Libraries, Education and Neighborhoods Committee 03/28/2024

Good morning, everyone.

The March 28th, 2024 meeting of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee will come to order.

It's 9.30 a.m.

I'm Maritza Rivera, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Wu?

Present.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Councilmember Moore?

Present.

Councilmember Morales?

Here.

Chair Rivera?

Present.

before council members are present.

Thank you.

There are a few items on today's agenda.

First, we'll receive a briefing from the Department of Education and Early Learning.

Following that, we will learn about four pending appointments to the Community Involvement Commission.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now open the public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda and within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

No speakers today, Chair.

There are no speakers, so we'll now proceed to our items of business.

Want to say for the record, we are being joined by Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Will the clerk please read today's first item into the record?

Agenda item number one, a briefing by the Department of Education and Early Learning.

Thank you.

Today we have with us Duane Chappell, Director of the Department of Education and Early Learning, joined by Ismael Fajardo, who's the Director of Impact and External Affairs for the department.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

You could proceed to the desk.

Please introduce yourselves for the record once you get settled, and then you can begin your presentation.

Ismael Fajardo, Department of Education and Early Learning.

Happy to be here.

Good morning.

I'm Dr. Dwayne Chappelle, the proud director of the Department of Education and Early Learning.

Glad to be here as well.

Good morning.

You can proceed.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well, good morning, council members.

Again, I am Dr. Dwayne Chappelle, the proud director of the Department of Education and Early Learning.

And as you just heard a moment ago, I'm here, I'm joined by my colleague, Dr. Fajardo.

So thank you for having us.

Today, we will walk you through an overview of DEAL's mission, goals, and investments.

We will share details regarding select investments and look forward to answering your questions at the end of this presentation.

Thank you.

So DEAL's mission is to transform the lives of children, youth, and families through strategic investments in education.

As you'll come to see in our work, we are a data-driven organization with a strong commitment to using results and a focus on racial equity to make decisions to guide our investments.

We take our roles as stewards of the voter-approved FEPP levy seriously and strive to foster collaborative relationships with our implementation partners.

rooted in transparency and a sheer commitment to closing opportunity gaps predictive by race.

Through our investments, we envision a city where all children, youth, and families have equitable opportunities, access to high quality education services, and supports and outcomes.

The deal itself was founded in 2014, the same year that voters approved the Seattle Promise, excuse me, the Seattle Preschool Program levy.

I was appointed as director in 2015, and I am so proud of the work our team has accomplished in partnership with many others over the last nine years.

We successfully passed the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy in 2018, which merged the Families and Education Levy with the Seattle Preschool Program Levy, bringing the largest education levy in Seattle history to voters for consideration at 619 million.

And guess what?

It passed with 69% of voter support.

And at the same time, historic work was under the way to establish the Sweetened Beverage Tax, which DEAL receives funds from as well.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected us all, and DEAL staff and partners are no exception.

Impacts to educational systems and student achievement were profound.

Our department continues to adapt our strategies to meet the emergent needs of children, youth, and families who are still recovering from COVID-19, or should I say from COVID's impact, to households' economic factors as well as child development.

The FEPP levy expires in December of 2025, and we look forward to partnering with the executive council, the public, to bring forth a reauthorization package to voters.

DEAL is organized with four divisions.

early learning, K-12 and post-secondary, impact and external affairs, and finance and operations.

We have more than 100 FTE.

And as you'll see on a subsequent slide, our 2024 adopted budget is more than $150 million.

Our investments strive to achieve four goals.

Access to affordable, quality childcare, kindergarten readiness, on-time high school graduation, and attainment of a post-secondary degree, credential, or a certificate.

These goals are not achieved by deal alone.

However, I'm sure everyone has have heard that adage, it takes a village to raise a child.

And that spirit of collective impact is how we approach all of our investments.

We partner with families, community-based organizations, Seattle public schools, public charter schools, and the Seattle colleges to implement strategies that advance these goals.

Our focus across all areas is to serve students further some educational justice, or simply put, the students who need the most additional support to achieve these goals.

Our investments focus on a combination of these three strategies.

Equitable educational opportunities.

And as an example, this looks like free or subsidized tuition to increase access to preschool and post-secondary education.

Student and family supports.

And an example of this, is our Seattle Preschool Program inclusion classrooms.

We call it SPP+.

In this instructional model, children with individualized education plans participate in learning alongside their neurotypical peers.

And lastly, highly qualified environments.

We advanced this through professional development and career advancement for educators in childcare, preschool, and in the K-12 setting.

So as I noted earlier, DEAL's 2024 adopted budget is 157 million.

We have four revenue sources, the general fund, sweetened beverage tax, grants, and the FEPP levy.

The levy is our largest revenue source, which is at 69%.

So here we have members from our amazing FEPP.

Levy Oversight Committee.

These individuals are responsible for monitoring implementation of the FEPP levy, advising deal on investment course corrections, and advocating in the best interest of the levy and Seattle's children, youth, and families.

This committee meets monthly throughout the year and also engages in site visits to observe programming and to meet our fantastic partners.

There are 17 members that are on the Levee Oversight Committee.

Five are required members by ordinance.

This includes the mayor or his designee, the chair of the Education Council Committee, Seattle College's chancellor, Seattle Public Schools superintendent, and Seattle Public School board director.

12 members are appointed, half by the mayor and half by city council.

Members serve a three-year term with no limit on reappointments.

And I just want to pause here to take a moment to acknowledge that we have a change in our city council representative on the levy oversight committee this year.

