one, during the previous board meeting discussion, a senior district staff member was asked about landmark issues and publicly replied that he would prefer that no Seattle public schools were landmarked.

Number two, this reply invited some guffaws from the board.

I would rather that the district took the issue of the history of our schools more seriously.

Number three, the district sued the city landmarks board so that it could tear down the landmark Indian heritage school buildings at Wilson Pacific.

These buildings had been specifically landmarked because of their significance to the native community.

The landmarking was specifically not about the murals at the site.

Number four, I joined the retired principal of Garfield High School to lobby to preserve the Garfield Auditorium where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke.

The district lobbied to demolish it.

Number five, how do district officials feel about the deliberate demolition of historic buildings in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria?

On the school calendar, please remove commercial advertising from the calendar.

On Loyal Heights, the district's proposed construction project would reduce the size of the playground by 30%.

Please change these plans.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Renee Willanit, Laura Wright and Tyra Griffin.

Good evening, my name is Renee Ouellette and first of all I want to thank Directors Geary and Patu for mentioning what a great family Rainier Beach High School is and with that I am sure you also heard a lot about our Freedom School in the summer.

So with that I would like to cede my time to Ms. Tyra Griffith.

Hi, my name is Tyra Griffith.

I work with the 9th grade programs at Rainier Beach High School.

First I want to say thank you for having us here today.

We are thankful to share this time together for the opportunity to hear us out.

We would also like to thank you for your collaboration with us, our scholars, and our community with the City, Metro, the RB Transit Justice Team, and the Transit Riders Union.

We are grateful that coming together has had a positive impact in our community by providing more ORCA cards for more low-income students.

I am here today because I have seen the impact of the last summer's Children's Defense Fund Freedom School on our scholars that I work with every day at Rainer Beach High School.

Our students now have hope for their education and have hope that they can make a difference.

Earlier this month, we heard that the funding that has been set aside for the 2016 CDF Freedom Schools is no longer available.

We are confident that along with our students and the community, we will be able to fundraise because this is the best summer program.

It's actually more than a summer program.

It is really like quarter one.

It sets the foundation for all of the work that is to come during the upcoming school year.

It is an amazing opportunity for creating relationships with our students and to connect with their families.

It builds identity and belonging, academic skills, student voice, leadership development, and social action.

It is a model that should not be shut down but should be repeated throughout the district so that every student can discover how they can make a difference.

We really want you to be a part of this process.

Come join us at Rainier Beach.

Hear from our scholars about the impact of CDF Freedom School on our community.

We are asking you to support Rainier Beach CDF Freedom School this summer.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi you guys, my name is Laura Wright.

I'm our education coordinator with Urban Impact.

I'm during the school year at Rainier Beach High School.

During the summer, I operate as our program director for our CDF Freedom Schools, which we launched last summer.

I would like to cede my time today to a current Rainier Beach High School ninth grade student and Freedom School scholar, Carl.

Hello.

Hello, I'm Carl.

I'm a freshman at Rainy Beach High School and I want to tell you guys the story of my, the story, my story of Freedom School.

Freedom School is my favorite time in the summer.

When I first heard of Freedom School, I didn't want to go because I didn't know what Freedom School is but like when I go there, it changed.

I met new people, friends and they helped me They teach me many things to empower myself, my family and my communities.

They help me, they help me let my voice to hurt by others and help others.

But when I heard that Freedom School, there won't be the Freedom School this year, it's kind of like, it took away, like it broke my heart.

No, because I really love freedom school.

I'm here.

I just want to ask a guy to support us and just make a small investment and that would help us a lot.

I thank you for you got to invite us here.

Thank you.

I'm Tyra Griffith and I would like to see my time to Delight Williams.

Wait a minute.

Hello my name is Delight.

Excuse me she already used her time.

I apologize if I could clarify each speaker has one opportunity to speak so if there if you seated To Ms. Griffith and Ms. Griffith has spoken already so she can't then cede her time.

But we do have, we don't have 20 speakers so we'd be happy to have you speak but we just have to have you speak as the last speaker tonight.

If you would like to come give me your name and I can provide it to the board president.

