School Board Meeting Date June 15th, 2016 Pt.1

I want to welcome to the June 15 regular board meeting, welcome to our student representative Pearl Nguyen from the skill center.

Ms. Nguyen will have an opportunity to provide comments regarding the skill center later in the meeting.

Ms. Ritchie the roll call please.

Director Blanford.

Here.

Director Burke.

Here.

Director Geary.

Here.

Director Harris.

Here.

Director Peters.

Here.

Director Pinkham.

Here.

Director Patu.

Here.

If everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

For the past few years substitutes around the district have come together to recognize schools which have provided explanatory environments to work in.

These schools are well run supportive and express appreciation for the effort it takes to support our students education.

Today we have Peter Henry the president of the Seattle substitutes Association to present the 2015 2016 school year awards for substitute friendly schools.

Thanks very much I would also like to introduce my fellow substitute association board members David Posner and Karen Engstrom.

So here is our plaque.

And I will read it, it says Seattle substitutes association of the Seattle education association recognizes Kimball elementary school, Hazel Wolf K-8 and Jane Adams middle school as substitute friendly work sites and I signed it for the 2015-16 school year.

So we are overjoyed.

This is something, this is I think the fourth year that we have done this and the reason that we have done it is to highlight the collaboration between schools and subs.

The better the environment in the school, the better we can mesh, the better the outcomes are for the kids.

About 10% of a student's time in school is spent with substitute teachers to say nothing of the other substitute educators, office staff, IAs and other folks.

Being a sub is a lot more than merely making sure there is an adult in the room with the kids.

Whether we are there for a single day or like me in a long-term assignment I was teaching something I hadn't taught before ever at Cleveland high school starting at the end of October.

We are there to promote students education the best way we can and this depends as much on the relationships that we can develop with the building, the administration and the staff than what we actually bring ourselves so it's a communal effort.

We highlight schools each year as sub-friendly where we feel we are the most effective due to the positive environment and professionalism we encounter.

Again we are honoring Kimball elementary school, Hazel Wolf K-8 and Jane Adams middle school.

And I'll hand this out to everybody up there Here are some comments I took these off of the nomination forms for those schools.

All secretaries are very friendly and helpful they personally call substitutes who work often at their schools.

Teachers always leave lesson plans and often email the plans the night before.

Okay that's great.

I find most teachers give you something substantial to do with their students not just worksheets.

The IAs help the sub know what the regular routines are making sure the students know that she the sub as well as the teacher has IA expectations for them.

Students are regularly respectful and engaged and know what the adults expect.

This one I really like.

Other students seem to really understand students with anger issues or autism.

This was written by a sub who went into a special ed classroom.

So she saw firsthand that the other kids were supportive of the kids with more extreme special needs to try to help them be successful.

And it goes on.

There are parts here about how important it is to have supportive and welcoming administrators.

Keys is a big issue for subs as Betty Petunio's full well.

And every, you know there is a whole bunch of stuff on here we could have made this 10 pages long but thankfully we didn't.

So here it is.

I too would like to congratulate and thank you to the substitute for a great job.

We definitely need you.

At this time I would like to recognize the spring 2016 state athletic champions in our district.

I will first turn to Dr. Nyland for his remarks.

Well again we're delighted to recognize our student-athletes as we've talked about it before we've got great athletes we've got great academic athletes as well and so yeah it's a delight and a pleasure to welcome our successful representatives of Seattle for this season.

So Tom are you up?

I now want to invite Associate Superintendent of Facilities and Operations Flip Herndon up to the podium to make a few remarks.

Thank you.

And as Dr. Nyland has stated these are the champions, we just did a recognition of some of our team champions and academic team champions but that was before the spring season championships had been completed so we want to make sure that we are recognizing these student-athletes before some of them graduate and won't be here next year to be recognized.

So that's why we wanted to make sure we did this before the end of the school year.

So I'll go through and identify the teams and then when the teams come up if they could start to line up over there and then afterwards we'll do pictures with the board members.

So I'm going to start with the Our first team which is the unified soccer team state champions division two from Nathan Hale and we have coach Chris and coach Kendra here.

I don't want to face our back to everybody else, this isn't very inclusive at all.

Okay, so I just wanted to share that I am so proud of our Nathan Hale unified soccer team.

I've been a coach for the past two years and this is back to back state champs.

This is coach Chris and we just want to take a minute to recognize our players that are here today.

So we have Helen, raise your hand.

Allen, Kabir, Ronnie, and Griffin.

Okay our next team and I'm not sure if we have anybody here I know the players are actually in a match right now.

That would be the Garfield State boys doubles tennis champions.

Oscar Burney and Brad Huffaker and I don't believe, do we have anyone from Garfield here?

I don't think so.

Okay but we did want to recognize them as champions as well.

Moving on.

Yes.

Moving on we have the Roosevelt high school boys golf team champions and we have Coach Darryl, Coach Max and Coach Daniel here and a couple of the team members.

Thank you very much.

I'm Darryl Monzingo, coach, with my Max Rose and with Daniel Gross.

We all teach at Roosevelt high school.

And then our captains are Miles Trigger and Sam Scalbania.

Alright our next team, actually it's one of our individuals and that is the state track champion, boys champion in the 100 and 200 meter dash.

And that is Emmanuel Wells from Rainier Beach.

I happened to be at that event and he won that handily quite honestly so very impressive athlete.

Do we have Coach Derrick here?

Yeah I'm Coach Brito from Rainier Beach and really not a whole lot to say if you've seen him run.

He's a great kid, great athlete, a lot of work and dedication went into the three state titles he won while he was here and I look forward to seeing him succeed at the next level as well.

Thank you.

Our next champion is also a track athlete.

And I'm going to have Coach Lorna from Chief Sealth introduce our next women's champion.

Good afternoon my name is Lorna Constantine I am head coach at Chief Sealth.

Asa has been with the program for all four years.

She is the ultimate definition of student athlete.

She has been a four-point student all four years and this year she was the metro district and state champion in the 100 and the 200 meter dash and she went undefeated in the 200 meter dash.

And she is going to UW.

Our next champion is from West Seattle and that is Lanny Taylor and she was the state champion 400 meter dash which is a challenging race if you have ever run a 400 meter dash.

Fantastic job again and she is here.

Coach unfortunately couldn't be here tonight.

And our last championship recognition team for tonight is the West Seattle Unified Soccer State Champions Division 1 and we have Coach Sam and Coach Billy here.

Hello.

I just want to congratulate this team.

This is a program that's been at West Seattle for four plus years now but has really been developed by Coach Billy and the school and our partners and our athletes and unified sports is amazing and it's coming up so watch out for it and congratulations to all of you guys.

Now I would actually like to, we didn't get a chance to really do a pause for the substitute school recognition.

Let's give them a hand.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good job, guys.

Good job, Coach.

Here's a team of one.

Thank you.

Okay, come on.

th th Thank you.

Oh, wow.

Perfect.

Tonight we do not have a scheduled presentation tonight.

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

All right.

We've got, had an opportunity this last week to, not exactly, it was advertised as a White House event and we got close but we didn't get in.

They hold them in the Eisenhower executive office wing and so we had several representatives from the district there as well as from OSPI and I guess I didn't see that paper I was in Washington DC but I guess the story broke.

with our local news saying that Washington State had one of the highest absentee rates in the nation.

This is a continuation of the President's work on My Brother's Keeper.

It fits in with our work on eliminating opportunity gaps and we were quite impressed with the work that's underway.

The focus of the event was providing a success mentor for every chronically absent student.

And they had impressive information saying that if you had a success mentor for students those students attended school 9 or 10 days more than they would otherwise.

which for many students makes the difference whether they pass a course and stay on track to graduate or not.

Lots and lots and lots of information and great resources from people who have been working on attendance issues for many years and working on mentoring issues for many years.

Similarly, the mayor's education summit continues to move forward.

They are about halfway through their work.

They started at the last session to prioritize some of the ideas that have been shared in the community meeting so far.

Kind of early early early early indications from that group are that cultural culturally responsive teaching and elimination of school suspensions were two high interest areas among others that looked like they were maybe rising to the top.

Meanwhile lots of other supporting activities are underway.

Thank you to the board for your sessions over the last few weeks talking about both our coming goals for the coming year as well as potential funding sources from the district.

The Wallace Foundation as I've mentioned before has indicated that they wanted our participation in this round of fundraising.

I think there was about 25 districts that were invited to participate.

We are now one of 14 districts that they will come and visit and they will fund I believe it's seven districts over a multiyear time frame around social emotional health.

And after tonight's meeting, hopefully it won't go forever, Michael Tolley will be departing and driving to Yakima tonight so that he can represent us with Annie Casey Foundation tomorrow to talk about some of the issues with regard to eliminating opportunity gaps in Seattle and how they might partner with us around absenteeism and disproportionate discipline.

Other issues kind of coming to the fore.

Enrollment and staffing continue to be of concerns.

Our budget continues to be pretty much carry forward status quo type budget.

We did get additional funding for kindergarten, all day kindergarten and for smaller class sizes in K-3.

The board has had a lot of discussions about that.

You authorized the 6.5 million to beg, borrow, steal, create, invent 65 new classrooms for both enrollment growth and for smaller class sizes.

And so I wanted to give you an update tonight.