So welcome council member Rivera.

And I also want to say that it's been a pleasure for deal to work with council member Morales past representative on the Levee Oversight Committee and past education committee chair.

And we're glad to see you remaining here on this education committee alongside our new amazing council members.

Okay, so let's get into the work.

So today I'd like to highlight a few of our early learning investments and a signature program for you.

Our Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, provides subsidies to eligible families to help them better afford high-quality childcare services.

I'll share more on this slide in a later...

I'll share more on this in a later slide.

Our Seattle Preschool Program, or SPP, also subsidized tuition to increase access, and I'll provide more details here later as well.

Our prenatal to three community grants are funded by the sweetened beverage tax and aim to reduce disparities in outcomes for pregnant individuals, infants and toddlers and their families.

One of our grantees through this program is the original organization, Families of Color Seattle.

Families of Color Seattle will convene parent caregiver groups over a span of eight to 10 weeks to support caregiver mental health, increase knowledge of family resources, and equip caregivers with tools to support raising strong, compassionate children of color.

Home visiting services include two programs, the Nurse-Family Partnership and the Parent-Child Plus program.

Nurse Family Partnership is an evidence-based program that serves first-time low-income mothers who receive support from their second trimester until their child is two years old.

Parent Child Plus is designated to support two- and three-year-olds by enhancing caregiver-child interactions in families needing additional support.

And this could be young parents or immigrant or refugee households or even our low-income households.

CCAP is a legacy program for the city.

It was launched in 1970s.

Or should I say, it was launched in the 1970s.

We currently have more than 250 participating licensed childcare providers citywide that accept our subsidy.

CCAP serves 715 children ages from one month to 12 years old in 2023. There is also a state childcare subsidy program called Working Connections Childcare, as well as a county program funded by the Best Starts for Kids levy.

DEAL's program shares, excuse me, serves families whose household income makes them ineligible for those programs.

So as an example, a family of three whose household income falls roughly between $56,000 and $88,000 a year would be eligible for CCAP.

And we know the cost of living is high in Seattle, and we're proud to continue to offer CCAP as a resource to our families.

The Seattle Preschool Program is in its ninth year of implementation.

Following voter approval in 2014, we launched in the 15-16 school year with just five providers, 15 sites, and 15 classrooms serving 283 children.

So fast forward seven years, we have 26 providers, 87 sites, 130 classrooms, serve nearly 2,000 children in the seventh year of implementation.

This growth is truly remarkable and it speaks to the commitment among early childhood educators and business owners to support the vision of preschool for all.

This expansion has been done with high quality standards and we are proud to have earned a gold medal from the National Institute for Early Childhood, excuse me, Early Child, Early Education Research and the City Health Initiative two years in a row.

Two weeks ago, we opened enrollment for the upcoming school year.

And I wanna encourage all families with a child who will be three or four by August 31st to visit our website or call us to learn more about the Seattle Preschool Program.

This program is open to all three and four year olds who live in Seattle.

It is free for most families and offers a reduced tuition for others.

So as you can see from this map, we have classrooms all over the city and offer a lot of variety to meet families' unique needs.

Some sites are dual language.

We have programs designed specifically to serve children with developmental needs and individualized education plans, half-day and full-day sites, as well as school, center, or home-based options.

So transitioning now to our K-12 investments.

So we chose examples today to highlight just the range and scale of strategies that we support.

Two of our largest investments in the K-12 are the school-based investments and our school-based health centers, both funded by the FEPP levy.

In our school-based investments, we competitively awarded 30 grants to schools in 2019. We are in our fifth year of investment at 20 elementary schools, five middle schools, and five high schools.

These schools receive grants of 200 to 560,000 to implement academic support services, expanded learning opportunities, including social emotional skill development and college and career readiness programs, both during the day, during the school day and out of school time.

The goal of this investment is to advance students' academic achievement and close opportunity gaps.

This investment works in tandem with our school-based health centers, which are implemented in partnership with Public Health Seattle and King County.

For those who may not know, the school-based health centers are essentially full service clinics within school buildings that offer comprehensive medical and mental health services.

The school-based health centers are staffed by teams of health providers, typically a nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant or social workers and health educators who partner with the district, employed school nurses to serve students during the school day.

The school-based health centers are evidence-based models proven to increase access to utilization of health services, increase school attendance, and to increase academic outcomes.

The FEPP levy funds 29 school-based health centers, eight school-based health centers citywide, eight elementary, seven middle schools, and at 14 high schools.

And as a related strategy, research shows that academic outcomes for students of color improve in culturally responsive learning environments.

One way to increase culturally the responsiveness in a classroom is to have educators who look like the students that they teach and have shared live experiences.

And in Seattle Public Schools, about 55% of the students are BIPOC.

However, only 20% of the classroom teachers are BIPOC.

So to address this gap, DEAL invest in programs like the Academy for Rising Educators, which seeks to increase the number of educators of color in our classrooms.

The Academy for Rising Educators, that's a partnership between Seattle Public Schools, Seattle Central College, and City University to support aspiring teachers on a pathway from high school diploma to a bachelor's degree and teaching certificate.

This program includes outreach and recruitment, tuition assistance, culturally responsive mentorship through educator preparation, and professional development.

So now what I want to do is take a...

I want to share a bit about our opportunities and access strategy.

So this grant, it provides funding directly to community-based organizations through a competitive funding process.

One partner, ACE Academy, provides Black and African American middle school boys with culturally responsive programming on early dismissal days and during school breaks.