Yeah, wait for her name.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Our next three speaker is May Gwen E, Roxana Narosi and Iris Stokes.

My name is Elisa I have two children in Seattle Public School.

Can you please move close to the microphone so we can hear you.

My name is Elisa Meichenyi, and I have two children in Seattle Public School.

At this time, I am a member of the children who need children to support the youth and support of the service.

Since the language and language障礙, my daughter has had a serious self-evident.

He was in a severe severe situation in the hospital for three years.

He had no way to learn about what he was doing.

He had no speech, no doubt, and no doubt.

He had no support for our family.

He had no support for our parents.

He had no support for our parents.

IAvoid using all capitals are not translated into the past.

In the past, there is no need to be able to solve our suffering and suffering.

In the past, there is no need to be able to solve our suffering and suffering.

評估的過程 兒童、紅迷家井都很需要有自己的母語去支持以至可以明確地作出決定 紅迷積極地參與我在這裡很真誠地要求西雅臺後區去建立一個母語的支持的政策去和社區有一個很好的合作去幫助我們這群移民的家庭 I really hope that this such a serious tragedy will not happen in any family and children's lives.

Your support will be given to our children and family and children's lives.

Thank you.

Testing, okay.

My name is Peggy Kwok.

I'm the social worker from Chinese Information and Service Center.

I'm also an interpreter now.

On behalf of immigrant families with children of special needs, we want to advocate for the home language support.

Due to the language and culture barrier, my daughter had been wrongly diagnosed with severe autism, and she was placed in a very restrictive classroom, gaining nothing in academic learning for three years.

Without home language support, the inaccurate assessment also caused severe damage for our family, especially my parent-in-laws could not bear the shame of having a very sick grandchild.

Additionally, there was no home language translation of IEP document.

No words could be enough to describe the darkness and also the helplessness our family had gone through.

With the support of Chinese Information and Service Center and my strong advocacy, my daughter switched to a general classroom for children of specialists last year, but she's still struggling with academic learning.

This human-caused disaster could be avoided if there were professional, comprehensive, culturally relevant and home language support assessment.

Children and family deserve to be well informed in their own language in the entire process to make informed decision-making and have different engagement.

We sincerely ask SPS to adopt strong language access policy and build imminent partnership with community-based organizations to provide support for families.

I really hope my tragedy will not happen to any children and any family again.

Your support for this request will make a positive difference in many children's and families' lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Roxana Neruzzi and I am the Director of Education with One America.

One America is a statewide immigrant refugee advocacy organization and one key cornerstone of our organization is closing the opportunity gap through community organizing with parents and youth as well as policy advocacy.

I'm really proud to be standing here today in alliance with our many diverse parents, our community leaders, a number of organizations including Open Doors for Multicultural Families, Chinese Information Service Center and many others who are concerned about the issue of language access.

Our community has directly identified access to translation and interpretation as a major barrier that contributes to the unacceptable opportunity gap that exists for students of color and for families to be meaningfully engaged in their children's education.

I wanted to share a personal story that I have about this issue.

Last year I was called by an East African family who I'm very close with.

The mother was in tears and very upset because her eight-year-old black son had been given two suspensions in the last year and she had repeatedly asked for an interpreter so she could understand what was going on and why her son was given these suspensions and she was not provided one.

It actually wasn't until I called the central office that the central office even knew that they needed to send an interpreter and still they were not able to find one within the time frame.

I say that because of a few issues.

One is that her son was not an ELL student and so we need to be providing interpretation to all students in the school district not only ELL families.

Also these high stakes situations like IEPs, like discipline conversations and truancy meetings It is a civil right that parents and community members have access to the documents and the information in their home language and also having just a part time staff person to manage everything in the school district is not enough.

I know my time is up, I wanted to say quickly this is a civil rights issue that WASDA has been tasked with developing policies and procedures around language access and we would like the Seattle School Board, this will be ready in early summer, we would like the Seattle School Board to be early adopters of this to model for the rest of the state what a comprehensive language access policy looks like.

And really to make this a civil right and address this issue now and provide language access to all the families in the school district.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Iris Stokes.

Good evening.

My name is Iris Stokes.

I was here at the last meeting and I am back.

