So like, if you think you're using your Google Voice.
All right.
Good evening.
I'm Council Member Lorena Gonzalez co-chair of the City Council's Families Educatory School and Promise Select Committee.
And this is a meeting of a special meeting of the Select Committee.
Today this evening joining me are several of my colleagues my co-chair Rob Johnson Council President Harrell.
We are in his district District 2. So thank you for having us.
bold and we have folks from the Department of Education and Early Learning who will introduce us introduce themselves to us momentarily.
The purpose of today's meeting is to receive public comment on Council Bill 119258 which is an ordinance for property taxes for the purpose of providing education services in early learning K-12 school and community based investments K-12 school health and post-secondary and job readiness.
And so before we start with the public comment period, we will be given a brief presentation from the good folks over at the Department of Education and Early Learning with a summary of the proposed legislation as it currently is in front of city council.
And they will also give us an overview of the process that they undertook to get to the current proposal.
So I'm going to read this agenda item into the record so we can go ahead and get started and then I'm going to hand it over to the folks at DEEL to introduce themselves and dig into the presentation.
So this is the 2018 Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy for Briefing and Public Hearing.
So with that said, I will hand it over to the folks at DEEL.
I am getting some...
Okay, if you need an interpreter in Spanish, we have an interpreter in Spanish available at the front.
Can you raise your hand, please?
Okay, I mean, thank you.
Slipping back and forth between, this is a little fluid.
So for those folks who need an ADA accommodation, who can't make it all the way down to the bottom, we have a microphone at the very top of the stage, so don't feel like you have to make your way way all the way to the bottom if you need those accommodations.
But we'll have both of these mics will work once you start the public hearing process.
I'd like to welcome Council Member Mosqueda who just joined us as well.
Yeah.
OK, so let's go ahead and hand it over to our folks from DEEL.
We'll start with introductions, and then we'll kick off the presentation.
Good afternoon.
My name is Dwayne Chappell.
I am the proud director of education and early learning for the city of Seattle.
And I'll allow my two amazing colleagues to introduce their self.
Good evening.
My name is Veronica Vision, director for K-12 education.
And I'm Monica Leang-Aguirre, the Division Director for Early Learning.
As Council Member Gonzalez said, I'll be giving you all a brief overview of what the Families in Education and Preschool Promise Program package looks like.
So what I'll do is start off, and we can go to the next slide, and just give a quick overview of what we'll be speaking about today.
This is our introduction.
We'll go through and share some information about the community voice that we heard as we prepared this package.
We'll talk about our education levy goals.
We can hear a little bit information about them.
We'll talk about our and then we'll wrap it up with the Seattle promise.
We can go to the next slide.
So I'll just start off by just providing a brief overview of the history of the Families in Education and Preschool Program Levy.
1990, yes, 28 years ago, and through our significant investments, We know that our current strategies are not closing the opportunity gap fast enough.
Our youth here have made some progress, but our current strategies are not changing the opportunity gap fast enough for our kids here.
And we want to share with you a little bit about what we've heard from our community and the specific high-level areas of investments that we're going to be looking at on the next slide.
We started off in November of 2017 with approximately 33 plus community meetings throughout the city of Seattle.
As you'll look above, you'll see there's a map, and the map highlights the city of Seattle, but the little blue pins on the map are the areas that we actually held these community meetings.
And in our community meetings, just a brief snapshot of what we heard through these meetings.
And the snapshots, we'll talk a little bit more about them into the presentation, but the five areas of focus that we've heard from our community, closing opportunity gaps that we focused on our underserved, disadvantaged, and students of color.
We want to make sure that we provide support for all age groups.
The other theme we heard was investment in early learning.
Our universal access and affordable early learning program, just for to increase the early learning providers and compensation, this is something we've heard.
We've also, the other thing to us was expanded learning opportunities.
And this is our out of school time before and after school, summer, week long learning as far as transportation.
The second thing is a new thing for us.
And we'll talk a little bit about this a little bit more in a present, typically systems coordination.
And the last thing that the community presented to us was support for wraparound services for our kids in communities and schools.
So those are the top five themes.
And when we look at this engagement, you'll see that approximately 465 of the individuals that we engaged, around one fifth of them were young adults or youth.
So I just wanted to just highlight that as well.
And we can go to the next slide.
So based on what we've heard, we actually came up with these four areas of what we're looking at focusing on for the Families in Education and Preschool Promise Levy.
The four areas or should I say our programs will work to achieve educational equity by making sure that each and every kid have access to these four things.
The first one is high quality preschool that make sure our kids are ready for kindergarten.
The second one is college and job readiness experiences that our young adults can have that will promote high school graduation.
The third area of focus is physical and mental health services that support learning.
And the last one is post-secondary opportunities that focus on attainment of a credential or a degree or some type of certification for our young adults coming up.
And we'll talk a little bit more about that as well.
So what I'll do right now is I'll tap my partner, Monica, to talk to us a little bit about preschool.
Good evening.
A large part of the proposed levy is to expand a successful Seattle Preschool Program levy, a program that was started in 2015 through the Seattle Preschool Program levy.
Durkin is committed to preschool and she's really doubling down on the commitment, understanding that early investments in education have a great return for outcomes for children.
We know that it helps to close the achievement gap, allowing children to come into kindergarten prepared.
Children who attend preschool are less likely to be referred for special education, are less likely to be retained in a grade, and have higher likelihood of graduating from high school and attending post-secondary institutions and also long-term.
improved health outcomes.
So the plan is to to increase access to our high-quality preschool.
Currently we're in our third of the four-year pilot and this would just allow us to continue what has been a successful program and eventually serving close to 3,000 children by the end of the levy.
Mayor Durkin is also very much committed to investing in K-12 education, specifically in closing the opportunity gaps.
We have continued investments and also some new initiatives that are focusing around the opportunity gap and creating pathways.
to jobs for our students who are exiting the school system through graduation.
Some of those investments include a focus population that we'll be serving, targeting the highest needs population.
Those are our students who are historically underserved, your English language learners, and students that are currently struggling to meet grade level expectations.
There's also year-round expanded learning opportunities that we believe are critical to make sure that we reduce the learning gap that happens in particular over summer.
Social emotional learning opportunities, there's student and family support services that we will continue.
And college and job career readiness is an increased priority that we will be supporting and reaching the ultimate goal of supporting high school students to graduate.