Their activities include STEAM, or science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, enrichment, as well as field trip and career exploration opportunities.

Another one of our grantees, Friends of the Children Seattle, provides one-on-one mentoring to students to develop positive future goals and prepare them for their post-secondary transition.

And our last investment area is in post-secondary.

Our upper bound program is funded by a federal grant from the United States Department of Education to prepare first-generation students or students who are the first in their family to attend college.

Our program supports students at Garfield High School and Rainier Beach High School, and they're serving more than 100 students annually.

The Regional Challenge Grant was awarded to deal from the Washington Student Achievement Council to fund culturally relevant and regional partnerships that increase post-secondary attainment and close equity gaps.

One approach, or should I say our approach, expands mentorship opportunities for BIPOC high school juniors, seniors, and Seattle Promise Scholars in partnership with Seattle Colleges and Seattle Public Schools and our community-based organizations.

The Seattle Promise Program is our last investment in the post-secondary space.

The Seattle Promise is a student success program designed to promote college enrollment, persistence, and completion.

This program is implemented in partnership with Seattle colleges and Seattle public schools.

This program grew from the 13th year model the 13th-year scholarship model at South Seattle College with incremental funding from council until the passage of the FEP levy, which then expanded the program to a multi-year model and brought it to scale citywide.

Like the Promise programs nationally, the Seattle model includes tuition assistance and academic advising.

What is unique about our approach is our equity scholarship and equity enhancements that are designed specifically with students who need the most support in mind.

The equity scholarship, for example, provides income eligible students an additional scholarship of up to $1,000 per semester.

the Promise Scholars used this funding to reduce costs related to books, transportation, housing, or other needs that may arise So this table here, what it does is it shows you some highlights of the program's growth over the last five years.

And as you can see, with each high school graduating class, we see more Promise applications and more students enrolling in the Seattle College and Promise program.

We love to see the number of applications grow year over year, and what this tells us is that the Seattle Promise Program is helping to create a college-going culture here in Seattle where every high school student believes that they can successfully pursue a post-secondary education as well as afford it.

So now the numbers do decrease from applications to actually enrolling to the Seattle colleges, and we expect to see this.

For the five years shown here, we observed roughly a 40% matriculation rate, which is precisely what we included in our initial projections for the FEPP levy.

We'll soon be releasing this, our FEP annual year, four year report.

And what you'll see there is that the 2023 cohort for the Seattle Promise exceeded expectations again.

And it was the largest cohort yet with 900 students enrolled and 68% of those students identified as students of color.

So there's so much more to celebrate and share about the Seattle Promise Program, and we look forward to digging in deeper at our committee presentation coming to you in May.

Okay, so now moving on to Deals Priorities for 2024. So what you'll see, we have six priorities.

The first priority is prenatal to post-secondary alignment.

DEAL will be exploring ways our current early learning program through post-secondary strategies can support critical transition milestones such as preschool, to elementary, to middle school, to high school, and to Promise.

This will allow for strong student transitions across our partners and strengthen the student supports overall.

The next is our Seattle preschool program expansion.

We will continue to grow the Seattle preschool program to meet the FEP levy target.

And that is to serve 2,500 students annually by 2026. The next one is equity and anti-racism.

DEAL will continue our existing practice of examining our internal policies, programs, and norms to move us closer to becoming an anti-racist organization.

And this includes opportunities for staff and supervisor training with organizations such as the National Equity Project and Equity Matters.

We also are planning for a FEPP levy renewal.

So we're just kicking off our work for this project.

And as I said from the beginning, we're looking forward to partnering with the executive, the council, and the public to bring forth a reauthorization to voters, package to voters.

And Youth Mental Health.

DEAL will be working to increase and expand youth options for culturally specific and responsive clinical and non-clinical mental health services at schools.

I will share more about this on the next slide.

And then, finally, is our Operational Excellence Goal.

And to accomplish all of these priorities and continue the great work that we're doing, I just want to ensure that we have strong department operations and infrastructure.

Okay, so the youth mental health overview.

So youth mental health is a new focus investment area for DEAL.

And I'd like to share a bit about our student mental health support network.

In 2022, former council member Herbal sponsored a $500,000 council budget action to expand mental health services in schools.

Subsequent council action grew this investment to a total of $4.5 million over three school years, drawing from general fund, the payroll equity tax, and FEP levy resources.

DEAL has leveraged this funding to develop a framework for school investments in student mental health that is co-designed with students and school leaders to meet the unique needs of their school communities.

In the current 23-24 school year, we have grants at seven schools, each receiving $250,000 to best support students.

The schools use these funds to subcontract with community-based organizations, to provide staff training, and to increase interventionalists in the school.

This increases access to counseling, referrals, family engagement, and the social-emotional supports for students.

And as you know, during the 2024 budget process, council passed a budget ad allocating pet resources towards mental health.

And the city office of innovation and performance is currently conducting stakeholder engagement and a proposed investment strategy is expected later this spring.

And we would expect to launch any new programming during the 2024-25 school year, and we are working closely with the mayor's office.

And so this year, DEAL will have four competitive funding processes to invest more than $8 million into the community.

These include summer learning programs, community proposals to support expecting new parents prenatal to age three facilities and capital projects for the Seattle preschool program providers, as well as funding to continue growing the Seattle preschool program to additional sites by bringing new bringing in new providers or adding new sites with our existing providers.

Okay, so this concludes our presentation.

As I started this earlier, we're super excited to continue to partner with Council throughout this year.

Our next planned presentation to the committee is in May, where we will share the results from our fourth year of the levy implementation.