Done a lot more thinking about the advancement of a potential language access policy and looking also at the work that's being done with the international schools and dual immersion programs and I'm really concerned about the engagement of those diverse voices that we want involved in both creating or adopting the language access plan and the planning on the dual immersion programs as well.

I went onto the website To find more information about applying and becoming part of the planning task force and it was after a few clicks, three pages in, all in English that I finally found the applications in other languages to join the task force and one of the goals of that task force was to really represent the diverse voices that we have, parents, community members and family.

And I thought, well I'm lucky that I was able to get there but I don't know that other parents that could have really valuable insight before we start running with a program to really share their cultural needs I don't know that they would have gotten there and so that to me is another part.

It's looking at this dual language program but it's a part of language access and making sure that we have that engagement opportunity there as well so that we're not looking back on things and maybe unintentionally excluding a group of parents that could be really interested in getting involved and thinking well we don't know why they didn't come when we're not Necessarily maybe making all of the best efforts.

So I would really like to see as we look to moving forward on adopting a language access policy that we are creative if need be in looking at how we can engage at all levels of planning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

How do you pronounce it?

I'm going to let you pronounce it.

I don't want to screw it up.

Hi, my name is Isra.

I speak a little bit English.

I'm from Iraq.

I've been in the United States for six years.

My three children go to school district.

One problem I faced when I moved to the United States, I was not able To understand the information that my children brought to the house from school.

Being a parent is hard enough and becomes harder when parents don't understand what is going on in there.

Child education, I have a proposal for you.

The first one is I recommend that each school can display some basic information about their school and current activity need to be translated to Arabic.

In this way, when we visit our school, we know that is happening This is the best way for them to understand about their school when they come across any problem.

They know how they can contact at school.

The second is, I hope school district can set up a language hotline so their parents can immediately receive Arabic support through this hotline.

The third provide Arabic classes as a second language for our children.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sabrina Bird, Flora Ibarro and Rebecca Brito.

Good evening.

I want to give honor to the Duwamish tribe whose land that we stand on and I want to thank Superintendent Nyland and all the school board directors for what you do every day on behalf of all the children.

I know it's not an easy job.

One of the most important things that we do is engage families and honor who they are.

Our parents are not only the first teacher, they are the most important teacher, they are most consistent and lifelong teacher for our children.

And we are doing a very, very poor job of communicating with our families here in Seattle Public Schools for many reasons, some of them very historical.

When South Shore, the school that I'm from, got sick, a brand new building in 2009, very toxic fumes with very lifelong health ramifications, the families who we were not able to reach out to in that very emergency was our families who do not speak English.

Recently at the community center maybe about four weeks ago we had a mass pepper spray where our kids all got pepper sprayed.

About six of our sixth graders were there.

The next morning I walked into the building to see one of our Latina youth and her mother and a very, very heated engagement in Spanish that I did not understand.

But our Spanish IA we did not have.

I did what I could, but that child, I asked her what she needed.

She said it, I need factual information in my language from somebody in authority and it took a four-day effort to get my principal connected with facts to that parent.

That shouldn't happen.

And then we talk about the education.

We can do better.

Please adopt a strong language access policy so we can do the best we can for our children because we can do great work and we are doing great work.

Let's build on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, buenas tardes.

My name is Flora Ibarra, but also I'm a parent for the Seattle Public School and I'm here today with a beautiful group of parents in great leaders communities and amazing parents who we really care for our children that we're hoping that you also care for our children.

Language access is an issue, especially in our district.

We feel and believe really strong that the district is not addressing this issue correctly.

I'm saying we are not serving the families and supporting the students the way that we're supposed to be doing.

And that needs to change.

And we are here to help you and support you to make those changes.

It's time to talk, the real talk.

And it's time to work and do the real work.

Seattle Mayor is showing concern and care about our families and for our students.

So he's working on a plan how to serve families, especially immigrants and families, refugees families in this city.

But you, as a school board member, what are you doing for our families?

What you can do for our families and for our students?

Do you know some of you interpreters, staff at the Seattle Public School, they only translate 30% or less sometimes in those meetings all over the city?

In conversation with parents, that's really sad.

I've been witness that.