And we're happy to share that the new investment is also increasing the teacher diversity pipeline.
Next slide.
Included in the K-12 investments are the added health investments.
The mayor has understood the importance and the value of continuing the current funding model in place for health services and adding additional health services, health clinics in particular in two middle school health centers and one high school.
So there'll be a maintenance of the current model in place as well as adding three additional health clinics.
And if we can go to the next slide.
And the final area, what I wanna speak to is the Seattle Promise, another exciting investment for our kids.
I was sitting, I'm sitting up here looking out in the crowd and I get even more excited when I think about the Seattle Promise because as a high school principal at Rainier Beach, I think about just the opportunities kids need in order to be successful here in Seattle.
There's a study that talks about that says 70% of the jobs, 70% of the jobs in the state of Washington are going to require some post-secondary credential after 2020, or should I say by the year 2020. So when I think about the Seattle Promise, I think about kids having access to opportunities to obtain a two-year degree.
but also not limiting it to just a two-year degree, but some type of post-secondary certification that will allow them to get the jobs.
And Seattle Promise is one of the ways that we're going to increase access and plenary opportunities for our kids here in Seattle.
And you'll see the footnotes up there that talks about academic preparation.
When we say academic preparation or academic readiness, it's really one of the key indicators of college enrollment and completion.
When we enroll kids, we do not want kids just to enroll.
We want kids to complete.
The next bullet, increase enrollment, basically it's talking about just tuition supports that increase enrollment rates for post-secondary institutions.
And we've actually demonstrated this through the Seattle 13th year program.
The last two, or excuse me, the next one, person graduation, I spoke about that a few minutes ago.
And we all know that tuition alone does not increase students persistent towards graduation rates.
We need to make sure that our, we will be making sure kids have additional supports in order to graduate.
And the last one, economic mobility.
As I just mentioned about the study, we know that in order for our students to compete and have the economic mobility that they need, our young adults, we need to make sure that they have access to two, three years of schooling, but also an opportunity to obtain some type of credential or increase the likeliness of them being employed in a great career or job here in Seattle.
So this concludes our presentation and I just want to thank you all for giving us an opportunity to speak to you and also thank the council members here for allowing us to sit up here with you as we talk about this.
Thank you so much, Duane, Monica, and Veronica.
Thank you so much for being with us.
You're welcome to stay with us at the table here, or if you'd like to sit on the audience, you're welcome to do that as well.
I venture to guess which option you're going to exercise.
Not a hard one.
Thank you all so much.
Really appreciate it.
And for those of you who came in a little bit later once we started the presentation, I want to acknowledge that we are in District 2 of the Seattle, City of Seattle.
And we have Council President Harrell here with us who represents this district.
So I thanked him earlier for hosting us in his district.
So thank you so much for having us again, Council President, in your home district.
We will now open the public comment period.
I am going to call out the speakers in the order that folks signed up.
Each speaker is gonna be provided two minutes to speak, and we ask that each speaker, as you come up to the microphone, to start off by sharing your name with us.
To repeat, once again, we also have a microphone at the top of the staircase.
For those of you who want to use that microphone, both of them work just fine.
And then we have about 22 folks who are signed up for public testimony, so that's about 44 minutes of public testimony.
And we will take sheets as they come in and give folks an opportunity to give us public comment if they didn't have a chance to sign up on the sheets.
We will go ahead and get started.
So I'm going to read folks' names out by three, and if you can start making your way to a microphone as soon as you hear your name, I would appreciate that.
The first speaker is Mary Sprute, followed by Jenny Allen and Sharika Russell.
Are you Mary?
I am.
Please, go ahead.
Good evening.
Thank you, Councilmembers, for allowing me the time to present testimony today.
It's a privilege to be here.
My name is Mary Sprudy.
I am an early learning professional who has worked both locally here in the classroom, nationally on early childhood policy issues, working to expand access to high-quality preschool for the children who need it the most.
Early childhood education is of critical importance to our city.
As science shows us, a child's brain is mostly developed by age five, yet many children do not have access to high-quality early learning.
Starting kindergarten at an uneven playing field leads to long-lasting issues of inequity that can affect children for years to come.
We also know that high quality early learning improves outcomes for children.
Children who benefit from quality early education are more likely to graduate from high school, earn higher salaries, and are less likely to be incarcerated.
The Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy will provide critical revenue for early childhood and education programs for our city.
Participation in high-quality early learning improves outcomes not just in childhood, but throughout a person's life.
Research by James Heckman found a 13% return on investment annually for every dollar spent on high-quality early learning for disadvantaged children.
The return on investment is a result of a myriad of benefits including higher incomes, reduced need for public assistance, better health outcomes, and reduced crime rates.
Other studies have found that children who participate in high-quality early learning are less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors like frequent drug use or smoking.
In New York, where they're working to implement universal pre-K, more children are getting asthma and vision impairments diagnosed early, meaning that children can show up at kindergarten ready to learn without struggling to breathe or see the chalkboard.
The Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy will certainly improve the lives of young children and families in Seattle.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mary.
Jenny Allen, followed by Sharika Russell, and Sharika will be followed by Smooth Bell.
Good evening, council members.
My name is Jenny Allen and I work in the family support program at Seattle Public Schools.
As it stands, family support workers are present in 15 buildings across the district.
However, there are 30 Title I schools across our district with a population of 40% or higher eligible for free and reduced lunch.
We are looking to expand the impact of our program.
I brought with me today some of the numbers and the reduction of force and how that's impacting the number of students we've been able to serve.
Going back to the script, I just wanted you to know I've spent some time, I've spent time at many schools, but recently at TOPS, which used to have a family support worker there alongside with a counselor.
And what was lost when you lost your family support worker?
Describe the difference to me in the social-emotional supports you see when a family support worker is no longer present in the building.
And she worked within these walls, but I need that family support worker to be working for the families within and without.
Without that family support worker, we lose The ability to recognize needs that might otherwise go unrecognized in our school because the students get recognized for the needs they might have.
At our height in 2004, we had 51 family support workers, and we were operating in 71 schools.
The needs of our community are much higher now, and we have a quarter of the staff.
Our staff are building points of contact for homeless students, approximately 4,300 in our district alone, students in state foster care, and Native American students.
15 family support workers alone cannot meet the basic needs of our students and families adequately.
Still, the family support program never turns away families who make requests from schools.