And so we just also wanted to extend the invitation to meet one on one with council members or help arrange a site visit so you can see our investments in action or even meet the fantastic providers that are the youth in our programs.

So again, thank you.

Thank you, Director Chappelle.

Colleagues, I'm going to open it up for questions, but I have a comment and a couple questions myself, so if you'll indulge me this first.

I did want to note, Director Chappell did mention the COVID-19 pandemic, and I want to say because I happened to be at the city during that time, that deal, as did other departments, had to really shift during those years to accommodate the needs of students especially given the students were schooling from home during that time and all the things and the supports that they needed during that time.

So I would just want to acknowledge that was a difficult time for students.

And I know that deal was working with SPS to accommodate as best they could under very difficult circumstances.

I wanted to acknowledge that.

Then also wanted to also acknowledge in terms of the FEPP oversight, the FEPP Levy Oversight Committee, it is a committee that was established by ordinance to be a advisory in nature and to make recommendations to the city on the FEPP investments.

So that's where that comes from.

I do have a couple questions, Director Chappelle, just in terms of some of these programs.

I know that what was not discussed here was results and outcomes of these various programs, and so I suspect, I know I do, I suspect my colleagues will have questions related to those outcomes especially.

given that we're facing the opportunity for another FEPP levy next year, for passage next year, hopefully.

It will be really critical to understand the outcomes and results for each of these programs.

So I will just note that as a general overall question and something that we will look for you to bring at subsequent committee meetings.

And we can work together on timing on that.

I did also want to note that in terms of, you know, I have some questions and terms related to results on some of these investments, particularly on the K through 12 space, how DEAL is going about measuring how successful these investments have been in the schools and who is determining what schools get these particular investments.

because I know that the need is great and subsequent to the pandemic, the need is great across all schools across the city.

And so wanting to know how you go about measuring how well these programs are doing, because they've been at the schools for quite some time.

How do you measure those students that have access to these investments?

How well they're doing over time?

And then, do we need to shift, do you shift investments if students are starting to do well or doing well rather to other schools where students maybe are not faring as well, because I know that the investments can't cover every single school.

So I'm gonna allow Dr. Fajardo to speak a little bit to how we're measuring the schools and the outcomes.

But just know that I think one part of your question was about how we selected the schools.

And did you wanna speak to that, too, as well?

Okay, I'll let Dr. Hartle take it.

Thank you, Dr. Chappelle.

Yeah, so the FEPP levy, as you know, there's greater need in schools.

So with the limited amount of schools, we did a competitive request for investments where we...

looked at proposals, we evaluated the proposals and selected the proposals based on a set of criteria that would meet the requirements of the FEPP levy.

With that, we were not able to select all of the schools that had need.

So we do acknowledge that there is need in the community.

But as Dr. Chappelle mentioned, we were able to award 20 elementary schools, five middle schools and five high schools.

In terms of how we're measuring impact, the good news is we are measuring impact for all of our investments.

We do the FEP annual report, which you'll get an insight into how our programs are meeting the outcomes at a high level.

We also have internal and external evaluations that we conduct.

on the set of programs.

So we do have ways to measure.

Your third kind of question was based on the results, if we're seeing improvements, do we shift funds?

I believe, and I would have to check with my colleagues, but I believe the FEP schools that were selected is for the duration of the seven years of the levy.

And can you just say in terms of high level, you said in the annual report, you do high level outcomes.

What does that mean, high level outcomes?

Because I think what folks are really interested in seeing is if you're investing in particular elementary school, how are those kids doing going into middle high school and are they going to college?

That type of outcome.

is what I think people are interested in seeing.

So when you say high level, what does that mean?

Yeah, it means, so within the early learning space, our goal is kindergarten readiness.

So we assess how our preschool program leads to higher kindergarten readiness when they're in kindergarten.

For those that are in elementary, we look to see students that are meeting standards at the third grade, early literacy and math.

And then we also look at other critical milestones along the elementary, middle, and high school pipeline.

So for middle school, we looked at seven, eighth grade math.

We then also look at students that are meeting on-time or getting on-time credits in their freshman year, and then we also look at graduation.

So we have a lot of indicators along the way, so we report it in two ways.

One is reporting the numbers as we see them, and then the evaluation tries to draw comparisons for students that received the intervention compared to those that did not receive the intervention, and we also do longitudinal studies to assess if we can attribute some of that success to our investments.

And we do that both internally with our deal staff, and we also hire external evaluators when necessary.

Great question, though.

Thank you, and I look forward to getting more information about the particular data points and how well those programs are doing.

And then my last question for now, I know that you mentioned, Dr. Chappelle, that you all do tutoring, for instance, and I know other city departments do tutoring as well, like HSD.

So how do you work with other city departments to ensure that we're coordinated in our approach and that the investment is going to as many kids as possible as we are putting forward these particular investments.

Yeah, so we do try to collaborate as much as possible with our other city departments.

And we know that the services we offer and deal may overlap in other departments.

And so what we try to do is when we have touch points, just to look to see like whether it's geographic areas that's being funded or whatnot, how can we collectively come together to have more of a collective impact around the goal that we're trying to accomplish.

So that's just something that's ongoing that we constantly look at.

Our department is more so interested in doing continuous quality improvement to seeing how we can improve.

And so this is something that we're always striving to do better in.

Thank you, Director Chappell.

And I'm sorry, colleagues, just one last question, and that is on the mental health investment.

So I understand that you all are currently contracting with CBOs for this particular investment.