Your interpreters, they don't normally translate.

We need interpretations.

Immigrants and refugee families, we need interpretations to be able to deliver the message and get that information.

I like to be clear and it's time to speak the truth and not to be afraid.

Our families need help and students as well.

How can we improve education or close the gap when families are not clear informed about how and how we can support students for success because the language barriers.

Immigrants and refugees families deserve respect and the best way is to welcome and treat those families with dignity and respect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi there, I'm Rebecca Brito.

I'm a parent in North Northeast Seattle.

I have children at John Rogers and Jane Addams Middle School.

I'm talking a little bit more about John Rogers today.

I don't usually hyper focus and advocate just for my school community but it's important.

So recently John Rogers had our first heritage night in years.

It was an amazing success.

The biggest attribute to that would definitely be the fact that our FEET team had letters translated into multiple languages.

I can't support more what the families have been saying today about language connection at school communities.

It helps build stronger communities.

We want to see inclusion.

We see diversity as a treasure and not a distraction and those values need to be translated For our families to make those connections.

John Rogers still has rats.

Still has rats in the kitchen and in the cafeteria.

Still has rats under the fish tank.

Rats got into the birthday lollipops in our administrator's desk.

So traumatizing for her, unfortunate for the kids, easily replaced.

John Rogers still has a leaky roof.

We can't prove it to you today but it's still happening.

The broiler's still not working and we're struggling to Figure out as a school community if our PTA funds are going to go to enrichment or a school counselor next year because the district is not funding it.

The BLT could not make a decision if we needed an assistant principal, if we needed A head teacher or a counselor and it is terrible to have to objectify somebody that is a strong and valued part of your community and say you are a position and we don't know if we can fund you.

That is not acceptable and it is not fair.

Next year John Rogers who already has our math class on the stage under hot stage lights.

We have our English support classes happening in the teacher's lounge.

We value diversity.

The boundary changes are putting that at risk and we won't have a counselor to help the kids work through overcrowded schools.

Please wrap up your comments.

Thank you.

Overcrowded schools, the trauma of having rats run over their feet, everything else.

John Rogers is having nails in the coffin and they are not dead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cecilia McCormick, Mary Griffin and Cynthia Pochicot.

Oh Leah Copeland, I am sorry.

Hi, I'm Leah Copeland.

I'm here to talk about Ms. Marr.

She's a counselor at John Rogers Elementary School in Lake City.

She helps kids go through hard times with friends and bullying issues.

One of those kids is me.

You can go talk to her in small groups or just one-on-one for family issues.

For me, I had bullying issues and I went to her for help.

She makes time to meet with you so you feel comfortable.

I met with her during lunchtime with a small group of friends, including the bullies that were making me feel a little uncomfortable during recess time.

After I went to her, within two months, the bullying issue was gone.

The bullies and me weren't exactly friends, but we were okay.

After that, I felt a lot more comfortable at recess, and I was able to go talk to my friends comfortably.

Me and the bullies got along a lot better, and Ms. Marv really helped the school.

In my eyes, she helps us a lot.

All the bullies almost went away.

There's barely any bullies and it's gone down a lot.

A lot of my friends and people I know have also gone to Ms. Marr for help.

She makes the school better in all the ways that you can think of.

On top of all the problems that we've had, like the leaky roofs, the boiler not working, and the rats, Ms. Marr is definitely one of the pluses.

I hope she can still be here for us next year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello.

Hot enough for you?

I think so.

I just want to let you know there's a lot of talk on social media hearing from girls and parents whose daughters have been sent home or called into the office at school because they were dressed inappropriately.

And you know all the important parts I'm sure were covered.

This I think is part of district and school administration policy and dress codes.

We need to build into the cultural competency and training not to body shame our daughters.

Teach the men and the boys that they can choose whether or not they are looking or they are distracted.

Any case, the reason I'm here today to talk, a couple of topics.

Thank you so much for the resolution on alternative testing.

You know I'm a very aggressive person but I have had the butt heads this spring at my daughter's high school to opt her out of SBA.

She's 10th grade, she hasn't until next year to do it, but my god, it was as if the sky was falling, she will not graduate, and do I really understand the consequences?