Those FSW's we'd like to advocate for more family supports across the district.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jenny.
Sure, you go, Russell.
OK, thank you.
Smooth Bell will be followed by Eric.
A key, a gaming main argument.
Good evening, Councilwoman.
Good evening.
I'm going to get right to the point.
So I do support this levy that you're presenting to us.
What I want to say is that education is something that these kids are really going to need our support if we don't see chances of making intelligent decisions in their lives and in our society in this country.
We need to support these kids.
One thing I want to say real quick is that when I went to this school here years ago, but when I came back a couple of years, I saw a sign in the hallway out here that said that these kids are getting the opportunity to study humanities.
What I'm saying, they are allowing these kids to get into court-run situations and criminal situations so they will have the experiences to make more intelligent situations.
This is the sport that I'm about and this is what I will support.
But this is what I think these kids need, and I hope that everybody supports these kids to give them the opportunity to get the education that they need.
Without this education, all we have to do is look around and see the consequences of not educating our kids.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bell.
Eric will be followed by Colin Pierce, and then we have Kate Shuler.
Good evening, council members, and thank you for the opportunity to testify this evening.
I'm Eric Agyeman, a graduate student of UW, Masters in Social Work, graduating in two weeks.
And I'm also a member of the Obek Advisory Council, and also a mentor coordinator for the Seattle CARES Mentoring Movement, and currently working with Seattle CARES to help increase black male adults who are serving as mentors for black youth.
First, I want to thank the city for, you know, initiating the first ever program that helps to increase the outcomes or life outcomes of our black and male youth, as well as black adults.
And first, I also want to say that I had an opportunity to serve as a life skill facilitator at South Shore in 2016 and 2017, and kind of like, Having a time with these students, realizing how they're very disconnected from the opportunities to have higher education, I think is very high, because most of them think that it's really expensive, and the system does not really support them.
So it makes them feel kind of like hopeless.
And so I believe that it makes them make life decisions right at the early stages, which keeps affecting the opportunities that people of color or children of color have in this community.
And we all know historically that children of color are underserved.
and also have limited opportunities when it comes to economics and also job opportunities.
So I believe strongly that the job readiness program and having culturally relevant curriculum, also having mentoring programs to support young people will help to build the self-image that can help them even more ready for the jobs ahead of them.
So I'll be very happy if you can support this level.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And I apologize for butchering your last name.
My apologies.
Colin Pierce?
Kate Schuller followed by and I'm sure that there will be more name butchering as the evening goes on and I apologize.
Hello I'm Colin Pierce I coordinate the International Baccalaureate program at Rainier Beach High School and thank you for the opportunity to testify.
So in my work in Seattle as an educator I've been able to firsthand witness a couple of things that seem to plague education in the city, and it's not unique necessarily in this.
But we've got enormous inequalities of access and opportunity from school to school, and also from classroom to classroom within the same school.
And then also, we're very good at fostering small pockets of innovation and success, but we are pretty awful at sustaining than enlarging those innovations and expanding those innovations.
So Rainier Beach, I would count as one of the successes that's been created in a pocket.
And part of that is because we started with a vision.
And that vision was that if there is such a thing as the best practices in instruction and curriculum, that those should be what all students have access to.
And with that, we've been able to raise graduation rates and test scores consistently over the last seven years, but we've also achieved what less than 1% of high schools nationwide have been able to do, which is that we have proportional participation by race and income in our advanced learning courses.
Fewer than 1% across the nation, and I would say that that's the same in most of the rest of our schools in Seattle.
Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, advanced learning programs create de facto segregation within schools from floor to floor and classroom to classroom.
Tests and other gatekeeping are designed to identify which students to exclude from what is billed as our highest quality curriculum.
Those who are excluded are reliably low-income black and brown students.
What IB at Rainier Beach represents is an alternative to that exclusionary structure, one that holds the potential to create greater integration in our schools and also to broad access to best practices from pre-K on up to high school graduation.
IB has programs that serve early learning and middle years, and given the successes we've seen at Beach, it only makes sense that we provide students in the Southeast access to consistent and high-quality preparation from the earliest age.
I encourage you to use this levy to build IB pathways in the Southeast, and I'd like to express my hope expectation that Rainier Beach itself will receive levy funds in this round since we've applied and been denied twice in the last seven years.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Kate Shuler followed by John Shoecraft and then we will hear from Phyllis Campano.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Special thank you to Council Member Mosqueda, who visited my school today.
I work at John Muir Elementary.
It's a Title I school that received an education levy through the Innovation and Linkage School Program.
This is our school's second year as a levy school, and in just two years, we have closed the opportunity and achievement gap for ELL students and black students in second grade.
We're working on closing that.
Initial data is showing us that perhaps in first and third grade we've also been able to close the gap in just two years.
We've done this by leveraging the levy to hire qualified intervention teachers, partner with community-based organizations, and increase professional development opportunities for staff.
The mayor's proposal for a renewed family and education levy puts all of this progress at risk.
It appears to dramatically reduce funding for academic interventions that have been proven effective at closing the achievement gap at a critical time for students.
As you are likely aware, studies have told us that children who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade do not graduate from high school on time at a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.
The same studies have pointed out that the impact on black and ELL students is even more dramatic.
These students will not be able to benefit from the Promise Program.
McCleary funding, which has been discussed as a proposed replacement for funding of these programs, is earmarked for teacher retention and basic education, not targeted academic interventions.
One of the things that the levy claims to values is teachers of diverse backgrounds.
We cannot retain teachers if we cannot afford to live in our city.
One of our teachers drives from Puyallup each day, others drive from Snohomish, Renton.
Our teachers cannot afford to live in our city.
And McCleary is helping that our work has just begun.
The gap still remains in other grade levels at Muir.
Currently we're sending half of our 5th graders to middle school, unprepared to succeed the programs and systems that the levy has allowed us to put in place or working at our school and in many other high impact schools.
This work needs to be expanded and not set aside.
Thank you.
John.
Will be followed by Phyllis and then Nina Anderson.
Thank you council members.
Thank you for having us this evening and shout out to Dwayne Chappelle for the articulate presentation now I'm here in support of the levy, but I'm not gonna go over my credentials.
You know I've coached over 2,000 kids here I have six children and I'm graduated through Seattle Public Schools So I'm gonna speak to it more of a personal level the early childhood development part and portion is the most important piece I Because you won't have to address these other issues so much in high school and on the later end if we address it on the front end and they learn how to study, how to function, and how to function.