I would invite Associate Superintendent Flip Herndon and Associate Superintendent Michael Tolley to give a very brief high-level overview of where we are with the enrollment projections and those in turn drive staffing and where we are in the staffing process.

Good evening Flip Herndon, Associate Superintendent of Facilities and Operations.

We have spoken a bit over the past few months about the process that develops as we go through our enrollment projections, open enrollment and we are at that phase now where we did initial projections in February.

That's based on historical, a lot of historical trends that we start to see and projections that we have forward.

We have open enrollment that then starts and students start to move around and we do get more applications for enrollment for the following year.

And then after open enrollment is completed there is a several week process where we analyze to make sure we are moving everybody around and hopefully honoring as many open enrollment options as possible.

So that was completed.

near the end of May so we are at the point now where we are making an adjustment before the summertime.

Our last adjustment will happen after the students actually show up and school is going underway.

So that is where we currently are in the process.

We're starting to make some of those adjustments staffing wise based on the number of students that we're projecting now.

So we do do some adjustments if we feel that the historical trends or the trend that we're seeing now is a little bit different one way or the other versus what we've seen in the past.

So we're at that moment right now where we're making some of those adjustments.

And Michael Tolley associate superintendent for teaching and learning.

Those adjustments are based on a weighted staffing standards and as you are aware the standards themselves are baseline allocations of staff to schools.

Unfortunately those standards do not meet the needs of all schools in all situations.

We have some cases of unique Programming in our schools as well as small schools considerations where the standards don't necessarily address everything so we have intentionally set aside funds we refer to as mitigation dollars to address those unique needs.

The need for mitigation dollars have increased.

over the last few years and current year mitigation for dollars have also been in preparation for next year's has been set aside for a number of purposes.

One as mentioned by the superintendent at the last school board meeting here $2 million have been set aside for the fall to mitigate any schools that do not meet projected enrollment.

So those funds are then not available at this time for mitigation consideration.

Also indicated was if there may be a desire of the board to use some one-time dollars to mitigate some of the situations that are out there.

As you know there are 87 mitigation requests that have come in from schools totaling about $7.7 million worth of requests.

We have gone through a process to identify those critical situations that we believe warrant mitigation based on situations where we are addressing classrooms first and those situations where But whether the enrollment goes up or down it would not make a change in the need for that mitigation.

We've applied an equity factor to those considerations and we've also looked at those schools again that have unique programs or multiple programs that create logistical problems within the schools to keep schools within reasonable class sizes.

So we've done that for a tier 1 grouping of schools.

We've also identified a tier 2 grouping of schools to consider again unique situations typically where enrollment changes would not impact the need.

But, again, it doesn't meet all the factors used or criteria used for tier 1. But again, to invest in those would require a decision of the board to invest one-time dollars to meet those particular needs.

As it is right now, we are on hold for any allocations of additional resources through the mitigation until some budgetary decisions are made.

So again we as Dr. Herndon indicated we are in the process of reviewing enrollment projections as a result resulting from open enrollment and we will be making some recommended adjustments in enrollment with intent to notify schools by the end of this week.

Thank you.

I appreciate a lot of work goes into it and it certainly does have impact on schools.

And we continue to note that we desperately need the legislature to act on McCleary.

We have an unsustainable budget in that Our commitments for salaries special education and ELL this year total more than the amount of new funds that we have approved by our voters.

So that means that we're just every part of the budget gets tighter and tighter every year.

We did have the opportunity, staff did, to meet with some of our legislators yesterday to share with them the impact of the new K-3 formula.

So obviously it's really good news that the legislature has provided additional support Funding for a smaller class size.

One challenge is where to put the students.

We did get notification this week that we will get $10 million in state funding to help with portable classrooms.

I forget what the category is.

Whatever it is.

Renewable wood resource portable modular.

units so every little bit helps to make room for our students.

And then we are concerned about how that formula drives out and how many split classrooms that might create in the fall.

So we are continuing to work on that with our legislators as well.

One of the other issues that we've heard about in recent board meetings from our public testimony has been with regard to the deaf and hard of hearing and Wyeth Jesse is going to give us a brief update on what has been done and what's underway and maybe, yeah.

Thanks Wyeth.

Good evening.

So I just wanted to give an update about where we were in the past.

You know just as little as two years ago coming on board we had some definite challenges I would say sorely lacking in our relationships with the deaf and hard of hearing community.

And I think we were also providing a very minimal educational program and when I say that around really content, core content, instruction.

within our dedicated DHH classrooms which across the district for those students who do get received primarily their services in the DHH classroom is about 25 students.

And also just around issues of oversight.

To understand DHH services does take quite a high level of expertise.

It is qualified as what we call unique services.

I have that breadth of experience even myself.

I do not know enough about deaf culture.

I don't sign and that is really key if you are talking and communicating within that community.

So what we did is really quickly just thinking about it and just saying okay what can we do and so we did team up with CDHL the Center for Childhood Deafness and Hearing Center.

They are the state experts in this and I know I have spoken about them before to the board.

And so we commissioned a report from them.

We have received that back.

We also took oversight of DHH services from the school sites and moved it centrally because we do have that expertise we funded a supervisor for DHH plus audiology and vision and as well as just having quarterly DHH community meetings and I know I've reported on that too and some board directors have also attended those.

There's like 150 to 200 people in this room.

And they're really, I think I call them magical.

I mean it's just really, I find I get a lot of energy off of it just to learn from it but also just to have that engagement with the community about what's working well, what's not and a lot of times again it comes down to relationships.

Do you really care for my kid?

We do have to extend that and I think we've done a good job of that and ultimately we have quite a long way to still go and I would say right now where we are at and our steps moving forward is we did break out some classrooms for the different learning modalities.

So sign exact English versus ASL that was a big move we had those two modalities in the same classroom now we split those out.

We moved the middle school services from Eckstein now to Tops because Tops is a K-8 school so that could create more greater critical mass which is currently being asked for very much within that community.

And of course we are going out and trying to bring more students in but then it's about their individual education plans so we are not going to create a more restrictive environment for a bulk of these students who again about 25 would require this kind of placement but we have hundreds of students many without IEPs out there within Seattle Public Schools.

And then I would say also just around a lot of professional development.

We have an incredible amount of PD provided to them.

CHL is part of that PD for them.

There also is right now four interpreters a requirement to have the professional standards so they are getting their certificates and so we are working with CHL to get them that certification that is going to be required here by the end of the year.

And then we are also contracted for preschool DHH services with the hearing speech and deafness center.

And so I've heard a lot of positive feedback about that.

That was something we did not do very well here and we did that.

And then my last piece really is just around our next steps.

And so we do have some next steps, professional development, core content.

I was just talking to Michael Tolley, he was out at TOPS I believe today.

or yesterday.

And I've been out there recently too and it is a pretty big transformation.

And when you go out there it seems very purposeful in the instruction.

There's quite a lot of very talented staff that are really excited now to work together.

They've got that continuity going.

The kids are out there well supported within TOPS, they've been there for a long time.

And so we do need to keep building up their instructional program.

That does take a lot of professional development.

We have that, the materials, so that's really a direction and then further building out those different communication modalities by grade level as we gain more critical mass.

If they do come we are prepared to do that as we move forward.

So I feel those are really some powerful things and I would invite any time, especially maybe the start of next school year to join me on a walk-through at Tops or at Roosevelt High School.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Well the tragedy in Orlando once again reminds us of the concern about safety for all of our students.

It raises a number of potential issues for us both physical as well as emotional.

And we recognize that processing issues like this may be difficult.

Communications did go out to staff, to principals and posted on the website as to some resources that might be helpful to teachers and parents.

And then given the fact that the shooting targeted LGBTQ students and given the fact that the shooter had some Muslim affiliation that creates issues of concern for safety of other different groups of students.

And we wanted to draw attention to the fact that we certainly want schools to be safe places for all of our students both physically and emotionally.

and recently entered into an agreement with the Seattle Police Department designating our schools as safe places.

So yeah difficult times and we want to work through those issues with our staff and with our community.

Our nutrition services staff is following up on some of the recommendations from the recent study.

One of those having to do with the community eligibility provision and whether we can expand that to more of our schools.

The schools that we can do that for means that students can enjoy the healthy meals without the stigma attached to asking for free meals.

Families don't have to fill out all of the household applications and schools benefit from some reduced paperwork.

I suppose it gets people through the lines quicker which has been an issue for us in terms of getting students served in a timely way and making sure that they have proper time for lunch.

Our ELA English language arts adoption for K-5 is moving forward.

The committee has processed the number of potential curriculum issues, whatever the word I'm looking for is there, down to their top three choices, American Reading, Center for Collaborative Classroom, Collaborative Literacy, and National Geographic Reach.

So those materials are on display and the committee will continue to work through those with a piloting process and a selection process as school starts in the fall.

Our last day of school is June 24 due to the delayed start of the school year.

We are messaging that out via school messenger and we are also I believe have all of the websites updated with regard to bell times.

for schools when we start up in the fall.

I might add that school messenger was a challenge for us this year.

We started the year with a ruling by, or a rule by Federal Communications Commission saying that we could no longer use tools such as school messenger and that greatly hampered us in our ability to communicate with parents, particularly parents who speak another language.