Now, nothing makes me angrier when someone questions whether I know what's best for my child.

And plus the fact that she overhears staff whispering behind her back saying, oh my gosh, they're going to waste her five days next year because she'll have to take it then.

Well, they're wasting five days now for her.

She will be an IB student.

So she will be taking a lot of tests.

Please do not, well and RCW allows for alternative tests but you have to fail SBA first.

How ridiculous is that?

You know how stubborn I am, she will go get a zero, that won't look good for anyone.

Please conclude your remark.

I am done, thanks.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Mary Griffin and I am here to speak on two issues.

One is the MOU with the EEU.

I love saying that.

I want to thank everybody who worked on the MOU.

I think it recognizes that the importance of inclusion and parental feedback about the EEU.

I do have one comment on the third part of the MOU which discusses technical assistance.

I would like to see that it says technical assistance for five schools.

Five schools was what was promised by the Executive Director of Special Education regarding setting up a blended model of kindergarten, one blended kindergarten in each region.

Moving on to my next topic, I would like to discuss language access for students with disabilities.

This is a huge issue.

I have personally witnessed situations with blank IEPs.

IEPs are legal documents that need to be signed by parents.

How many of you would sign a blank document or a document in a language that you did not understand?

Among one of the most important mandates of IDEA which is the law which governs the delivery of special education is that requirement that parents participate in the provision of educational programs to their children.

Procedural safeguards provide that notices to parents concerning the initiation or change or refusing to initiate or change the identification, evaluation or placement of a child or the provision of a free appropriate public education be in the native language of the parents unless it is clearly not feasible to do so.

More specifically, use of interpreters or other action as appropriate directs the public agency to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the parents understand the proceedings of the IEPT meeting including arranging an interpreter for parents with disabilities or whose other native language is other than English.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cynthia Porticoa, Hodan Mohammed, and Delight Williams.

Good evening, my name is Hoddan Mohamed and I'm a parent at Seattle School District.

The reason I'm here is because of the language access.

Also I work for Open Door for Multicultural Families which provides and helps families with children with disabilities.

As a professional and a parent, when I go in the schools and I see how parents are not getting support due to a interpreter or language access, it breaks my heart.

I have witnessed and seen schools where we wait 40 minutes Until they pull out from IA from a classroom, which that IA is supposed to be helping a student in that classroom because there's no other IA in the building that can support our families with special needs to interpret for their IEPs.

I also have witnessed a young man who was at West Seattle High School, who was supposed to be an ELL, and this is a true story, who was supposed to be an ELL, who was in special education at West Seattle High School.

Due to his behavior and the discommunication that he had with staff, he cannot go to transition programs because he has a behavior issue because the school did not provide ELL services.

And now he's not able to move forward and they're holding him back because of his behavior.

I have also witnessed so many stories with families.

It just breaks my heart.

I think language access is very important.

You want parents to participate in school.

We hear that every day.

You guys tell us, you need to be in school engaging teachers.

How can I engage teacher when I don't understand the language?

How can teacher explain to me, my son or daughter, their academics, which there's no interpreter in place?

Somali is the second language in Seattle Public School.

Therefore, we don't have enough interpreters in the school and we need to have that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Delight Williams and Lisa Rankins.

Hello, my name is Delight Williams.

I'm a student at Rainier Beach.

I've been there all for years.

Today I want to tell you guys.

Today I want to tell you guys about Freedom School.

One of their biggest thing is Harambe which means let's all come together and I can truly tell you guys that they have made a huge impact here at Rainer Beach.

This year some very tragic things have happened.

One of our students have died from a serious death.

Another one of our students relatives have also died and it's really took a toll on our students.

A lot of them are really sad and depressed which is very common amongst students in poor schools and Freedom Schools has came here and given us a space where we can have an outlet for our anger and our sadness and if we lose them we really lose a bit of Rainier Beach because they've helped us grow as a family.

They've helped us come together and with Freedom School I can say that I'm extremely happy to say that I'm a student of Rainier Beach.

That they've helped me to see not only the students as just students but I see them as my family.