And we're taking it and we're flipping at the wrong end.
We need to work on the early child education piece as the strongest piece and the summer education piece so that they don't have any learning loss so it's continuing.
I have six children, two children that were adopted.
Now, so they were special needs.
All have gone to college, four have got their masters, one is working on it.
But the most key component for my life was that they were able to go through CAMPE.
They were able to get education before they got to school and function in the classroom.
By first grade, they can function in the classroom with early education.
They have basic needs of teachers not reinventing what should have been done in the home.
For me, and I feel strongly about this, so I forgive you my voice breaks, is that my daughters are most important to me in my life and my son, but he didn't grow up in Seattle schools.
But putting the energy and the effort on the front end only makes more sense than putting so much energy on the back end.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Shoecraft.
Phyllis will be followed by Nina Anderson and Karen Hart.
Hi, I'm Phyllis Campano.
So what Kate said, and much more.
So K-5 in the new proposal eliminates funding for anything in K-5, from what I can see in the documents.
And that's concerning.
And some of the funding then shifts up through K through 8. And as Kate said, McCleary only funds retention of educators and class sizes.
And what the current levy funds, is family support workers and math and reading interventionists.
So McCleary does not fund what is being taken away.
So I think that needs to be clear, because in one of those slides, it said that McCleary would make up for it, and it really doesn't.
So not to fund basic education, so McCleary doesn't fund it.
Family support workers.
When the first levy came into place by Ron Sims, we had 60 family support workers.
That's 60. And over the years, next year, we're projected for nine.
This levy then funds 13 FTE, and that is not guaranteed for our schools.
So we will be down family support workers, which really, in this city, with the amount of homeless students that we have, is a huge piece of connecting the community to the schools.
And that's a huge piece of student success, is the community feels comfortable is in the schools.
And when you don't have that person, that community person to connect them, that's a real detriment to the students.
So we're hoping that you put back in the innovations and provide the innovation grants, K through 12, so that we can get back to academic interventions and social emotional.
So if they don't make it through K through 12, they're never going to make it into college.
Thank you.
Thank you, Phyllis.
Nina Anderson, followed by Karen Hart, and then Cindy Goodman.
Hi, my name is Nina Anderson.
I am a member of SEIU Local 925. I also represent the child care providers.
And the issue that I have at hand is when I started, I've only been in this business for a year, but I've been in education for over 20, worked in four different school districts.
So I kind of know what's going on in the districts.
I know what the teachers are looking for.
I was right there with them.
The thing that I'm running into is having enough support as far as a mentor.
Even though I've been around children all my life, raised four, but when you get into taking care of other people's children, you sometimes need a mentor.
And sometimes there isn't anyone in place.
And what I am running into is a long list.
So the families that I support, it's really hard because you have to turn down so many people.
And when you do that, then that leaves them to look for other faucets of of securing, and it makes them have to work harder or not work at all.
So my wait list is like two years down the line.
And so I'm just here to voice about the ratio to infants.
It's just a lot of stuff going on.
And basic, the main thing is the mentorship.
So if we had a program that someone could come mentor, I'd sign up because I'm being fresh in it.
I know exactly what they're looking for.
complicated.
I didn't know it was this much paperwork.
But I appreciate what I do.
You know, the outcome is great, and thank you for listening.
Thank you for being with us.
OK, Ms. Hart.
I got all official with you, didn't I?
We're bringing you home then.
I just want to talk about access.
It's been mentioned here multiple times around other issues.
Right now, in the city of Seattle, half the kids of age 0 to 12 have access to any kind of child care.
There aren't enough people doing child care.
So we are only reaching about half the kids that need child care in the city.
And I looked up the demographics in the city.
The largest adult demographics, not surprisingly to you, will be our ages 25 to 29 and 30 to 34. And we know something about those age groups.
in terms of childbearing ages.
So we have a child care crisis, and we have a child care crisis that is about to explode in our city.
And that's why what we think is important is to develop a mentorship program, like Nina was talking about, where we can have existing child care center teachers, directors, family home providers actually take in folks who want to get into this work and really be able to teach them and apprentice them in a way.
It's on-the-job training so that we can grow capacity in our city.
And we think that that is a solution that is creative, could work.
and will actually create more slots.
It could create thousands of slots for children in this city so that they can get care and don't have to go into the underground market for care, which is currently what is happening in our city.
This is a fragile system.
Child care is in a crisis, it's fragile.
When you only address three and four year olds, you lose infant care.
When you only address three and four year olds, you lose before and after school care.
We have to make sure this is a balanced system if we're gonna really address this issue.
So thank you and I hope that that gets in the levy.
Thank you.
Cindy Goodman followed and then following Cindy will be Heidi Neff Thank You members of the council, it's Cindy Goodwin
Goodwin, I'm so sorry.
No, that's my writing, not you.
My son graduated from Franklin High School in 2015. And for every parent that goes to Franklin, you are told that you don't have one child, but you have 1,600.
So I really took that to heart.
And I just want to say that it's really a pleasure to know a lot of kids are in this neighborhood.
And I thank everybody for their comments, because people are speaking about things that are so crucial to raising healthy kids.
They're not made by chance.
They're made by a lot of effort and love, and a lot of things go into them.
So thank you to you and thank you to everybody.
I'm here to speak about the kids that are my son's age.
My son was fortunate.
I could get the get, and he gets to go to four years of college, and he's having a good time.
He's making me proud.
I watch a lot of kids that he went to school with, and I really love them, and they are great kids.
I see them around.
They come over Thanksgiving.
The kids that come from families who are not as able as I was to afford college and they're not as fortunate in many ways, those kids struggle.
They are going to school, they're going to school much more slowly, they're working two or three jobs, they're tired.
Some of them are in jobs and they worry that they'll get stuck there.
And they're kids that have, they had the same love, they had the same parents, prepare them to go to school, to be ready.
They were good students.
Some of them speak four languages.
You know, they come out of countries with a lot of strife.
Some of them are kids that were just brought up here and look like my son, but they don't have the socioeconomic status that a lot of kids do.
So I'm really here to speak about making sure that two years of community college dollars are made available to Seattle graduates.
And if you do that, I'd really like you to consider not making it just for graduates at this time, but that you would include kids that have graduated in the past because they're out there struggling, and they haven't been out very long, and they're going through much more slowly because they're having to take quarters off.