Why did you all not make the decision to work with the health centers that you already fund to provide this mental health service?

Since I know this isn't something that's necessarily Mental health isn't something that the Department of Education and Early Learning necessarily does provide.

This is a new thing for the department.

But you do fund health centers.

Why did you not work with the health centers versus with the CBOs?

What went into that decision?

And also, I'm thinking if you had worked with health centers, maybe you would have had more investment to bring to more schools because I know It's not robust given the number, the need, and the number of schools across the city.

So let me first apologize for not being clear when I mentioned about our student mental health support network.

I did not mention health provider.

I did not mention Public Health Seattle King County, but they were part of who we worked with when coming up with this mental health student support network.

So my apologies, I left them out.

Sometimes it's hard when you're thinking about everyone, you always leave somebody out.

So, but students, building leaders, public health of Seattle King County were part of us creating this mental health support network.

Thank you.

And no worries on that.

This is why I'm asking.

Thank you.

Thank you colleagues for your patience.

Questions?

I have a question.

Council Member Morales.

Thank you, good morning.

It's morning, losing track already.

Nice to see you both again.

I'm happy to see that the preschool program is seeing increased I know that last year, maybe it was the year before, we opened a bunch of sites that have bilingual education, so I'm really happy to see that, and that the number of students enrolled is increasing, in part because we know that kindergarten readiness is one of the really critical factors for a student's success later.

We also know that third grade reading, achieving those third grade reading levels is critical to success for the rest of school.

Last summer, I think it was, the Levy Oversight Committee was talking about perhaps investing some of the underspend in literacy programs.

And I know there was a huge interest in really making sure that we're focusing on that as well.

Can you just talk a little bit about what happened there and how we are maybe achieving a third grade reading level success?

Oh, I'm sorry to cut you off.

Yeah, go ahead.

So, no, yes, you're absolutely right.

Literacy was one of the concepts that was proposed by the Levee Oversight Committee, and we're still, right now, internally working to figure out what is that concept gonna look like moving to scale?

So we're still, all I have to say, we're still in the development stages of leaning into that concept.

Okay.

And Dr. Fadalo, can you talk a little bit about where we are with third-grade reading achievement in these programs?

Yeah, no, that's a great question.

We currently have Education Northwest doing an evaluation of our Seattle preschool program.

And also internally, we also look at of those that were in SPP, how did they go into kindergarten, and then understanding to see if SPP had an impact on third-grade reading.

So as Dr. Chappell mentioned, we have a lot of alignment opportunities to look at how our investments contribute to a common goal, in this case, third-grade reading.

So one of those studies that we're doing internally is to look how our school-based investments supports that third-grade reading at an investment level, and we're also taking data dives specifically at certain interventions, its impact on third-grade reading.

So a lot of studies, but we are looking, and we also have a lot of interventions.

So there's a lot of room to understand how our investments contribute to that goal.

I will say that I'd be remiss to not remind us that there are over 100 elementary, middle, and high school schools in Seattle, and our investments are 20 elementary, five middle, and five high school.

So there's a lot of comparison schools that we can look at to see whether our impact on third grade reading is because of us.

Thank you.

And I would say, you know, so yes, the annual report that the Oversight Committee does, I think, is really useful to start to see how you do those measurements and what gains have been made and where there's still room to grow.

It's a really helpful report.

I guess the last thing I'll say is that as we're thinking about the renewal conversation that's coming up and which schools are getting the investment, the intent really was to focus on those schools where the students are furthest from educational opportunity.

And we know that those kids who move through the program are successful and that the kids coming up behind them are still in those environments that create disparity for students.

So it's good to know that students are achieving success and able to graduate from high school and potentially go into college or trade and their siblings are still coming up through living in public housing, living in communities that are under-invested in.

And so I think if we can expand the schools that get access through the next renewal program, that would be great.

Not that it's my decision to make, but I would be advocating for the schools that are currently getting that funding to continue to get that support.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I will say that there's other schools with students similarly situated all across the city.

So the reason I raise the issue of can we help some of these other students is because those families are also families with students who are furthest from economic need and academic achievement, more importantly, because this really is about academic achievement for all our students.

I will say we're in year six of a seven-year levy.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

And so I would think that...

Year five.

So I would think by now we have the data sets to show whether the preschool program investment for kindergarten readiness, we would have some data to show.

Yes, we do have the data, but I just want to remind us that during COVID, there were some data disruptions in how data was collected, and some of the data may not reflect what students were at that stage of their lives, because some were at home, having a different instructional model, and also the state did not collect certain data sets like the SBA test scores, and WaKIDS readiness.

So there might be a gap in knowledge, but we have enough data to do some of these analysis.

Thank you, Dr. Fajardo.

I started saying about COVID-19 and its impacts, and to acknowledge it will be really important to look at the data because there were at least a couple years pre-COVID where we have some data to pull from to see if those three- and four-year-olds were kindergarten ready, and then for the third graders, what their literacy scores were at, for instance.

And I think still, even with the blip of COVID, we have some data to, we have to be able to show the public is what I'm getting at, that the investments we're making are well-made and the students are actually achieving.

Cause at the end of the day, as I said earlier, this is about making sure our students are achieving.

So thank you.

And I know that at subsequent committee meetings, we'll take the opportunity to deep dive, take a deeper dive at some of these programs and those data sets.

And we'll work together on that.

Yep.

Thank you, council member.

Thank you.

Oh, I had a question, but I think Kathy did.

Oh, Kathy, did you have a question?

Go ahead, Kathy, you were first.

Okay.