And that was one of the major ways that we had to communicate with many of the languages that we may not be able to translate all of our documents into.

We've been through a variety of processes over the past year trying to get interpretation of what that means.

now have a court ruling elsewhere in the nation saying that schools enjoy some greater latitude with regard to use of tools such as school messenger and so we are now using school messenger with the provision that parents can opt out if they choose not to receive those messages.

School visits coming to an end here.

I think I'm at about 90% coverage.

My goal is to get to every one of our 98-99 schools sometime during the year to see how they are doing instructionally, how they are doing in eliminating gaps.

So almost there but running out of time and at this time of the year if one of us has cancel as I did last week for Washington DC there aren't too many opportunities to do a makeup.

The visits, this, I guess I've got a couple of them on there.

So yes, since our last meeting I've done Hazel Wolf, Bryant, Center School, Olympic Hills, Northgate, Queen Anne, John Hay, Cascade and Coe Elementary.

I'll comment on just a few very briefly in the interest of time.

Olympic Hills is at the moment at Cedar Park.

And they are the, I should write this down so I can say it properly, they are the most positive, positive outlier in the state of Washington.

So they outperform their demographic by more than any school does in any demographic in the state.

And they do that by being very very very intentional so they look carefully at the standards.

They make sure that those are aligned by grade level.

They use interim measures and then they have an otter block.

So there's an extra 30 minutes that they build into their schedule each day where the students who need, well all students get additional support.

So if the student is behind and needs to catch up they get that support.

If the student is ahead and they need acceleration or enrichment they get that.

They do it with all hands on deck so numbers of students are really small might be only a half a dozen students per adult.

And the tools that they use are directly aligned with the instruction that's being done in the classroom.

And it's obviously working for them.

They've had about a half a dozen of the other elementary schools in Seattle come visit them and figure out how they can put their intervention blocks in place as well.

Basically the MTSS writ large, good classroom instruction tier 1 and then tier 2 that is aligned and targeted to what's going on in the classroom.

Northgate is a surprise as we think about Northend, Southend and the Northgate has characteristics that are far more like Southeast schools.

with high-needs students.

So they talked about a homeless center nearby and getting two or three students new each day that have come to the homeless center and they come for dinner at the homeless center and then they get assigned for a church to sleep in overnight.

So they now have backpacks available to hand out to students as they come in so that they're welcome.

have instructional materials and try to do everything they can to make students welcome and plugged into the school day as quickly as they possibly can.

Queen Anne is coming up soon to have the opportunity to be remodeled.

Fascinating site.

We have three schools in the district that say officially on the outside of them John Hay.

So there's a brick building that you come into at Queen Anne there's a sign out front that does say Queen Anne but over the front door it says John Hay and then in the back out of the play area is an older wooden structure and they took me up to the tall tall reaches of the roof and wow what a view over all of Seattle.

360 degree view.

So those schools are coming up soon for figuring out how we restore the old buildings and build a bridge, not literally but figuratively tie the two schools together for instruction.

They are a one-to-one school meaning that they with the support of parents have iPads and other computing devices available to students and again just blown away by kindergarten and first grade students showing me the books that they are writing.

and how they store those electronically, share them electronically and just awesome work.

John Hay had a festival of arts coming up and likewise kindergarten students just, I started with one, I don't know that it was a mistake, it was a delight.

And then I had two and then I had four and then I had eight and then I had 10 kids pulling on my pant leg wanting to read me their stories.

So lots of energy and lots of commitment.

Cascade is our parent partnership program located near Seattle Pacific University.

They have a brand-new four or five story senior living unit that has been developed within feet.

a very few feet of their property and they have been approached by ages senior living who does have a partnership program with other schools in the region and they are looking forward to a great partnership so that the students and the adults will be able to support each other in a variety of ways.

And then Coe Elementary is bursting at the seams.

All of those grand old homes on Queen Anne being purchased by Amazon, Expedia and others and bringing lots of children to school.

So every year I visit and find out how they've been creative about turning more of their kind of open spaces into classrooms and making do with the space that they have.

So lots of good things going on in schools as we make the mad dash for the finish line.

I might comment that I also met this week, our last meeting of the year with the Seattle Council for PTSA.

We talked about funding.

They are certainly committed through the McCleary process of making our funding requests made known in Olympia.

And then Cassandra Johnson who we recognized at the last board meeting reported that I think the mayor's office had pledged $700,000 for food security for the backpack program.

So a lot of schools getting on board, a lot of food banks getting on board and a good mark of what can be done with great partnerships throughout the city.

Thank you to the board for the time spent in our retreat on June 4. We are moving toward I think setting goals for the coming year.

I appreciate the board's intensity and interest and time commitment to make that happen.

Tentatively, the high priority areas that look like they may become our goals for the coming year are goal one, excellence and equity through our MTSS process.

Second, elimination of opportunity gaps for our students.

Our budget process, our engagement and collaboration process and then looking at our continuation, continuum of the offerings that we have in the district.

Recognizing that each year we have more needs than we have funding for and trying to get a better understanding of what our programs are and how we can best meet our student needs.

I appreciate the board and the staff commitment to making that happen.

I did have a note passed to me that with regard to health services last year we had 13 open positions for school nurses at this time of the year and at this moment in time we are fully staffed with 90 nurses for next year.

The annual Seattle pride parade is scheduled for Sunday June 26 and we invite students, families, staff and supporters to march with Seattle Public Schools and the safe schools coalition.

All are welcome.

You can come ride or march with SPS staff, students, families, participants can ride in the bus or float or march alongside of the bus carrying signs or taping signs to the bus.

Light snacks will be provided on the bus and also have some items to hand out as we do participate in that event.

So that's Sunday June 26 at 11 AM downtown Seattle beginning at 4th and Union ending at Seattle Center.

And, coming right up, our graduations.

Certainly proud of our graduates and congratulations to our school staff and leadership, parents, mentors and all of our graduates.

I know that I speak for the board as this being highlight of the year when all of kind of the time commitment the board members put in.

It's an opportunity to see firsthand the results of all of that work and see the proud faces of our parents and our staff and our students as they graduate.

I try to get to about a third to a half of the graduations each year.

We can't physically get to all of them because some of them are scheduled on top of each other.

So I'll look forward to doing that and I didn't participate in Roosevelt's last year but I want to make sure that I participate in it this year and that it will mark my 50th anniversary from my graduation from Roosevelt.

Coming up, listening opportunities, there is a Northwest community meeting opportunity with regard to the BEX IV capital projects team around the Lincoln High School early design process that is coming up on Thursday June 23 at 630 p.m.

that information is on our website.

And then I would mention with regard to staffing changes that we very much appreciate the work that Shawna Heath has provided for the district over the last several years and we will miss her as she goes to Brazil for an exciting life adventure.

And we welcome JoLynn Burge from OSPI joining the district today as chief financial officer so welcome JoLynn.

That concludes my remarks.

Thank you Dr. Nyland.

Again I want to welcome Ms. Nguyen from the skill center.

Ms. Nguyen is a senior at Roosevelt High School.

She attends Running Start as well as the Seattle skill center and the medical nursing assistant program.

Ms. Nguyen.

Hello.

Can they hear me?

I don't think it's on.

OK.

So my name is Pearl and I'm I go to Roseville High School and I'm a part of the nursing school center at West Seattle High School.

I really enjoy the program.

We we have like a one month long clinical and it really helped me discover that being a nurse is what I wanted to do.

my career and when applying to universities it was really helpful because I got into UW Bothells and SPUs directly admitted into the nursing program which wouldn't have happened without the skill center program.

I really love the skill center program because I love going there more than my normal high school because it's a really positive environment and have like a whole area that looks like a real hospital which just makes it feel really official and important.

Thank you Ms. Nguyen.

Welcome.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda please?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second the motion.

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

Director Burke.

I would request that we remove the approval of the minutes from the consent agenda.

Sorry the minutes of the June 1 board meeting.

Last board meeting.

Okay.

Whatever that was.

Is there a second?

Second.

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed?

Okay so Sue can.

Which item was that?

That was the minutes.

Okay.

I move for the approval of the meeting minutes from which?

June 1, second the motion.

Director Burke.

Excuse me I would like to just raise a point of concern that I noticed earlier today and I'm sorry I wasn't able to provide more advanced notice on this.

One of the items on the minutes that was item number 11 on introduction relating to the Lincoln High School contract.

There had been some dialogue from the dais interaction with staff that when I reviewed the minutes was not accurately or not adequately captured.

So my request would be that we suspend this approval of the minutes until subsequent meeting and give staff a chance to review the transcript and update those minutes.

Director Harris.

Would the appropriate motion be to table this until the next board meeting to take it up at that time?

Okay yes.

So moved.

Second the motion.

So we are going to actually do a vote.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Okay motion passed.

Is there any comments?

Director Pinkham.

Thank you Director Patu.

I just want to start out with my comments to just appreciate the efforts that are being done by.

all of our staff, the district here regarding our capacity and need for more classroom space and the challenges with the McCleary to make sure we have adequate classrooms.

And with that I do want to take this time to voice my support for the renovation of Loyal Heights Elementary but not at the current coverage lot size.

I want to see that outdoor play area need for our students at the K-5 level be met.