I see them as friends and I see them so much more and that also goes along with the staff and that is all thanks to Freedom Schools and I just ask that you guys support Freedom Schools and that you guys learn more about them and thank you for giving me this time.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm actually speaking on behalf of Cynthia Portugal who couldn't make it here because of traffic.

So I have her speech here on my phone.

She wanted to discuss the tremendously messy and ultimately discriminatory riser process for special education families.

She acknowledges this topic has been brought up in past board meetings by several of you and thanks you very much for bringing attention to the matter.

She would like to state that the process is still played with errors broken and set up to fail children.

In the process of trying to enroll her twin four-year-old boys who both require access programs into kindergarten next year, she's been told that they cannot be placed on the wait list for any choice schools.

The reason for this and she has a quote here from an email from someone in special education.

I have 60 spots in elementary access in the northeast region and 64 students requiring elementary access services.

I'm not certain how much more clarity I can bring to this situation.

If she asked what would happen to the extra four kids, the response was, I have no plans to open any more access services this year.

The four students over the 60 will result in overage pay for the teachers but will not result in more staff being hired.

There are several schools in the north end that do not accept any choice applications because they are continually overcrowded in both general and special education.

That's the end of quote from the emails.

What this tells her is that after all of the hurdles she faces with just getting her children enrolled and placed with the district's program model, the district then strategically and proactively intends to break the contract with families by simply overpopulating special education programs or classrooms such as access, overworking teachers, and therefore not meeting established child to teacher ratios.

She would like to know why there are such few seats made available for special education students at choice schools and why all students can't go to their neighborhood school with their neighbors and friends and community.

Why are her sons Gabo and Oscar going to be segregated and bussed to different neighborhood away from their friends, neighbors and communities only to be placed in an overpopulated and under resourced special education program.

How is this inclusion and how is this equity?

That is her statement and on a personal note I want to add about standardized testing my first grader when I explained to him what the test was about said why you and my teacher already know how I'm doing and I think he's right on the money.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is the end of our public testimony and we're now going into our second board comments.

I want to welcome Director Harris.

You want to speak?

Are you calling me out?

Yes, I am.

Oh, I didn't appreciate everybody else's, I thought I was special.

You are special.

Thank you, Director Patu.

Really quickly thanks to the Highland Park PTSA attended their meeting this week terrific folks making a lot happen with very little participation and very little money.

It's one of our schools with the greatest needs and they're terrific folks and they need help.

Thank you to Peggy McEvoy and the lunch and recess folks.

We're working together to try and address these issues.

Peggy has just received the consultant study about lunchroom issues and we hope to meet next week.

I appreciate her responsiveness and her ability to reach out.

I'm not sure we always see the world in the same way, but getting folks together in the same room makes a huge difference.

And with a welcoming mentality.

Last week I was able to attend the summit workshop in High Point at Neighborhood House.

And Neighborhood House's director, quote, we very, very much miss middle college high school.

Was also able to find a candidate From one of Mercer Island's private schools, a Spanish teacher, sent her name on to Clover and hopefully we can snag her.

What was special about this particular workshop in preparation for the summit is that we had a table of probably 15, 20 young Somalian kids.

And probably 10 to 15 Somalian moms.

And they brought a really rich discussion to this and I hope we see them on April 30th at that summit.

Last night at the Audit and Finance Committee meeting we heard from Pat Sounder that the city's family and education levy has switched courses to where they now only fund four family support workers.

When I voted for the families and education levy I voted Thinking that we were talking about wraparound services, which families and family support workers were about.

So my request to Superintendent Nyland and to Board President Betty Patu is that we get that in those closed door meetings that you all get to attend and the rest of us get left behind.

If you would take those concerns about the framing of that To that committee and hopefully we can talk about wraparound services and what the through lines and changes are in the family and education levy monies.

I don't have scheduled meetings right now.

I'm having a heck of a time finding space in the libraries and I think I'm going to move them to the Salvadorian bakery.

Because they've got lots of space and for whatever reason they love me and we can eat.

So stay tuned on that.

Thank you very much.

It's a half a block off the city of Seattle and all of our school people eat there.

Anybody else?

I would like to add a few supplemental comments in response to some of our public testimony.