Council member Moore.

Great.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

This is very impressive, the amount of services that the department provides, and I really appreciate the focus on the early learning.

I think we can all agree that the data is very It's clear that zero to three is very, very important, and also we need to continue the supports beyond that.

So, and I am looking forward to more of a deep dive on these programs.

I do have just some general questions for clarification.

So, in looking at the budget, I just wanted to confirm that the 20 million add for youth mental health came out of the payroll expense tax, is that correct?

Yeah, okay.

And do you know if that was meant to be a one-time?

Because that doesn't fall within the designated buckets.

I'm glad to see that we utilized it, but I'm just wondering going forward...

According to the CBA, I believe it's through 2040, according to the CBA.

2040.

And I feel like we put a link in there to the CBA.

You can see it in there.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

That's good to know.

And again, I would just echo...

Chair Rivera's comments that the need for mental health is across the city and certainly beginning.

I would say we've sort of lost sight of the middle school and it's beginning.

We really need that.

those services beginning in middle school, but across the board.

So I know that Ingram is receiving services, but Nathan Hale has a significant population that could also benefit from the services of mental health counselors.

And just to reiterate that the North End does have a significant population of people who are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

We have a significant refugee and immigrant population, as do we have a significant BIPOC.

So it's just important that we be clear that the need does exist very much in the District 5 and across the city.

That said, I'm curious about the Child Care Assistance Program.

The cutoff is 94%.

Is that Seattle median income?

The state.

State median income.

Okay.

So has there been any discussion of trying to increase the eligibility, the income eligibility for that program?

Because that's still rather low.

And it is, I think, one of the statistics are it costs more for childcare than college.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

There are tradeoffs, right, as you increase who's eligible for the subsidies is the decrease in amount, right?

So there is right now a wait list on the CCAP, which means if you increase the SMI, more folks would be eligible for that funding, and we are still on the wait list.

So they're just tradeoffs for increasing the SMI.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

I was going to say, Councilmember, what I'm also happy to do is schedule an opportunity, whether it's a one-on-one to have a deeper dive here.

or come back here to talk a little bit more about that.

I would be more than willing to do that.

Just wanted you to know.

Okay.

So in an era of budget deficits, this would be an area where we would grow the budget and expand the pie.

And I'm curious about the Seattle preschool programs.

Looks like there's a pretty good distribution, although I'm just curious, how do...

How are parents made aware of the availability of the preschool program?

So you said, how are parents made aware of the preschool program?

So there's opportunities.

So we do several, what would we call outreach to inform parents, and whether that's through social media, whether that's through our website, whether that's through other our current Seattle Preschool Program providers reaching out to families in their community.

So we try to figure out diverse ways to inform families of these services right here.

And even when it comes to multiple language, we try to make sure that it's represented in whatever the language of the families of need, because at the end of the day, we don't want any barriers to prevent any family from having access to the Seattle Preschool Program.

Okay.

Do you have any kind of data on how effective that outreach has been?

I mean, it looks like there's a heavy concentration in South Seattle, somewhat in North Seattle, but we could be using a lot more there.

And again, to my earlier point about the makeup of the North End and how we get those messages out.

I'm happy to come back and share, or come to a one-on-one to talk more about that with you.

Okay, great.

And I want to say, Councilmember Moore, thank you for raising this, because this has been my concern as well, and Dr. Chappelle and I have discussed this.

What you see this map is the sites, the preschool sites, and so acknowledging that there's need on the north end and that there are families on the north end that would also qualify under the current income requirements for this eligibility, I mean, for this program.

So Dr. Chappelle and I have been talking about their, not the latest investment, but upcoming investments, ensuring that we have preschool program opportunities on the north end where there are also families that are in need.

And so just so you, just for full transparency, we are having that.

So thank you for sharing that because it's something that I also think about in terms of the D4 and families, for instance, in the Sandpoint housing and making sure that there's opportunity there.

So I know it's something Deal is going to be looking at and something we'll take a deeper dive in, especially in lieu of an upcoming levy.

There is greater need, and this is why I think it's really important to show the outcomes, measurable outcomes, as with any other program, because we're going to be going to voters to ask for a levy renewal, and we want to make sure that the public is aware of how their money is currently being spent.

And if we're thinking about making any expansion, which we know the need is there, then we really want to be coming with them with actual numbers so that we're making that case.

So just know that we were engaged in that conversation, welcome your engagement as well, which is why we've talked about doing deeper dives for some of these programs at this committee meeting coming up in the months to come leading up to the levy.

Great.

Thank you.

I appreciate that additional information and that additional focus.

Very important.

So thank you so much.

No problem.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Just to make sure, I want to make sure I didn't, I want to clarify that there is no, if I said it, there is no income requirement for SPP.

So I just want to make sure if I did say the opposite, my apology, but there is no, for CCAP, excuse me, for CCAP.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

There is for SPP though, because we have their prioritizations because we just don't have enough slots for all the families that would want to participate in the program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just had a quick question.

Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Chair Rivera.

Thank you, Dr. Chappell and Dr. Fajardo.

Maybe it's a question and a comment, but I had a great conversation with Dr. Bradley Lane at Seattle Central, and they were expressing how incredible the Seattle Promise levy has been to the Seattle colleges.

And when he told me some of the stats, because I had him send me some, that 60% of the graduates from Seattle Public School were applying to the program, I thought that was absolutely phenomenal.

And then I was breezing through the website, because I was like, well, how is that?

Because you can be able to say, hey, we have this program, but what does the outreach look like?