That you would also consider making it accessible such that they could figure out the paperwork on themselves.
A lot of parents have many more kids, so they don't know how to help them with it.
But that you would help them do that, and then you would take just keep in mind.
That's all integrated We have to think about affordable housing because they're living in Kent because that's the rent they can afford But thank you.
Thank you all for listening.
Thank you Heidi neff is next Heidi will be followed by Nicole grant and then Sam McKagan Thank you.
Thank you council members and deal staff I for your time and for your commitment to education.
My name is Heidi Neff, and I'm the program manager for Catholic Community Services Youth Tutoring Program.
We provide after-school and summer learning for students in grades 1 through 12 living in low-income housing communities in Seattle.
And we're aligned with the work of Schools Out Washington, Youth Development Executives of King County, and Southeast Seattle Education Coalition to provide equitable resources for Seattle students of all ages.
But today what I want to talk about in particular is that resource of summer learning.
YTP, the youth tutoring program, runs a full-day, six-week summer learning program at Bailey Gadsart Elementary School in the Central District, serving over 65 students each year.
And it's the only full-day opportunity for elementary students in the Yesler Terrace SHA community.
So, it's a really great resource and levy funding, thank you very much, has allowed us to continue to provide this great opportunity to stop the summer learning slide and provide students with equitable access to great enrichment opportunities that other kids get, things like field trips and dance lessons or music lessons, things like that that they can do throughout the summer learning program.
So we could not operate this great program without levy funding, and I'm worried that the reduced elementary and summer investments in the new levy plan would result in an end to this program or similar ones.
And that would provide a significant gap in programming for elementary students.
This will, of course, preferentially impact students from low-income housing communities who can't afford other learning options, and it'll increase the opportunity gap for the youth of color that we serve.
And I know that you all don't want to see that gap increase.
My understanding is that there are not other funding sources to replace the decrease in elementary expanded learning funds with the current levy plan.
So, please increase your elementary investments so that we are able to keep the low-income elementary students able to access these important learning opportunities.
We really shouldn't be putting forward a levy that increases inequity at the elementary ages.
Thank you.
Thank you, Heidi.
Nicole Grant, followed by Sam McKagan, and then Joanne Fung.
Thank you council members.
Thank you councilman Harrell for hosting us in district at Franklin high school where I studied I am representing a hundred thousand workers here in King County including Many education workers and the labor movement has three priorities for this levy that I want to share with you first of all For anybody who has a young kid who's in elementary school, there is that moment of truth when you wonder whether or not they will be able to read, whether or not they're going to be able to learn to read.
And with both of my sons, there came that time when it was time for them to know how to read and they didn't.
And it was the interventionists that put special effort into making sure that they could read, and now they can.
We need to restore the innovation grants to the levy to make sure that we can continue to have interventionists in our schools.
I am a degree holder from South Seattle College.
It is the foundation of my career.
And I earned it through my apprenticeship program through the electrician's union.
And I think that all graduates from Seattle schools should have the same privilege to study at our Seattle colleges and that it should be accessible.
And accessible means free.
We passed a resolution in support of the Seattle Promise, and we are very much looking forward to what it means for families to have that security, that they know their kids are going to be able to go to college no matter where they work, no matter how much money the parents make.
And then for anybody who's got a baby, you just know that it's like a second mortgage if you can get care.
And I know there's a provision in the levy for mentoring.
A sister spoke about it earlier.
And this is something that the labor movement is supporting wholeheartedly to make sure that in-home child care providers have the mentoring to be successful, and so we can get more people into the industry.
Thanks.
Thank you, Nicole.
Sam is next, followed by, it might be Joanna.
And I had been saying Joanne.
And then Julie Popper.
Hi, my name is Sam McKagan.
I'm a parent of two students at Leschi Elementary School and a member of our parent equity team.
At our school, 19% of students are homeless.
Our levy money and family support worker are critical for supporting our students in need.
I'm 100% in favor of All the things that this levy proposes to fund, it all sounds great, but please don't fund any of these things at the expense of the important student support that our levy is currently funding.
An early draft of this proposed levy took away funding for family support workers, and my understanding is that it's been changed due to public outcry, but it's not terribly clear.
about where family support funding is coming from, whether it will actually still be funded at the level it is now, or what's going on with that.
And I've talked to many, many experts who've tried to figure this out, and none of us could figure out what was going on.
So we really, the proposal needs to be more transparent about what is and is not being funded, and at what level, so that the public can decide whether to support it and have the opportunity to speak out about any problems in the levy.
Funding for more access to college is wonderful, but it can't come at the expense of support for students at the K-12 level, without which our students will never make it to college.
And with the rising poverty and homelessness in Seattle, if anything, we need more funding for family support.
And then I wanted to mention in the presentation at the beginning of this hearing, it said that McCleary adds additional funding for K-3.
This is not true.
Please don't perpetuate the myth that the current so-called McCleary Fix actually increases funding for education in Seattle.
The state has not adequately funded education.
It's just moved it around from one funding source to the other.
And here in Seattle, within two years, we'll actually see our education funding go down from its currently inadequate level.
So I recognize the city doesn't control state funding.
But our progressive mayor and city council should be speaking out about the lack of education funding at the state level.
and our need as a city to fill in the gaps from our state not meeting its constitutional duty to fund education, rather than sort of perpetuating the story that McCleary has been funded and now it's okay.
Thank you, Sam.
Joanna, and then we have Julie Popper, followed by Franklin Gonsalves.
Hi, my name is Joanna, and I'm a current senior here at Franklin High School.
And I want to talk about the need and funding for more youth programs.
So during my junior year, I was in the Seattle Goodwill Youth Year-Round Program right on Dearborn.
And through this program, I was supported emotionally and financially as well.
So I had my driver's ed paid for, for any SATs or such as for my license and knowledge tests and more.
And even after the program, I also supported emotionally and financially throughout my internship.
And after that, and I believe that there should be more of a focus on not only K through 12, but also an important focus on the need on funding for more youth programs.
And also essentially what will be available for our high school students to ensure that they get the support to graduate and skills needed to transition into college.
And Seattle Goodwill was helping me with just that.
And I want there to be more programs like I've been in to ensure that youth of color have this kind of support like I did.
And the levy sounds like it was more focused on year-round programming, in which I've witnessed myself and my colleagues are in need of this, since we are all entering college later this fall.