As always I want to thank everyone who takes the time to come down and share with us and families, Taking the time out of their family time and students kind of hanging it out there and experiencing the joy and apprehension of public speech.

I wanted to ask the responsible folks, the organizers of the Rainier Beach Freedom Schools.

It's an area which I don't have a lot of knowledge about.

I'd be interested to learn more.

So I would welcome any sort of email dialogue around that if you can send me information about it.

Knowledge is power.

I want to use the same message around language access.

I will also confess to not understanding the depth of the challenges that we face there.

And this is one of the things that public testimony helps us with.

I know that as a district we say we have 128 languages and dialects and just putting that number up there is an indication of the challenges.

We also talk about celebrating all of our cultures and our ethnicities and our diversity and so you put those together and you ask the question of how.

And we're not going to be able to fix it with a policy.

It's going to take some money.

It's going to take some policy.

It's going to take some community engagement.

It's going to take some real creative solutions.

And so I appreciate the testimony from people who have these solutions in mind and have suggestions and are willing to share them with us.

And I would ask of staff if sometime in the next several weeks, if they could prepare a brief summary for those of us who are new on the board, around what is our policy framework around that and what are the resources we have in place.

And then I want to end that with a kind of a success story and thank both our community volunteers and our board office, Anya, for putting together the support for the interpretation at this meeting.

which helps make this sort of communication successful.

Thank you for that.

And then as a response from my colleague, Director Harris, I wanted to just mention I sit on the Levy Oversight Committee.

There was a really, really informative presentation yesterday on the work they're doing around health centers and that.

I'd be interested to have a further discussion So that I can take better information from you and from the entire board back to that committee.

Dr. Peters.

I would also like to add a couple of notes in response to our public testimony.

Thank you all for coming out tonight.

Regarding the freedom school I would also like to know what the status of that is.

It sounds like a very worthwhile program so if staff could present to us an update on that I would appreciate it.

I would also like to understand where the funding comes from to support it and how the board could help with that.

As far as the language access policy I would support taking a look at what WASDA is proposing so please when that is ready please bring it to us and we can see how it, whether it complements something we already have or whether it's something new that we need to take a look at.

So thank you very much for your advocacy on that.

I'd also like to say thanks student Leah Copeland for bringing up the issue of her counselor.

That is a constant refrain we hear from the community and we know as parents ourselves how important it is for school counselors to be in our buildings.

So I'm going to repeat my refrain which is I would like us to see what we can do to make counselors a permanent fixture in our buildings and to find the money in our budget so that we don't have to make these incredibly difficult choices Every year choosing what staffers we have in our buildings.

They should be considered essential staff for all our schools.

And then finally I would like to ask staff for an update on the John Rogers building.

We frequently hear horror stories about the status of the building and I know that we have some maintenance we need to catch up on but that one in particular seems to come to us with some very vivid stories so I would love to have an update on where we are at with that so we can also report back to the community what we are doing to take care of all those problems.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

I too would like to thank all the people that came out and spoke.

Really appreciate you coming and telling us exactly what is happening out there and what we need to do as board directors to actually to push those issues so we can be able to resolve.

I also want to say to the Freedom School, as one of my schools, I really don't know anything about your program that's happening in the summer, which I really would like to know more about.

I've heard so much about it but I really have not had the opportunity to really sit down and get to know exactly what the program is all about and where the funding comes from.

So I definitely would like to know a little bit more about the Freedom School because it sounds like you guys are doing some amazing work there.

The language access, I really believe that it's something that we really need to look into.

I agree with Director Burke that we want to find out exactly where we're at with that because with that many different languages that are spoken in our school, we definitely need to find a way to actually support those parents in terms of actually helping them understand what's going on in the school with their children.

So I think that it's something that we definitely need to look at as board directors and as a school that when we have so many different languages spoken in our school, we need to really be able to come up with a plan that we need to implement in order for our parents to be able to understand exactly what's happening in their school.

So that's something that I definitely would like to look into and hopefully to get support so that way we can provide the necessary help or in areas that is needed in order for us to be able to reach our non-speaking English parents.

I would also like to support Director Harris in terms of the family support worker.

Yes, they are wraparound services.