And I was really blown away with the outreach that you all have done, from posters to QR codes to the accessibility of the website, which is incredibly important for these kids at 17, 18, navigating just how to navigate college, which can be very, very frightening.

Um, one of the things, uh, I know that we're struggling with this in the city is having mechanics, plumbers, like just trades.

And growing up in the CD, we had the SVI building that was trades, trades, trades.

All my friends went there.

It was like a great accessibility piece is deal.

Now, since we have this pipeline from our Seattle public schools into our, our, um, Seattle Public Schools into our Seattle colleges, which is incredibly important.

Will we start thinking about, hey, how do we also drive our kids into certain like mechanics and trades and engineers?

I just saw a job posting for our parks department for a plumber starting at $55 an hour.

Like, wow, right?

How do we get our kids into those types of, you know, pathways of work?

I'll say that it'll definitely start with, as you mentioned, the recruitment and outreach that the outreach and retention officers, excuse me, specialists do at the Seattle Promise Program.

I think it starts there, but we also need to make sure that we can continue to partner with the Seattle colleges and looking to see, okay, if there's a need, you know, how do we collaboratively work together to build out some type of a pipeline for that?

And I'm happy to think more about that and get back with you.

Yeah, no, I would love to, because just seeing the amount of students that are taking advantage of that pipeline, and knowing that our Seattle colleges are treasures to our city, and South Seattle has a phenomenal amount of programs in the trades, and just some way to steer some students towards that, I think you all do phenomenal outreach.

I like to see branding and aesthetics of things, And I was like, oh, that's dope.

Like, if I was a college kid, I would scan my QR code, and the accessibility and how easy it is to apply, you know, I think is huge.

And then pairing that with different types of trades that the kids can be able to get involved in, I think would really go a long way for us to start filling some of these jobs in our city.

Thank you for that.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, I want to note that Our own Chief Scoggins did a partnership with the Seattle Colleges to do a certificate program for firefighters.

And it's to get kids prepared for that type of a job.

And they can pull, the fire department can pull for the economy from those kids that have the certificate program.

So that's an example of a partnership with the colleges for these types of jobs.

And so it is something that I know the city has delved into with the fire department and something that we've talked about with other trades.

So I really welcome the partnership and I appreciate you saying that.

I have a quick comment.

I just want to say something really quickly.

I just want to say thank you for your leadership since 2015. And I'm really encouraged by the direction that your department is heading in.

And, you know, especially after the pandemic, when we see that our young people need the most support and seeing all these programs and its evolution and adaptation has been amazing.

So thank you so much.

Well, thank you.

And we have a fantastic department, the best department in the city.

We have some amazing people that are committed to our youth and family.

So ultimately, it's really about our department.

So thank you for that.

Any other questions?

Definitely lots to talk about, lots of programs to do deeper dives in, and we will, because even for Promise, I love to see the number of applications coming in.

I know that the disparity between number of applications and actual kids are because some kids actually go to private colleges and take other opportunities.

But for the students that are utilizing Promise, and going through the program, we also need to make sure that there's something on the back end.

And so their academic success through the program is something that I'm sure you're tracking and we'd love to hear more about so that we know that we are making the investment in the right areas.

And if they're not successful through that two-year program, what do they need to be successful, which is what the equity scholarships were meant to address.

But we also need to know, well, how well is that doing and our kids getting the support that they need to make it through that two-year college process.

And also, I know there's a partnership with UW.

to take some of the Promise students and complete their four years.

So we'd love to hear how that's going.

You know, have students been successful in transferring from the two-year program into UW and have they been able to graduate, et cetera.

And again, I know COVID-19 had some impacts here, colleagues, so that means that the two-year program had to be tweaked to allow for a third year for those students because they were not able to complete necessarily in the two years, which was the original intent of the program.

but due to COVID, there was a third year allowance for those students.

So I wanted to let you know about that as well.

So looking forward to having you back, Dr. Chappelle, Dr. Fajardo, thank you for coming.

If there are no other questions, then we will proceed to our next item on the agenda.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Agenda items two through six, appointments 2779 through 2783. The appointment and reappointment of Julio Perez as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for two terms to May 31, 2024 and to May 31, 2026. The appointment of Martha Lucas as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31, 2025. the reappointments of Ahuacone and Heidi Morissette as members of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31, 2026. Thank you.

All appointments and reappointments have been read into the record.

We are joined today by Laura Jenkins and Alvin Edwards, who are from Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods.

Welcome.

Thank you for being here, Laura and Alvin.

Laura and Alvin are community engagement coordinators, and they both serve as staff liaisons to the Community Involvement Commission.

Please introduce yourselves for the record, and then we can learn more about these four nominees for the commission.

Thank you, Chair Rivera.

So my name is Alvin Edwards.

I'm a community engagement coordinator with Department of Neighborhoods.

My areas of support are Southeast Seattle, Georgetown, and Soto.

I'm also the staff liaison, or one of the staff liaisons, for the Community Involvement Commission.

And I'll pass over to Laura to introduce herself as well here.

Thank you, Alvin, and good morning, Chair Rivera, and good morning, council members and any community members watching.

I'm Laura Jenkins.

I'm a community engagement coordinator with Alvin, and I cover central Seattle, so the neighborhoods in and around central Seattle, and I'm the other staff liaison for the Community Involvement Commission.

And we'll talk a little bit more about the commission and then talk about the appointments and reappointments.

Great.

All right, so thank you again for having us here today to talk about the Community Involvement Commission.