In my campaign I voiced concerns with the size of the LHE remodel and desire to not see mega schools be built.

I want to see that hopefully the play area per student and play area per lot size and unbroken ground coverage be sustained at a good adequate that we are not reducing that overall by our schools.

It seems like we are growing smaller and smaller for outdoor play area for our students.

That as we continue to build, need schools to meet our capacity needs that if we can somehow make sure we are not reducing that size continually.

See if we can, if the new schools we are building that it's above average for what we currently have and not to say oh that's okay we have a smaller one.

No I don't want to see us continue to get smaller and smaller.

If Loyal Heights did have a larger lot size wider street I would be more receptive to this but I just wanted to hopefully get on record that yes I see the need for renovation and the community members I spoke to they too see that need but just the size is too big for that lot right now and I would like to to see that we can somehow work with our staff here to see what more we can do to increase the play area for that.

So I know that Flip is still, last message you are working on it I am eager to see what you have here and I know the Loyal Heights community will be definitely interested to see what still can be done that even though we are at the last minute as we are at for this site I would like to see more conversation on that and maybe some input from other board members.

Because this kind of relates to what I've seen happen with Wilson Pacific, landmarks issues and going over those.

I want to make clear that for Wilson Pacific it was the building in sight that was landmarked, not particularly the murals.

But then still the building was tore down and a new one put up.

So what can we do as a district, as board members, superintendents here, schools.

to help mitigate these things before it gets too late in the game.

I don't want to be micromanaging but I'd like to have that discussion what can we do so we are not battling in a sense against ourselves when we are the ones that put the landmarks on the buildings.

Also, as we build for capacity in the future years, is it now time that we start investing in more land instead of selling land that we did in the past?

What can we do here before land gets too expensive?

As we are looking at 20-30 years down the road it would be too expensive to do this.

And there is a few things I want to share with the district as well.

It's a number 481-111.

That is a CEB code for American Indian Heritage High School.

Yes it did have its own CEB back in the day and I would still need more information how did that then get closed?

Was it brought up to the board for a vote or not?

Or was it transferred to another school?

Because I bring that up because I just recently got a report on the civil rights data collection by the Department of Education.

that notes that we do need to have schools that meet the needs of our American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students.

And often times that is curriculum that they can identify with as seeing yes I am of value.

Not just as an individual but also my culture and heritage and background.

So whatever we can do again support from other board members to see what we can do to get that American Indian heritage high school back on the books that somehow it got lost.

It is now, last I saw two types of degrees from that school.

One was actually my sister-in-law, it did say American Indian heritage high school for her diploma.

I saw another one from a more recent graduate, it said middle college American Indian heritage school.

So someplace, where did that happen?

where American Indian High School was no longer a school by itself.

And I appreciate if we can get that information to talk about.

Am I going too long here?

I also want to acknowledge that the response to also they saw in the news of Rainier Beach High School where there was a potential shooting incident there where it sounds like our staff and police force were able to go there and prevent a potential hazardous there and I related that to because the mosque next to my house had a threat against it.

So thank you for the people that took the proper action for that to prevent tragedies.

Thank you Pearl for being here.

Sharing your comments and best of luck with your nursing endeavors.

Congratulations to the substitute friendly schools.

and also the state athletic champions.

In particular I do want to call out my weekend daughter Asa Caba who was a champion in the 100 meter 200 meter race.

She's been my daughter's best friend since second grade even though they separated after middle school as she moved to the West End they still kept in touch.

And Asa as well as my daughter and other people had a chance to actually get their picture taken with Billy Mills who was the 1964 Olympic champion for the 10,000 meters and As I say, still the only American to win the 10,000 meters gold medal in the Olympics.

Congratulations to all the Salem area high school graduates and thanks to their families and educators for their support.

I did leave early at the last board meeting for Ingram senior high school awards and pleased to announce that my daughter Molly Pinkham won the physics award so glad that I was able to get there and thank you for excusing me that day Director Patu.

And lastly I must do this.

June 15 2016 is my 19th wedding anniversary.

So if my wife decides to go on the SPS website rollback happy anniversary.

Thank you Scott.

Who's next.

Director Harris.

Thank you.

Thank you Pearl.

A big believer in career and technology education.

There are a lot of ways to succeed and giving our young people a head start I'm entirely in favor of.

Thank you to our athletic teams and also thank you to our athletic academic teams.

I think that's a really important thing that we should flag and say thank you to.

Substitute friendly schools great to see them here as well.

Last couple of weeks busy busy Denny international middle school in my neighborhood.

Principal Jeff Clark in the back wave.

Thank you.

Spent the morning with him and great tour of the school saw a lot of old friends made a lot of new friends and they are doing great things over there.

I challenged him to talk about how we replicate those great things.

One of the things that we talk about as a board and all the committee meetings is how do we leverage our successes and we have many.

I was fortunate enough to participate last Saturday at the Cesar Chavez event in South Park with many of our youngsters at Concord International and they did the school district ever so proud in their presentations.

And it was especially gratifying to follow up Justice Steve Gonzales one of my heroes and who I've had an opportunity to work in front of in the past.

And Justice Gonzales given his station as a Supreme Court Justice was unable to talk a great deal about McCleary funding.

But as I do every time that I present from the dais today the total fines $30.7 million.

That's outrageous and we could do a lot of good with that kind of money as could the other 294 school districts in this state.

We have been talking, debating, analyzing budget numbers.

The weighted staffing standard is inadequate for us to do right by each of our 99 schools.

Much has been said about an $11 million one time spend fund.

We had a very short meeting prior to this meeting.

We got numbers less than 24 hours ago.

I propose then and I will continue to advocate that we take $3 million of that money and put it to a one time spend to do a dual curriculum adoption.

Middle school math.

We have got to do a better job giving our children the tools to be successful in high school and beyond.

Next Monday night June 20 there will be a dual immersion task force meeting at Concord international elementary school and thanks very much to Michelle Aoki who helped set that meeting up so that we could in fact engage with folks in that community which is sometimes frankly overlooked.

That's at 6 o'clock at the school.

My next community meeting is on July 16 from 3 to 430 at the Southwest Public Library and that's at 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Henderson Street.

Thank you very much.

Director Burke.

Thank you I'll try to be brief to be able to start our public testimony on time.

I want to start also by congratulating our sub friendly schools.

It's important that we honor our substitutes and that we recognize that they are educators first and that they come in and they help our students in times when the teachers are out of the building or out of their classrooms and being able to provide that academic support is absolutely critical.

I also want to share a note of congratulations to our student-athletes and I appreciate Director Harris's comments about the academic side of that.

Athletics and academics can and should be closely coupled.

I think that we've got examples of that throughout our district and we should continue to celebrate those.

I want to thank my new colleague Ms. Nguyen for sharing her experience at the skills center.

Not a lot of people know about the offerings that we have at the skill center.

Skill centers and when we talk about vocational technical education or the different hands-on programs that we offer when you look at what's available at the skill center and that includes classes during the school year and summer offerings.

It's pretty powerful stuff and so I think that it's something I want to make sure that we as directors keep in mind how we leverage the strength of that program when we're talking about high school daily structures and when we're talking about funding and when we're talking about what we consider to be a comprehensive education that we consider stories like the one we just heard about the value of what's delivered at the skill center and how it builds on what's delivered in the classrooms.

I want to also follow up on something that Superintendent Nyland mentioned about success mentors.

I've heard this concept before several times and recognize that This is a challenge to be able to pair a caring adult with an at-risk student on a one-to-one basis is a tough call.

But I think if we have to try to do that, given the choice between pairing them with a laptop and pairing them with an adult.

I think we should really figure out how we can leverage our resources, our community, organizations and all the support structures we have to put these people in a position where we can help the students succeed and recognize that we are looking out for them.

On a note of gratitude to Associate Superintendent Herndon and his team for all the work on enrollment and capacity.

The engineer in me really has a lot of respect for the difficulty of what I would consider to be a multivariate analysis.

And one that has a lot of inputs that move around all the time.

So this is a challenge I understand that and thanks for continuing to do that work and share out information as it becomes available.

Budget has been mentioned a couple of times.

I think we are excited about the guidance from the board, the direction from staff and the more we learn the more excited we are about wanting to make it better.

It's a continuous area for improvement and I think that we are putting the final blocks in place on this year's budget.

The $11 million that Director Harris mentioned about.

is about one and a half percent of the general fund.

So we're really trying to put the final pieces in place in that puzzle.

So really I'm looking forward to starting to work on the 2017 budget and making sure that that's not just a rollover budget but we're really looking at the areas where we can put our money where our value is.

And I also wanted to follow up the instructional materials.

topic and thank my colleagues and the staff for what's not a new focus but what's getting more daylight on instructional materials.

This is something that's always been a passion of mine and I'm really pleased to have a lot of lot of chance to interact with staff about the value of good instructional materials, consistent instructional materials and in recent years we did K5 math two years ago, middle school social studies last year.

We did the since time immemorial tribal sovereignty implementation.

English language arts is in process for K5 and now we are considering as Director Harris mentioned a middle school math adoption.

So the commitment to instructional materials is real from the board and from the staff and I just want to say thank you for that.

Final congratulations to Seattle Public Schools middle school students.

who were in the participated in the science fair at the Museum of Flight.