And the guidance, academic support, career exploration, job training, college prep, and financial support to enter college, mentorship are needed to be successful to pursue our higher education.
And I want to see more programs with this wraparound services.
Thank you.
It's always nice to see young people come out to these and speak to us, so I really appreciate you being with us, Joanna.
Julie Popper is next, followed by Franklin, and then Laura Lovings.
Hi, thanks for having me tonight.
I'm Julie Popper.
I'm not an expert in this area.
I'm just the mom of a first grader.
I live here in District 2, just a few blocks away.
I think that does make you an expert.
Just doing my best here.
I was actually called to come out tonight because of my experience at John Muir Elementary School, just a few blocks from here.
You heard from Ms. Shuler earlier tonight, and I just have to say, what she didn't share with you is how successful the innovation and linkage funds have been in closing the gap for black students and English language learners at John Muir.
In fact, the work that Ms. Shuler has done and other teachers that are funded by this part of the levy has made it so that black students and English language learner students have closed the gap entirely in second grade.
It is working.
This is what we want our schools to do.
Unfortunately, the new version of the levy does not fund these positions.
Ms. Shuler has been there for two years.
She doesn't know she's going to be able to come back and continue this work in fall.
This is what we want our schools to do, and we're not funding it with this levy.
So, you know, what she says is true, of course.
If folks are not reading at grade level by third grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school.
We need to close the gap because we don't want these students dropping out of high school.
We want everyone achieving together.
And that's only possible when we have interventionists, when we have family support workers, and when we're doing evidence-based practices in order to support these learners so that everyone can learn together in our elementary schools.
So I just wanted to come out tonight and say thank you to Ms. Shuler.
Thank you to the earlier lovey for supporting these linkages and family supports.
And let's keep doing what's working.
Let's not stop it when we got a good thing going.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have Franklin.
I think I see Franklin coming down.
And then we have Laura Lovings followed by Dee Johnson.
My name is Franklin Gonsalves.
I work in property management here in Seattle.
I'm new to the city, but I found it important, as all of us do, to come in and talk about the early education to help the youth here in Seattle.
I very much support the levy.
I think it is an important thing to happen in the city.
The early education of people is very important because it essentially helps them in the trajectory of their life.
But my issue, and as I've heard everyone speak, has been that Even though the levy does a lot to educate, it focuses on the education of the youth.
We've all talked about the kids having support, and where support comes from is primarily from the household.
And we can invest a lot of money and time into the youth and having them in school.
I mean, America is one of the places that has kids in school for eight hours a day.
our adults working time and after work we are all stressed out.
So kids also kind of have to go through that and we're talking about the levy as something to go on top of the time that they're already going to be spending in school.
So this is less time that they're spending at home.
Not only that, their parents which is really the support part, are unable to support the kids the way that they want to simply because of the economic situation that we are in.
So as long as all of us who are in this room and who value these kids' education, if we continue to put our time and our effort to value private interests over the interests of the public good, we're going to always end up in the same place where we're throwing money at these kids and trying to ask ourselves why they're not succeeding.
They're not succeeding because we are all so focused on making a profit and not focused on making sure that everyone is well taken care of and that everyone has the support that they need and that their work is adequately paid for.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you, Franklin.
Laura is next, followed by Dee Johnson, and then Ashley Shoecraft.
Hi.
Good evening.
Thanks so much for being here this evening.
It's been really impressive to hear what everybody's had to say, and that people are really passionate about our youth in Seattle.
The levy is really important.
I work at one of the school-based health centers.
I work at interagency school.
which works with a lot of our students who are disenfranchised for one reason or another and have a lot of trauma in their lives and are just trying to get by on a daily basis.
And there is not a week that goes by where I'm not meeting with a student who is telling me that they are feeling suicidal And it is amazing that some of the kids that we see are even showing up on a daily basis to school.
So I know that for them to be able to focus academically, they have to be able to deal with what's happening for them on a medical level, which a lot of these youth haven't seen doctors for years and years, and to be able to deal with what's going on with them.
in a mental health and spiritual level for them.
So the fact that the teen-based health centers are in the schools is wonderful.
I want to encourage that to happen.
I want to encourage everything that's happening in the levy right now to keep on happening, and that everybody else in the room gets what they want, too.
Because really it's just about, you know, helping our youth help themselves get to the next best place.
So thank you for listening to what everyone has to say.
Thank you, Laura.
Dee Johnson will be followed by Ashley Shoecraft and then Anthony Austin.
Good evening, I'm DeShonda.
It's such a long name, so I didn't, I just put D.
I'm reading what you put down, so thank you.
And this is my daughter, Nia Toy.
She is a fifth grader at Dearborn Park Elementary School.
And I am here to speak on behalf of summer programs.
I, growing up, was a latchkey kid.
Having summer programs has really allowed my kids not to be latchkey kids.
I also have two high schools.
Well, one graduated last year and then a sophomore at Rainier Beach High School.
But it's really allowed my kids not to be latchkey kids, sitting in the park eating free lunch while my mom is at work.
My kids have been well taken care of.
They're in programs.
My kids have, the summer program that my kids are involved in is Empowering Youth and Family Services.
And it's also, provided them, my older children, my two boys, employment opportunity because they've been willing to invest not just in elementary kids, but also as they go into middle school and high school.
And so I just think the program is really important.
I'm sorry, I didn't prepare anything and I don't have a bunch of statistics, but my daughter wrote, she's more prepared than me, but I just hope that you will continue to fund summer literacy programs.
Introduce yourself.
My name is Nia, and I'm a fifth grade student at Yearworm Park, like my mom said.
And summer learning is very important to elementary students.
When I left third grade, I actually went to UIFO.
and which is empowering youth and family services.
And it helped me with my reading, and it was telling us to keep reading and writing.
But unfortunately, I left halfway through the program and went on the vacation.
And when I went back to school, I was below my reading level, which was hard for me to get back up to being in my fourth grade reading level.
But the summer before fifth grade, I attended the same program and went into fifth grade above where I needed to be.
Being in a summer educational program has taught me how to study, be a leader, and has allowed my mom to work and know that me and my brothers are safe and being taken care of.
Thank you.
Yeah, that's a tough act to follow.
I know.
But let's see what you can do, Ashley.
Hi, my name is Ashley Shoecraft, and I'm a product of Seattle Public Schools.