I've known them for many years since I've been on the school board and also working for the school district and they do everything.

They go out to the parents.

Provide closing for the kids, whatever the student need, those people actually provide those necessary service.

And as I found also out that very few of them are left, I couldn't believe that this is actually happening because many years ago when Mayor Rice had his summit, that was the main reason that he had that was to actually to provide Family support workers for every school so that they can be able to get the help that they need for their kids.

So that is definitely something that we will talk about in the mayor's campaign and hopefully that we'll be able to fully fund that program because as we get into our suspension and I know we talked about how we're going to be implementing that next year.

I believe that those are the very staff that should be handling that, that give us the support for that because they already know the family, they know the kids and they know the school.

So I'm hoping that we can actually be able to talk about that again at the Mayor's Summit and hopefully that we can fully fund those positions because they're going to be very helpful for our school.

So thank you very much and hopefully that we're able to provide opportunities for those who actually felt that there's something that they needed to share with us and I thank all our board directors for actually being able to provide opportunity to also to say their comments.

And we're now taking a break.

Thank you.

Much of what I would have said has already been said so I'll just

Again appreciate all of the public testimony that we received today and particularly from those who organized the conversation about language access.

You've made crystal clear to us in many ways that it is an issue of equity and it's an issue that we care about deeply is the performance of all of our students.

I hope that we have the opportunity to continue to explore this issue, to come to agreement on some sort of a policy and a robust implementation plan so that a policy lives in each one of our schools and in this building.

Thanks.

Anybody?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Director Pinkham.

Thank you, I just want to thank everyone that came and shared their comments but I pretty want to just this language access program coming from my background where some of the NATO languages have been lost because they weren't allowed to sweep their own language and how much that does to a person's culture and who they, See themselves, their self esteem, their identity, this is who I am, the language that I speak is part of who I am.

So we need to do something to embrace all the languages that are spoken here and doing that whatever WSDA is saying, Seattle schools let's step up, let's show them that we do appreciate the languages and that it is Enriches not only the families themselves but the school district.

Appreciate the language that we have and that we teach because I'm just starting to learn my language and those that came up here and I just liked you know I didn't understand the words of the first me queen what she was saying but for to be able to still speak her language I applaud you you know because we need that more and that's my comments that I want to share.

Thank you.

Dr. Gary.

I wasn't going to go but I do want to talk to the One America people because at the event that we were at last night talking about McCleary funding Senator Michael Baumgartner who sat there and said that really we have enough money for our schools and that we need to think of you know be wiser with it because What the most important aspect of our schools he said was our families and our parents and that we need to make sure that our parents are in our schools and doing their part for their kids education and that we don't need more money for that.

Well I'm going to challenge him on that because we need the funds and the resources to train up people who can accurately interpret for our families.

And when I say that understanding special education, understanding education speak Because that's how it's printed out.

And that's really sophisticated stuff.

And as you know, when we call, those interpreters, one, if they do show up, they may not have the sophistication to actually and accurately interpret that information to you.

So this is just another one of those costs that the people who are in charge of the purse strings don't think about how sophisticated, how expensive and how important it is for our families And for the equity that we need to deliver and the gaps that we need to close for all of our kids.

So it is such a complex issue but I just had to speak because I just hear his voice and how he simplifies it and this is so complex and I wish he was here tonight to actually think about the implications of what each and every one of you said and what that means to us when we weren't even given the benefit of all of our levy funding.

So thank you for coming.

We hear you.

We struggle with this.

Martha Harris.

When I hear that particular senator's name, my blood pressure goes up.

That senator and a great many others in Olympia, Washington, are doing a daily disservice, a $29 million disservice to the children of our state.

And I'd like to segue.

I'm not even going to use his name because I won't do it.

I won't stop.

I would encourage the folks that testified today to email each and every one of those senators and representatives that have voted against our children, that dissed us with the levy cliff, which is going to cost us $11 million and we're going to have three days to put the 2017-18 budget together, provided the legislature I know is in session then.

Take your advocacy, we heard you.

I think most of us agree with you.

Take it to Olympia and let's find some people in the November elections that truly represent children.

Thank you.

We are now taking a recess.

Yeah.