So we'll start off by giving a little bit of background about the CIC for the record, and then Laura and I will talk a little bit more about some of the community members who are up for appointment today.

The Community Involvement Commission advises the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and other city departments on coordinated citywide outreach and engagement activities.

A total of 16 individuals serve as members of the Community Involvement Commission.

Seven positions are appointed by the city council with each member of the city council district corresponding to their position number.

Seven are appointed by the mayor with one of those seven positions reserved for a young adult through the Get Engaged program.

The final two members are selected by the commission subject to approval by the mayor and confirmation by a vote of the city council.

And the commission has been meeting since about 2017.

And then we also just wanted to share a little bit about the commission's current makeup.

So currently seven of the 16 positions are vacant.

Two vacancies would be filled if the appointments today move forward to a vote by full council and if that's approved.

And then for the council's awareness, council appointed positions tied to districts one, two, three, and four are currently vacant.

The position tied to council district five will also be vacant at the beginning of June when the current commissioner's term is up.

And then we plan to do a recruitment push this spring and we'll reach out to your offices as we move forward with that.

And just wanted to note that a few commissioners have already met with council member Morales' office about recruitment in her district as well.

Thanks.

Thank you, Laura.

So we'll kind of go into the commissioners who were up for appointment today.

So the first one is Julio Perez.

So Julio is seeking appointment and reappointment.

Julio has been attending commission meetings in a personal capacity since September of 2023. without knowing when his appointment would go to vote by city council.

Julio, he, him, was born in Seattle to Mexican parents.

Julio was raised in a fusion of Mexican traditions and American values.

After graduating from college, Julio pursued a career in the nonprofit sector marked by a profound commitment to positively impacting the community and supporting the vision of a community free of poverty.

With a background in social work and a passion for community development, Julio has dedicated his time to working for organizations that prioritize social change and addressing societal issues.

Julio's goal for joining the Community Involvement Commission is rooted in a desire to make a meaningful difference in the place he calls home.

Through active involvement and collaboration, he hopes to shape a brighter future for his community.

And then the second committee member here who is seeking appointment is Martha Lucas.

Martha has been on the commission in a council appointed position since 2021. Martha is one of the commission's subcommittee chairs and has previously been a co-chair on the commission.

Martha was born in Ethiopia and moved to Seattle at the age of two and is a district three resident.

Martha is a proud Garfield bulldog, a double husky with a background in management, public health, education, insurance, caregiving, 25 plus years of community service organizing and racial justice.

For over 10 years, Martha has been a local insurance broker in car, home, business, life and disability and Medicare.

Currently, Martha wears two hats as an executive director for Washington State Coalition of African Community Leaders, which is the largest African diaspora-led nonprofit in Washington with 60-plus member organizations and 90-plus individuals.

Martha is also the program consultant for Riverton Park United Methodist Church Asylum Seekers Program, where she oversees all the shelter resident program services.

And I'll pass it to Laura to talk about the final two commissioners.

Thanks, Alvin.

So for the final two, these are both people seeking reappointments.

So we have Awa Kone, who's been on the commission since 2022. She's very consistent in her participation and always aware of contributing to conversations but leaving space for her fellow commissioners.

to provide their point of view.

So Awa is a public health practitioner and a licensed attorney who is a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Public Health.

She's a first generation immigrant from the Ivory Coast and has a lived experience as a black woman in the US for nearly four decades.

for decades.

She has led large health projects in Africa and in the Seattle area.

And as a mother and activist, she has been extensively engaged with community organizations and commissions to promote equity and justice and to amplify the voices of marginalized communities.

And then our last commissioner or commissioner who's seeking reappointment as Heidi Morissette.

And Heidi's been on the commission just since December 2023. But her term is up at the end of May.

And in that short time, she's shown great initiative in meetings and is an active in the commission's conversations.

As a Snoqualmie tribal member, Heidi is rooted in the heritage of these lands.

Heidi's educational background is psychology, sports management, and mental health counseling, which has aided her professional and personal growth by providing insight into human behavior.

Heidi has worked at several Seattle-based companies and finds her passion through making connections in the communities and with people around her.

As a young indigenous person, Heidi hopes to bring a new perspective to the city.

Her goal as a member of the Community Involvement Commission is to make civic engagement exciting and easily attainable to all populations and people in Seattle.

Thank you, Laura and Alvin.

I really appreciate hearing about the backgrounds of these nominees, and it's really helpful to hear folks really want to be engaged, and that is very encouraging to me.

Colleagues, do you have any comments or questions?

Seeing no comments or questions, I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 2779 through 2783. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to confirm these appointments.

Are there any further comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointments?

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Chair Rivera.

Aye.

Five in favor, zero opposed.

The motion carries and the recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the full city council.

Thank you again, Laura and Alvin.

As I've said of other boards and commissions, it's so great to see fellow Seattleites who are willing to step up and volunteer their time to help our great city.

And I'm gonna underscore that volunteer their time to really be engaged in this very important work in the city.

We are so grateful for their service and their continued service as some of these are actually reappointments.

Really appreciate their willingness to continue to serve in this volunteer capacity.

So thank you both for being here today.

Thank you Chairperson.

Do any of my colleagues have any other questions or comments in general?

Okay, seeing no further questions, I want to thank you again for presenting these nominees.

And thank you to the Department of Education and Early Learning for their earlier presentation this morning.

This concludes the March 28, 2024 meeting of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee.

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 9.30 a.m.

If there's no further business, this meeting will be adjourned.

Hearing no further business, it is 10.44 a.m.

and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.