I had the chance to go down and see some of the amazing work they're doing.

It's mind blowing.

I think I mentioned at the last meeting that it was coming soon and it was definitely worth worth visiting.

I do not have my next community meeting scheduled but as soon as I do it'll be up on the website I'll probably be in early July.

Thank you.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda and the rules for public testimony are on the screen and I would ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

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

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

When the two minutes have ended please conclude your remarks.

I will call three names.

Julio Ramirez, Leo Purcell, Samantha King.

And please just step forward.

Hi I'm Julio Ramirez and I am here for skill center.

I'm a member of the medical assistant class at the Lincoln building.

I mean this class has done a lot for me.

It's really like I'm not the best student academically at my normal school I'm about average but when it comes to like doing this class you know it has really helped me a lot it's really like helped me love school again and it's really helped me like learn a lot especially like in the medical field like it's helped me like to just help decide like maybe what I wanted to study in college.

You know you can earn up to 20 college credits in one year, 32 college credits in two years.

You do a lot of fun stuff like a thing called HOSA which is health occupation students of America.

And we took third in state this year in my group and we get to go to Nashville Tennessee on Tuesday next week.

And it's really like this class has done a lot and it's a lot of fun.

You learn a lot of fun stuff and it's just different and I think it's better than normal school because you get a lot more one-on-one with the teacher.

The teacher really like cares about you because it's not like they are teaching a whole bunch of students necessarily they are teaching like a few and it's very broad I mean they have culinary, they have aerospace, they have construction.

I have a friend that is in the aerospace program and because of that like Boeing is going to put him through school and then after that like he's going to get a job at Boeing.

And it's just really cool to see what this program does not only in my program but in all its programs all around.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Hi hello members of the board my name is Leo Purcell I use he him pronouns and I am a member of the West Seattle high school GSA.

You are going to hear a few of our members speak in a bit so before we get to their conversation I want to clarify some terminology you may hear.

So a person's sex is the genitals that they are born with.

There are three sexes which are male, female and intersex.

Someone who is intersex means that their genitals don't fit as either male or female and there is a lot of variation in what intersex is.

Sex is different from gender which is a characteristic of a person's understanding of who they are.

Being cisgender means that your sex matches your gender.

For example, if a person is born and is assigned male based on their body, and they are also male in gender, they are cisgender.

Transgender means that the person's gender is different from their sex.

For example, if a person is born and is assigned female based on their body, but they are actually male in gender, then that person is a transgender man.

However there are more genders that exist beyond this binary mindset our society has created being male or female.

Transgender people whose gender is neither or both male or female are referred to as non-binary.

Lastly I want to say that the principal at West Seattle high school has been incredibly supportive not only of the work of GSA but also of all transgender students at our school.

She makes sure that the students names and pronouns are communicated to the staff and used in the system to make sure that they feel comfortable and welcome at our school which is extremely important to any student.

Thank you for your time and I would like to see what is remaining to the next speaker.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Samantha King and I am a senior at West Seattle High School.

I use she her pronouns.

Bathrooms have always been places where people of authority, power or wealth have denied access to those who don't align with any of those traits.

In the past, bathrooms and homes were only affordable by the rich and those that were poor were forced to use insufficient and hygienic bathrooms.

Up until 1964, public bathrooms were segregated between black people and white people.

To this day, though much progress has been made, bathrooms are still unsafe for certain people.

In March, a North Carolina governor signed into law the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.

The bathroom bill legislates that in government buildings individuals may only use restrooms and changing facilities that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates.

Bathroom bills don't protect or help anyone.

They are vehicles for instilling fear in those who do not understand the implications of sex segregated bathrooms for transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Safe bathroom access should not be considered a luxury.

Finding a safe place to use the bathroom is a common and daily struggle among transgender people.

West Seattle High School hopes that Seattle Public Schools can implement all gender bathrooms within their schools to support LGBTQ youth.

Everyone should be able to use a safe public bathroom so that they can pee in peace.

Thank you for your time.

I cede the remainder of my time to Allie Finn.

Thank you.

Hi I'm Allie Finn my pronouns are she her.

Last year West Seattle high school's GSA sent a letter to our principal about implementing an all-gender bathroom in the school.

Less than a year later we had a meeting with our school principal regarding the GSA's progress and to our surprise and joy we were within a month able to open our all-gender bathroom.

West Seattle high school To ensure that the bathroom is used correctly and with respect we have contacted and coordinated with our on-site security to ensure that everything is safe.

The response of both the students and the community has been overwhelmingly positive.

Thank you I cede my time to Julia Knowles.

Hi I'm Julia Coles and I'm going to speak to you about the importance of having an all gender restroom, all gender restrooms in Seattle Public Schools.

So for example we had a student at West Seattle High School who didn't feel comfortable using the men's or women's restroom so they would actually go all the way off campus just to use a restroom in a nearby community center.

So if there are students who don't feel comfortable in a male or female restroom they can feel safe in an all-gender restroom.

So the purpose of an all-gender restroom is so that it can create a safer school environment because it allows students to feel free to be themselves regardless of gender and it promotes equality so that every student can feel safe to express who they are.

And I cede the rest of my time to Callum Princeton.

Hello, hello.

Lovely to meet you I'm Cal as you heard I use he him pronouns.

Felt I'd throw that in there.

I'm sure we've already clarified this with every speaker but we're here on behalf of West Seattle High School and their Gay Straight Alliance.

We're enormously proud of our school and that we were able to get a gender neutral restroom for our student body.

But we're even more proud of the impact it's had.

Our transgender and gender nonconforming students are able to go to the restroom without having to use a restroom that doesn't fit their gender identity.

Also not having to single themselves out by using a bathroom specifically for them.

Our all-gender bathroom has worked just as we hoped.

It's a bathroom that can be and is used by everyone because it's for everyone.

The stigmas are gone and people of all genders and identities can pee in peace.

Now thankfully we live in a place like Seattle where very few people had the belief that in many other places would have been a foregone conclusion that this bathroom would somehow be a dangerous place for students.

But from the experiences we as a GSA have had the all gender bathroom has been a safe place, a wonderful environment and thankfully also one of the cleaner bathrooms in our school.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Chris Jenkins, Manuela Sly and Brian Fitzgerald.

My name is Chris Jackins Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the agreement with Edmonds school district to provide services for deaf and hard of hearing students.

The deaf and hard of hearing community has asked for improvements in Seattle programs.

Is this action because the district is not able to provide a proper education to these students?

On the Webster, Magnolia and Lincoln construction contracts, five points.

Number one, these projects use BTA IV levy funds yet the district has not completed the BTA IV environmental impact statement which is meant to provide information for board decisions on these projects.

Number two, further the district has apparently not decided the exact use of Webster.

Please vote no on these items.

Number three, this is a continuation of faulty planning on mega school projects like Arbor Heights and Genesee Hill.

The original proposal was to close Roxhill and merge it into Arbor Heights.

And Schmitz Park Elementary will be moved to the Genesee Hill site without any plans to use the Schmitz Park site.

Number four, the opportunity for appeals on projects is guaranteed to the public by law.

Appeals were filed on both these projects including of the district's refusal to include the Duwamish tribe among those to be informed if native artifacts were found during construction.

As a practical matter those who object to the public exercising its right of appeal in such circumstances are embracing a disrespectful attitude towards the Duwamish.

Number five, the board needs to take these lessons into consideration on the Loyal Heights project.

The Loyal Heights playground would shrink by 30%.

At least four board members have publicly stated concerns about this project.

Please take immediate action to halt and fix this project.

My thanks to Director Pinkham for publicly supporting changes to this project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dr. Nyland, directors of the school board.

My name is Manuela Sly.

I am a parent of four kids in the Seattle Public Schools.

Two of them attending John Stanford International School.

I serve as a BLT ELL family representative and I'm also a PTSA vice president.

Today I'm here to talk to you and to testify to testify on behalf of our whole school community on the impact of the current school budget will have on the students in our school.

We are currently waiting to learn from the mitigation hearing whether or not our school will be granted the 19 teachers we need.

The current school allocates 18. This will mean that teachers will have to teach both fourth and fifth grade and they will have to do everything that teaching two grades implies.

Class preparations for two grades, lesson plans for two grades, etc.

Although our teachers are highly skilled they will be overwhelmed with the record load of 62 families.

As an educator myself I know that the role of a teacher doesn't end in the classroom work.

To take care of 62 teachers, 62 families is excessive and it will ultimately affect our students' learning.

If we don't have enough teachers also the fourth grade class is projected to have 20 out of the 28 students that are qualified for special education services.

In a classroom of 32 to 33 students this is unacceptable.

I am here to respectfully ask you to carefully examine this issue and to please provide our schools with in this case John Stanford International School with the 19 teachers we need.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Thanks members of the board I'm Brian Fitzgerald and I cede my time to Peter Bryson.

Hello I am Peter Bryson.

I use he him pronouns and I am also here to talk about gender neutral bathrooms in the schools.

The Seattle Public School District is changing rapidly.

Our test scores are higher than ever before.

We have more students attending four-year colleges than ever before and our sports teams are consistently making headlines.

Why shouldn't SBS also be the leader on social issues?

Not only does spearheading social progression add another layer of depth to our schools, but it also speaks volumes to the kinds of students that attend SPS institutions.