I attended Bailey Gassert Elementary School, Leschi Elementary School, Washington Middle School, and I graduated from Franklin High School.
I went on to get my bachelor's degree at one of the Claremont colleges, Scripps College, and I got my master's in teaching from Seattle University.
As I'm sure, I don't think much has changed in terms of the diversity of the Seattle Public Schools and the diversity of the teaching force.
So when I was in elementary school, my parents were very intentional about putting us in Leschi Elementary School.
And so I had the unique opportunity of the first five teachers I had were African-American.
I had no issue seeing myself reflected in those who were teaching me, and I think that made me dream.
There was no place that I didn't have access to, right?
But as I left, I realized that that was not actually the experience of most people, and that wasn't the experience of myself.
The higher up in education kids get, the wider it gets, right?
And so I'm here to speak specifically about the value of the summer program and the out-of-school time programming, specifically for K through 5. I attended Empowering Within Families Outreach Programming, and I now staff their programming.
And I think there's a lot of value that you see in laying that foundation really early on.
I don't think we can exaggerate the impact of students seeing themselves reflected in the people who are teaching them.
And I think in our programming, we've seen barriers broken down in terms of students breaking down that distrust that they have towards adults, families breaking down the distrust that they have in institutions.
We see students knowing how to better advocate for themselves, how to ask questions, and then how to better enter into an academic institution and claim it as their own, creating a safe space for themselves, and then learning how to create safe spaces for others.
And so, yeah, I'm ultimately requesting that you increase the funding for K-5 summer learning.
specifically centralizing programs that are able to serve and close that opportunity gap and the academic gaps for students of color who are prepared in their staffing to do so and to do it well.
Thank you so much.
We have Anthony Austin will be followed by Andre Brewer and then Dominique Davis.
Anthony?
Oh, there we go.
We're changing it up, folks.
I'm Anthony Austin.
Lifelong District 2 resident, homeowner, and also a executive leader for a nonprofit.
I'd like to say thank you to the council for being here.
To DeWayne Chappelle, great work that you're doing at DEEL right now.
And I want to congratulate you on the work that you did at Rainier Beach also.
And I'm in full support of the package that was presented in front of us today.
I like what I see from DEEL.
What I expect is you guys make sure that kids have the best opportunity to be successful.
I trust the recommendations of the department.
I would like to see more dollars invested in early learning, elementary summer education, and also in the elementary schools.
I don't want the money pulled from any of the areas that we spoke about earlier today that were presented today.
Our best initiative has my support also, and I want to see that also thrive.
And just another note, I was an educator also, and one of the things that always stuck with me in education was that it's easier to Get off to a good start with a good foundation to be more successful versus correcting mistakes, correcting resources when you start off with a good foundation.
You expand more energy and resources when you're trying to do the correction piece because you're not moving forward.
So if we start off early with elementary funding and elementary supports, then we're giving kids a strong foundation to start with and not spending energy correcting and trying to redirect.
Thank you.
Thank you.
OK, we have Andre Brewer next.
Coach, do you just want to go as a group?
OK, how many folks do you got?
All the way down to Deshaun?
I lost count.
You know how I come all the time.
You guys should be used to this by now.
You've got five minutes because you guys are a group.
I'm here as an advisor for OBAC, our best program.
I'm also the CEO of Community Passageways.
I wanted to have a group of young people, a handful of them, come and talk about their actual experience of having the right mentoring.
and being able to connect with the right programming and being able to get back on track with their education and be plugged into jobs and internships, summer programs, that's helping them stay on the right track and keeping them out of the system.
We've literally pulled some young people out of the system and put them in the right track, and they're back in school.
They're getting their education.
They're doing jobs.
They're doing internships.
And they're coming and speaking at different events like this, doing some civic work.
So I just wanted to put some young people up on the microphone and let them talk from their own experience instead of a bunch of adults coming up here and just, you know.
I'm Andre Brewer.
I attend Franklin High School.
I'll be graduating June 18th.
Although I'm in high school, I started an aviation program at the Museum of Flight at the beginning of this year.
And I'll be graduating that June 6th.
And then through Community Passageways, we have healing circles and other people come and talk to us.
And I actually have got the opportunity to get an internship through the Port of Seattle working at an airport management job intern.
So yeah, that's just what Community Passageways has done for me.
Thank you, Andre.
Hello, my name is Shamar Slaughter, and I've been incarcerated since I was 11, and I'm 19 now.
And I didn't know much about jobs and stuff like that.
And when I got out, Dom came and got me from jail.
And he'd been putting me in jobs, and now I'm an intern at UW Public Health.
And I got two credits till I graduate.
And I think just having good mentors that want to lead you down the path and feed you with a lot of stuff to do every day, every day, that's what a lot of kids need so they can stay out the system.
Because when you get bored, that's when you get in trouble.
You know, you don't have nothing to do after school, that's when you get in trouble.
So I think more like mentoring programs, like community passageways, is what the kids need.
How you guys doing?
My name is Deshaun Harrison.
I was incarcerated last year around August.
And Dominique, I started working with Dominique, you know, I was looking at a couple of years in jail.
And I started working with Dominique, they really seen that I was trying to change my life, you know, because I was in the streets a lot.
So basically, I started working with, you know, yeah, I mean, one thing he told me was like, what did you say?
He says a lot.
I think one thing that really stuck with me was who you are today, you're not going to be in 10 years.
So I just, that really dwelled on me.
So I really think about that a lot.
But I just feel like you need more programs like Community Passageways.
Thank you.
Thank you, Deshaun.
I'm Kyrie Battle.
You know, see, I was looking at juvenile life while I still am.
Dominique's helped me, and he's actually came to the juvenile system to get me out, to go to programs with him.
I actually went to church with him.
I go to church with him every Sunday.
They're helping me get back to school.
My career is a veterinarian or auto mechanic, so I'm basically working towards all that stuff, and that's how Community Passageway is helping me.
Thank you, Kyrie.
You got one minute and 30 seconds.
Hello, my name is Kareem.
I started working with Community Passageways over a year ago through a summer program.
And Community Passageways helped me better myself in a lot of categories.
First, through the summer program, I learned how to uplift myself, how to be confident, how to articulate, how to speak in front of a huge crowd.
So I got used to speaking in front of everyone.
And also I became, I got hooked up with Pauly Davis and I became a certified mediator.
So now I do mediation in the city.