In addition to illustrating the receptiveness that the board and faculty show to students who want to make a positive difference in their learning environment.

Implementing gender-neutral bathrooms in all Seattle public schools is not simply about having a urinal next to a toilet.

It is about SPS becoming part of a powerful movement that reaches beyond the confines of our community.

We ask you for your support in the widespread creation of gender-neutral bathrooms in all schools, elementary, middle and high schools.

Your support exemplifies that those with authority within our school district are smarter than the assumption that such bathrooms should be a place that encourages inappropriate behavior.

We know that creating a safe environment for all students is top priority and we ask that you take this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tova Fairshot, Jeffrey Clark, Brandon Hamm.

Hi members of the board.

My name is Tova Fairshot and I am a teacher at West Seattle High School as well as one of the advisors of the Gay Straight Alliance.

The members of the GSA saw the need within our school to create a gender-neutral bathroom and they worked towards their goal relentlessly until we were able to open the bathroom on April 20. I couldn't be more proud and honored to have spent every Tuesday afternoon with these students to hear their voices and witness their collaborative efforts of support, courage and power until their goal was accomplished.

I know that they have set a new bar for Seattle Public Schools and when all schools in Seattle have a gender neutral or an all gender bathroom we have these students behind me to thank.

They are truly the people paving the path for equity and inclusion in our school system today.

Thank you.

Good afternoon Dr. Nyland and directors of the school board.

It's a privilege to be back again this meeting.

My name is Jeff Clark proud principal of Denny International Middle School and I want to start by giving a quick shout out to four great students and their teacher who are in the front row.

All of these people are Denny Dolphins and we are really proud of them.

and proud of their activism.

So great job kids and Ms. Kugasaki.

I'd also like to recognize a group of colleagues who are standing behind me.

We are principals from across Seattle Public Schools and assistant principals who came down to continue to echo a clear message to you and that message is simple.

Please focus on gap elimination now and in every decision, policy, procedure that comes before the board.

I'll say that in 1999 I did my principal internship.

At that time I had a mentor who showed me a binder.

It was about the achievement gap in Seattle Public Schools.

That binder was at least 10 years old.

It's time to act with urgency and consistency and focus so that we can actually eliminate the gap instead of just have it on fancy documents.

We've made some progress but please if we focus on the question of how does this relate to gap closure, how does this fit with the equity tool, I am convinced that we can dramatically accelerate our progress exactly what all of the scholars in our district need and deserve.

Thank you for your time it continues to be a privilege and honor to serve in Seattle Public Schools.

Thank you.

Brennan Ham, Frank Sword and Justin Adam Com.

Hello my name is Brennan Ham I prefer my name to pronouns or they them is fine.

I have had the privilege of being the facilitator for the West Seattle high school GSA for the past two years and I really just think that what they had to say speaks for itself.

I don't have much else to add but I really think it's really important especially considering what's been going on right now that we consider all of the violence that's impacting the LGBTQ community.

This is one way to reduce that violence is by implementing gender neutral and all gender restrooms in all schools in Seattle Public Schools District.

So I strongly encourage you to consider that and I cede the rest of my time to whomever is next.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're on.

Okay thanks.

Hello I'm Frank Swart and I'm here with my favorite topic Loyal Heights redesign.

Thank you for listening.

I'd like to review some facts and this time make it a little easier for you.

I thought I would do it visually because a picture is worth a thousand words.

So on the first legal sheet you can see the current footprint.

This is superimposed over the entire lot of Loyal Heights.

And you can see we have the five portables also identified.

I only put five of the seven because as you know we are currently shrinking pretty rapidly in the Loyal Heights current enrollment boundary and so pretty soon we will be down to five.

The next page if you flip and I hope you are as blown away by this as I am is the new footprint on the lot.

And as you can see, it covers almost the entire lot.

You can see a circular part to the south there.

That is the rain gardens which no one is allowed to use other than the rain, I guess.

Okay let's go to the next page and this shows the relative lot sizes for the elementary schools in the immediate area.

And you will see that Loyal Heights is pretty small and it is sandwiched in between Adams and North Beach and about half the size of those two.

Luckily the growth is actually occurring in Adams and North Beach so it would be wonderful to actually build where the growth is.

The next page, sorry it's not a picture it's some numbers.

There's been a little confusion on how big this building is and what the capacity is so I'd like to just briefly show that in addition to the four classrooms per grade level that could fit 720 students there's also flex capacity for six additional rooms and then another nine for various rooms.

There's childcare rooms and then at the very bottom I put the Webster Elementary which is coming online.

a little later.

So we will go from currently 18 rooms and 425 kids to capacity for 1700. That is what we are building right now.

Finally, and I will just keep it brief, this is the map of where some of those schools are.

Every kid in this northeast lobe will have to be traveling past one of three other schools with bigger lots in order to get to little old Loyal Heights.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good afternoon I'm Justin Calm ORCA K-8 legislative chair.

Thank you Directors Patu and Directors Peters for your comments two weeks ago after I gave my testimony before.

I was here then and I'm back now because in large part I'm inspired by a three part question by Rabbi Hillel.

He asked if I am not for myself who will be for me?

If I am only for myself What am I?

If not now, when?

Last week we had a discussion with Southeast Director Kelly Aramaki.

He came to our school and he told us he's responsible for 20 schools, he can't do us any special favors and that if we want success it all comes down to rebranding he said.

So it looks like we better speak for ourselves because we've already got a great brand.

We're a progressive education social justice school with strong parent involvement and a garden and environmental science education program that is a cornerstone of our program.

Our motto is in this garden we all belong and we believe that.

That's why I'm here to fight for the $70,000 that's being cut from our budget because we've got some resilience in our garden, some in our garden are going to be able to survive these cuts but not everyone can.

So we've got to be able to stand up for them and that's why I'm here also to stand up for the rest of the schools in the district because they're suffering too.

That brings us to the second part and I have two ways to help them.

One, switch to a biennial budget so that one year we can work with you and one year we can work with the state.

That way we're not pointing fingers back and forth.

And two, In the short term you have a $60 million rainy day fund that you are sitting on.

We have $7 million in mitigation requests only .1% of which ORCA is asking for.

If this isn't a rainy day I don't know when is.

If not now, when?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lisa Love, Justin Anderson and Patricia Bailey.

Good evening my name is Lisa Love.

I am a mom of a fifth grader and seventh grader.

I also happen to work here as manager of health education.

This week my personal life and my work world have collided in a way that has made it tremendously difficult and challenging to compartmentalize.

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Orlando I find myself comforting my children who are painfully aware that their two moms are hated by some.

My kids have friends who identify as gay, bisexual or transgender and they have friends with LGBT parents.

They feel protective of their family and I obviously feel protective of them.

In these recent days I've also received dozens of calls and emails from staff and families who are concerned about their LGBT youth.

Frankly it's been overwhelming.

It's not lost on me that there are many groups of marginalized people who have long felt and continue to feel just as I do now, fearful, uneasy, heavy hearted and protective of their babies and communities.

Our students and families are relying on you for support, safety, security and acknowledgement of our existence.

Which brings me to my ask as a mom and as an employee.

Please name us, talk about LGBT students, staff and families in ways that support us and include us.

Encourage teachers to bring our experiences, our histories and our now to life in classrooms.

We are tired of being invisible.

Publicly support our transgender young people as if their lives depend on you because they do.

Support inclusive policies that provide access to services and curriculum to all our LGBT students across grade levels.

Be visible allies in conversations and in actions.

Tomorrow evening there is a public reading of the book I am Jazz about a transgender young person here in this room.

Join us for that.

Come march in the annual pride parade on the 26th and listen to the needs of students that you have heard here.

We cannot do this alone.

We need you and we need our allies now more than ever.

Thank you.

Good evening, sorry something a little more mundane but very important to my community.

Members of the board my name is Justin Anderson I'm a parent at Schmitz Park Elementary soon to be Genesee Hill Elementary and I'm here to ask for your help in making a great opportunity become reality for families with working parents at our school and for the school district.

Let me give you some quick background.

At Schmitz Park the afterschool care program is provided on staff by staff through the city's parks department and right now the demand is greater than the number of spaces available and the gap is becoming much bigger with the move to the new building next year.

There are roughly 125 kids on the waiting list for daycare next year.

So we reached out to the district and the city to come together to help address that need through using the soon to be vacant Schmitz Park building next year.

And I want to say we received an amazing response from Director Harris, thank you very very much.

As well as Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold.

Though we are close to a solution we are not there yet and the issue is apparently pricing.

not funding but pricing.

That is what the district will charge for use of the building so it's not illegally gifted for third-party use.

The challenge is that there's apparently no existing formula for that cost relative to what the district would spend toward maintenance.

So we've got all the pieces we need for an agreement that would benefit working families who need childcare and who pay the cost of using the building.

It's also something that benefits the district by avoiding the risks that come from an unused building.

In short we simply need to figure out the terms so that we can do so and in the meantime parents are growing more and more concerned about their childcare for next year.

I also want to point out that this is an issue that continues to grow across the district so a solution here would help in framing a model that could be used throughout the district to assist other families and neighborhoods in partnership with communities in the future.

We ask that the board support the proposal to use the current Schmitz Park location for after school care and for district staff to put together an agreement for use of the Schmitz Park site as soon as possible.