And also through that, I got hooked up with a different program.
And now I hold peacemaking healing circles down in Kent for youth that have been through some trouble.
And it's really impactful.
I feel like my whole life did a 180. So I'm a senior, and I go to Kenwood High School.
So I'll be graduating this year, too.
My name is Marcel Battle, and just to let you guys know, I'm 16, and I went in one time, and then the second time I went in, you know, I had Dom right there, and I heard about him.
I said, I might as well do a program.
You know, I might as well, you know, it's going to help me get to what I need to get to.
You know, they helped me in school.
I go to Truman.
And they got me doing a little thing on the computer called Khan Academy.
It helps me with my math, my reading, all that.
And they've just been there for everything.
They support me to what I want to do.
I want to be a basketball player.
So I'm trying to look out for my brothers, too, help them what they need to do and what their career is.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Dom, do you got a few more folks who came with you tonight?
Y'all are the last ones signed up so if
Hello.
My name is Yacoub Abdi.
And before Community Passageways, my brother's Kareem, he told you how we came into Community Passageways.
And before Community Passageways, I was so shy.
I used to never talk in front of people.
But now I'm over here and I'm talking in front of all you guys.
And I came over that fear.
And Dominique has opened that side up to me.
So I thank her for that.
And I thank Community Passageways for that.
Thank you.
I'm Zach, and I was introduced to Community Passageways through Kareem, who spoke earlier, and his brother, Yacoub.
So before the program, Community Passageways, I was kind of like always in my head, you know?
And the program kind of opened up my eyes to what's going on, really.
And around the city of Seattle, Kansas, everywhere, around this area.
And through Dominique, you know, again, just like Karim, I've also become a certified mediator.
And I've been taking, I took a class in order to maybe help the youth community problems.
And it's just been a blessing, honestly.
Thank you.
So I just wanted to say, because of me being an advisor with OBAC and us working together, a handful of our young men, we got to fly down to Louisville, Kentucky, to a big convention.
It's called Rumble Young Men Rumble.
They've been opening up a lot of doors for our young men.
They have embraced us.
So OBAC has been a true blessing to our organization.
And we are in partnership with them.
And that's who's going to support us through this whole process of getting some funding and building up our program through OBAC.
So, I just wanted to come here as an advisor at OBAC and show you what results of mentoring can do with the right people, doing that positive enforcement and getting them where they need to be at.
So, I just wanted to throw that out there at you guys.
Thank you.
Thanks, Tom.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being with us this evening and for sharing your stories with us.
Keep up the good work.
You're the future.
Bye, Dom.
We have one more speaker on the list, and I do not see him.
Where did he go?
There he is.
Dr. Pan, if you can join us in the front, that'd be wonderful.
Council Members, thank you for this opportunity to speak.
Sitting through in the audience, listening to all the comments, particularly this group, really touches my heart.
I'm so glad in Seattle, we invest in our future, in our youth.
In this world, there are many families who need extra boot, like extra help.
I'm so glad you're all there considering a new package of levy to support this family to bring us, this city, to be more competitive.
As you know, I work at the Seattle Colleges, and we are dedicated to provide the other continuum of helping local youth to not only complete high school, but more importantly, to get post-secondary education so they can be employed with a livable wage to be a contributor in this city.
We are dedicated to collaborate with you, with our mayor, Seattle Public Schools, to continue to do what we do.
This new package has a component about Seattle Promise.
It's something we feel whatever the voters decide to support, we will continue to do that work.
It is about be a solution about how do we work with business, with our educational organization to continue up this city.
Thank you for your work.
Thank you for your leadership.
Thank you, Dr. Pan.
Sure.
OK, that is our last person on our list.
Is there anyone who didn't have an opportunity to walk in who would like to offer us public testimony?
I see some folks.
All right.
Hello, council.
Thank you so much for providing this forum for everyone to speak and hear our voices.
Um, I want to thank DLL staff, including Dwayne's been a beacon of light in this community.
Um, for the last several years, my name is Charlotte shoe craft.
I'm the director of empowering youth and families outreach.
We are a nonprofit that started in 2002. So you've already heard some people speak.
about the work.
One of our goals is to make sure that we're meeting kids in kindergarten and tracking them all the way through high school.
So your package is wonderful, but there is a piece that has been left out that I can see, and I'm looking at the K through five piece.
And you heard Nia Grace speak.
She's a product of the programs that we offer.
And then you also heard Ashley speak.
So all I want to say is, as you're putting together the package, can you please consider putting more funding in the early learning piece?
I promise you, when they get to middle school and high school, you won't have the problems that you're seeing.
And I also have a student here that's participated in our program.
Amina, I'm going to share this table with you.
Come on and speak and share your heart.
Hi.
a living testimony of the program, Empowering Youth and Families Outreach.
I've been going to this program for about 10 years, and once I got too old, I actually got the opportunity.
Being in this program allowed me to learn and practice my reading comprehension and mathematics skills, and it's allowed me to come back to the next school year and being able to be a competitive student in the classroom.
So being prepared every summer, made it the upcoming school year easier for me to learn the new material at a higher level without forgetting or struggling to remember the old material.
So just finishing my first year of undergrad, so I go to Howard University.
I'm studying political science.
My first year I really really believe that funding for summer enrichment programs and even affordable college at for at least two years is should be a really high high priority for this new program.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Erin Okuno with the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition and thank you very much for coming down to Southeast.
Many have spoken about the need to preserve K-5 funding so we want to reiterate that.
Having a continued college can we cannot sacrifice K-5 and in particular summer.
As a quick story earlier this year we figured out that.
With the loss of three nonprofits providing summer school, we would have lost 430 seats, summer school seats in the elementary.
Thankfully, some of those were recovered because partners stepped in.
But losing that funding in the next levy, without it, we're going to see more loss of summer programs like we almost did this summer.
So please, to figure out how do we put that back into the package.
Thank you.
Thank you, Erin.
Is there anyone else who'd like to offer us public testimony who didn't have an opportunity to sign up?
Real quick, I just did.
I graduated from this school myself back in 67. And I have two kids that graduated from this same school.
And I'm very proud of them today.
Both of them have degrees today.
So I know how important education is.
Thank you.
Thank you, Smooth.
All right.
Anyone else would like to provide us with public testimony before we end.
OK.
Seeing no one come forward.
That concludes this evening's public hearing.
We stand adjourned.
Yeah.