So that we may not only solve this immediate problem but also help communities in the future.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Patricia Bailey, Dan Reeve, Robert Fermiano.

Good evening I'm Patricia Bailey a Seattle teacher.

Last month I addressed the Seattle school board regarding the failure of district officials to process a legitimate complaint under the adult anti-bullying policy.

The policy states investigations will be completed in 60 days but it has now been over five months.

How long does it really take to investigate harassing emails sent by the principal?

Meanwhile, the principal has escalated to what I believe is retaliation which is forbidden by your harassment policy.

First he assigned me to a new and disjointed job in violation of the contract and now he has issued my first ever unsatisfactory evaluation in spite of the fact that only two years ago I had the highest rating of distinguished.

I believe I am being forced out even though my passion for teaching has not waned, my MAP scores remain higher than district average, the parents and students are happy and I work as a team with my colleagues.

Generally speaking retaliation can be found when any significant change in employment conditions result to the employee after participating in a predicted activity such as filing a complaint of harassment.

HR refuses to recognize my request to open a retaliation investigation.

In addition I have asked HR to process a grievance concerning my job placement for next year as to whether it violates the collective bargaining agreement on several fronts.

They are required to confirm or deny my allegations but again they refuse to respond in specifics.

I believe it is because the principal's actions do indeed violate the CBA and they don't want to admit it.

How many seasoned teachers have suffered similarly with bullying and retaliation forcing them out?

Once again I ask the board to see that the superintendent fulfill his duty in policy enforcement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Dan Reeve.

I am a proud assistant principal at Aki Kurosi Middle School.

I stand in solidarity with my colleagues appealing to Dr. Nyland and the school board to consider our focus on how we continue to partner and work to our gap closing strategies.

I'm here, I'm able to use my privilege and my opportunity to access the website to even get to the microphone right now and I realize that I have students and family members in my community that are unable to do that so we need to stand for them.

As we think about what that means for leaders in this district we know that we have an equity decision-making toolkit we have a strategic plan.

Those processes protect the dignity and the humanity of all of us in this system.

The end product we are now out of that.

So, we need to hold true to these systems and these processes that maintain the dignity and think about the impact of every decision we make at every single level in this school district.

We need to pay attention to how voices create a snowball that create an avalanche that land on the head of every single child.

We have children in our community who will be released from elementary school and will now have to wait for their older siblings to come get them.

And where are the voices of those parents of those community members in this process.

So as we sit here and we think we need to be committed and invigorated to our commitment to the equity toolkit, to our strategic plan, to our closing strategies that accelerate the learning and achievement for all of our students.

That we are committed to that, that we know that the flourishing of every single child is our goal and we must add to their experience in order to make sure that every learner has an equitable education in Seattle Public Schools.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Robert Famiano, Laura Kramer and Garrett Gissner.

My name is Robert Famiano and I am concerned about the culture of lawlessness in the district which begins when the superintendent allows management to not follow school board policy whenever it is damaging to the administration.

You heard testimony that a teacher's harassment complaint has not been taken seriously for over five months and that the same alleged perpetrating principal has now retaliated on the employee twice.

If this was a case of sexual harassment, would it be okay to refuse to process this and to suggest the victim attend mediation with the abuser?

No, and this case is no different.

This is a one-sided relationship where the principal repeatedly harassed, bullied and intimidated and then retaliated on the victim who had no power to fight back aside from the board policy.

She didn't provoke him into giving her an unsatisfactory evaluation or a job reassignment Do not let district officials blame the victim and tell you this is complicated or a personnel issue or say it's not really cut and dry.

The evidence is in the emails themselves so it cannot take five months to decide whether the principal crossed the line.

In years past harassment complaints resulted in a letter from HR to the alleged harasser informing them to avoid contact with the victim until the matter was investigated and reminding them of the prohibition against retaliation.

So why didn't that letter happen in this case?

Perhaps the superintendent does not fear consequences on his evaluations or maybe he considers bullying with impunity an important message in creating a culture of fear among employees.

Whatever the reason, ask yourself, will anyone whistleblow, report harassment, speak up on health or safety issues when they see board policies designed to protect them are routinely ignored and worse.

Retaliation is allowed.

The lawlessness will only stop when the superintendent makes it stop.

So just who will hold the superintendent accountable?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Laura Kramer, Garrett Gerstner and Kevin Wynkoop.

I need four minutes because I'm having the interpreter voice for me this time.

Good evening.

I had a completely different testimony until I received an email from a staff member.

Many of you are new so you don't know my history.

The reason I am here fighting for the deaf and hard of hearing program, first let me be clear, it's not just the deaf and hard of hearing program.

You don't have one.

It has deteriorated and gotten worse and worse.

in the last 25 years when Lila Peterson and Marcella Frankhauser retired.

A few years ago when my son he went into early childhood intervention and I spoke about transferring to the deaf and hard of hearing program.

It was awful.

I took a tour of the classroom.

It was atrocious.

I asked the teacher some questions and she said we have hearing peers in the classroom and we asked well why don't you have deaf peers?

Why just hearing peers?

Because these kids are deaf and hard of hearing.

And her response was that her job was to teach the deaf children how to be hearing like puppets.

We don't need that to happen with deaf kids.

This was a slap in my face, my husband's face and another deaf parent who was in the room.

That shows that she does not see us as equal and by the way this person is still working for the school district and still believes she has done nothing wrong.

This is so sad to think of how many children she has destroyed by saying you're not good enough to be deaf it's only good if you're hearing and they have failed to be hearing.

How do they think about themselves in that?

Let me paint you another picture.

Can you see someone telling a student of color, oh you need to act white, you need to talk white, don't pay attention to your skin color, don't pay attention to your history.

The only way to succeed in life is to be white.

Or a student of another disability, hide your disability.

You won't be successful if people know you have a disability in your life.

Is this acceptable?

No it is not.

The education program for the deaf and hard of hearing has gone down.

It's oppressing deaf people.

And you guys refuse to understand that.

You just don't get it.

We need to move on.

We need to do something about it for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Students of color and students with disabilities.

Getting back to the classroom.

When the kids are learning it's not good to be deaf.

That's not the teacher's job.

The teacher's job is to educate them.

The students are listening to this.

Where are they learning about language?

About the acquisition of language?

You have team members who really focus on speaking, using their mouths, being like puppets.

We have to teach them language, not how to be hearing people.

It is your job to educate.

Seattle Public Schools you need to look at yourselves, open yourselves up, teach not only black history, disability history and deaf history.

And look at the deaf and hard of hearing program and the services and do the right thing.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Garrett Kishner I am the proud principal at Schmitz Park Elementary School and soon to be Genesee Hill Elementary School.

So public schools is smart about the way we use resources.

In fact the last time I spoke from this actual podium in the A&S Center at the time was almost exactly 30 years ago as I was getting ready to graduate from Garfield.

I was wrapping up two terms as student representative to the school board at the time.

My senior year had started with the teacher strike.

during the strike I had to convene a meeting between the school board and the president, the president of the school board and the SCA president to discuss with students what they could do to compromise and get schools open again.

In the last 30 years I've taught for a dozen years, I've been an administrator for a dozen years and as my oldest daughter finishes her junior year I've been a Seattle public school parent for a dozen years.

Did I say 30?

I think I meant a dozen.

I've served as president of PASS, I've participated in board work sessions, I've negotiated contracts and I've managed the growth at my school as we landed 20 portables and more than doubled in size.

So why has it taken me until now to return to this podium to speak to you?

I come in the name of partnership.

I believe school board members and principals have a lot in common.

We serve many sometimes competing constituencies with diverse interests.

We must represent the district to our communities and represent our communities to the district.

We must feel the urgency to stretch every dollar, stretch every minute and push ourselves and everyone we work with to do the best we can for the children of Seattle.

For these reasons the equity tool is exactly the instrument that will help us move past the politics, cut through the constituency interests and prioritize the insufficient resources in ways that allow us to all have the greatest impact on the children of Seattle.

Thank you.

First of all a thank you to the West Seattle students for being here tonight.

You did an amazing job and I'm happy to announce that Ballard will be opening an all-gender bathroom in the fall when we return.

My name is Kevin Winecoop and I am the principal of Ballard High School but I have spent 30 of my 40 years as a student, teacher, administrator and parent in Seattle Public Schools.

This district is important to me and I have committed my life to doing whatever I can to make it a better place for our students.

In my immature younger days I might have seen rival students at other schools but now that I know that as an educator I know that we all have to win.

All of our students must prosper for us to be successful.

Our district has so many great things going on but the reality is that we have a persistent performance gap that has existed for decades.

For all the best words and intentions of our predecessors little has been successful in Seattle in addressing these issues.

I can only imagine how complex the demands of being on the school board must be.

Community members complaining about all kinds of issues that feel important.

Consistently being faced with decisions that don't have right answers.

But I'm here tonight to push you to see past all of this.

Dr. Nyland has referred to equity work as the issue of our time and it will take a laser focus from all of us to have the impact that we want to have.

Building leaders are united in our focus on this issue and we need your help.

We need you to see past the loud voices at your community meetings and we need you to stay focused on our most fragile students.

As President of the Principals Association I am here to urge you to consistently use the board approved equity tool when making decisions.

This tool forces us as leaders to think about how we are impacting our families that are least likely to attend community or parent association meetings and consider the real impact on those that lack privilege.

Only if we stop diverting funds to dual track programs, boutique schools, and transportation set-asides that predominantly benefit our middle and upper class white families will we be able to focus the funds that are needed to truly address the gaps that exist in our schools and our city.

30 years of gaps have proven that talking about equity and wanting to address it are not enough to make a difference.

Addressing profound persistent inequities requires our actions to change.

In our opinion, in my opinion, the first step is to join building leaders in consistently using the equity tool to keep us focused on this critical issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Shwanda Benito, Miranda Rosler, Lisa Marie McKenzie.

Will I be able to have four minutes because I'm using an interpreter?

Thank you.

Hello and thank you for the opportunity to be here.

My name is Chandra and I am from Roosevelt high school.

I graduated in 2010 and last week I graduated with my bachelor's degree in bachelor of science degree in social work.

master's degree sorry interpreter error master's degree in social work.

I am here because I am afraid for the deaf and hard of hearing students in Seattle Public Schools.

I was in Seattle Public Schools from the age of two to the age of 18. I was in the deaf and hard of hearing program And when I went into the Seattle Public Schools there were seven of us in my class.

There were seven.

I was the only one who graduated.

One.

And where are those other six students?

They dropped out of school.

Their parents took them to another school, another school district.

And that year, the year, And the year before I went in, way back when, the year before I started school there were a lot more deaf and hard of hearing students attending.

And over the years the number has shrunk.

When I was there I experienced bullying from my peers and when I was in the second grade I took a small school bus to get to school and there were only special students, there was another special student assistant who was on the bus.

There was an adult on the bus with us who bullied me.

That person was removed but still I was in second grade.

And why is it important to me?

Why am I here to talk about that?

It is because I think that the shrinking numbers of deaf and hard-of-hearing students demonstrates about the experience that I had being bullied, isolated.

If there had been more deaf and hard-of-hearing students with me that probably would never have happened.

And I don't feel like Well now I am proud to be deaf but at that time when I was in the Seattle Public Schools I was shamed.

I was ashamed.

I hated being deaf.

I didn't want to sign.

I stopped using my hearing aids when I went into high school.

I told my parents I don't want interpreters anymore.

So for four years of high school I had no interpreters.

Luckily I was okay I still got pretty good grades and then when I went into college I realized oh my God I've got to have interpreters.

Why did I do that?

It was because the culture in Seattle Public Schools community was so bad.

But I honestly believe that Seattle Public Schools can be a beautiful center for the deaf community.

But we need your commitment.

We need you to look at the program.

We need you to stand for deaf and hard of hearing students.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Miranda Ressler and Lisa Marie McKenzie.

Hello again.

As you may recall from my previous testimonies I am a school psychologist and have a depth of professional understanding related to special education.

Our oldest daughter Linden is three years old and is deaf.

Monday this week we had another meeting regarding appropriate school placement for her.

It was our eighth meeting related to evaluation and IEP.

Again we were told that the district does not believe that our deaf child is eligible for an ASL preschool program.

Even with requested additional testing data and reports supplied by an outreach ASL specialist we feel that the administrator's latest decision was predetermined and merely disseminated at the last meeting.

We felt the same way regarding all of our meetings.

So some issues.

Amplification, hearing aids does not make a student hearing.

Denial of a preschool where Lyndon is able to access 100% of the information and interactions is a blatant disregard for hearing loss and condemns her to a classroom where she will comprehend much less than her peers.

While hearing students are given opportunity to access language development through spoken word, Lyndon is being denied the learning environment and tools to develop a visual language.

One that in the future she may better identify with and choose to exclusively use.

Waiting to see if Linda needs ASL in the future is an irresponsible and negligent approach that misses the critical early learning language development window.

So actions for SPS.

Do not wait for DHH students to fall behind and struggle before the appropriate tools are provided.

Provide language from the start.

Teaching language is a long process but the window for success closes very quickly.

If you miss it the road becomes much harder.

DHH students who are developing typically or advanced should not be penalized by those skills and forced to try to hear.

Being a high achieving student does not change the fact that these students are not hearing students.

Assemble proper evaluation teams.

From our experience decisions are not being made as a team it is an administrative decision handed down.

The DHH program needs strong leaders and change.

The school district is currently neglecting these kids and they need something different.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last speaker Lisa Marie McKenzie.

Okay we will go on to the next one.

Karen and Jeff McHague.

Nidhi Agrabo.

Janice Van Cleve.

Arthur Bacon.

Nimco Pilela.

Dan Ressler.

Betty Lopez.

Ian Aronoff.

Hello my name is Ian.

I do not have kids in the school district but I pay taxes.

I employ your staff, pay their income.

I came to the United States 22 years ago and I have seen deaf education in Seattle and it stinks.

It really does.

I remember hearing stories about deaf kids from my time.

What a wonderful program it was and then it has just gone downhill into the ground.

I don't want that to happen.

I really look to the kids now, they need an education.

They need the same kind of education that I got in my time.

and we pay taxes.

We want things to be equal with your lives.

They deserve better than we have given them.

One example, parents told me about the kids program for the deaf and hard of hearing is in the basement of a school.

The deaf program is in the basement.

Come on, it's 2016. We see people.

We see by, we learn by seeing.

Our ears don't work but we see things.

And being in the basement where it's dark and dingy, what's the point?

What are we going to learn?

Please change that.

I am begging you change that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is the end of our testimony and now we are going back to our board comments.

Director Blanford.

Thank you.

I'll start off by thanking Pearl for coming and presenting today.

It's always great to hear from our current students about their experience in our schools and so I appreciate you taking the time to be here today.

I'd also like to thank the scholar athletes that won awards.

I ran 400 meters myself back in the day a long time ago and did not go to state so I particularly appreciate the comments that were made and Dr. Herndon's comment about that being the hardest race to run.

I know anybody that has run it knows how difficult it is.

I also want to thank the fourth and fifth graders at Madrona K8 who yesterday invited me to come and present or to be there and serve as a judge for their science fair.

I learned a lot about not only about what they are learning about but also how the teachers work with them to improve their science knowledge.

It was a wonderful experience.

I don't see my dear friend the aptly named Lisa Love but I wanted to appreciate her and all of the students who came and testified about both the gender-neutral bathrooms and our response to the tragedy in Orlando.

To Laura Gramer and all of the deaf and hard of hearing community folks, thank you for continuing to share your thoughts and your concerns about our program.

Hopefully we are all getting to know more about that program and being inspired to take action on it.

A quick shout out to to all of the folks at Olympic Hills and in particular the principal of that school.

I've had the opportunity to go with her on learning walks and particularly on equity walks and the principal who is Helen Jung and I had the opportunity to present at a equity conference recently and I am very inspired to learn that she, that that school is the most positive, positive outlier.

I looked up the information it just says it's distinguished but I like positive, positive outlier a little bit better.

And that brings me to what I consider to be one of the most important things that we will talk about today and that is the presentation made by the principals about the issue of equity.

I congratulate you on taking that stand so publicly.

And I agree strongly with your analysis that we need to begin to prioritize all of the list of things that we are constantly pulled in one direction or another to do and say that equity is critically important.

For those that don't know, last month we received feedback or we received information that Seattle Public Schools in spite of all the great things that we do in our 97 or 98 schools we have the fifth largest achievement gaps in the nation.

And that is in many ways an unconscionable thing that in a generous community that doesn't have a history of racism in the way that many other large cities do that we would have the fifth largest achievement gap.

in the nation.

And whereas that gap is specific to African-American students versus their white counterparts I know from having read the report that it means that we have gaps that are unacceptably large across the system.

And because of the research that I do and the background that I have I know that principals play a critical role in addressing our achievement and opportunity gaps.

It is critically important as well that the principal core and the teaching core and the community at large hold us accountable for making progress on our achievement and opportunity gaps.

And I would say somewhat shamefully that I don't think that we always do pay attention to those gaps.

In the last couple of months I believe we've made a policy that I've argued exacerbates those gaps, makes them actually larger.

And so I think that using an equity decision-making tool will go a long way to imposing some sort of a standard measure that cuts through the politics and the screaming parents and says we need to stay focused on this goal if we actually want to make progress on it.

And so again I want to appreciate the principals for analyzing the situation and coming to a conclusion that makes sound sense.

But I would say to you respectfully that no equity decision-making tool alone will be sufficient to keep us on task.

I think there has to be pressure from all stakeholders, those who work in this building, those who work in our schools, the parents and the community at large in order to keep us on point around this issue.

And so whether it be deaf and hard of hearing our LGBTQ community, our racial and equity gaps.

There has to be continued pressure on all seven of us plus the superintendent plus all of those folks along the line there along the table there in order to insist that we make progress and this time next year are not the fifth worst district in the nation in terms of our gap closure.

I will close my comments by saying that I have a community meeting that is scheduled for this Saturday.

at the Douglas Truth library at 23rd and Yesler.

It starts at 10 o'clock and goes until 1130. We have robust conversations about equity and about school operations and so I encourage you to come by if you have a chance.

Thank you.

I think Director Blanford's comments were very well spoken and I agree with them very much that in this budget process we do need to continue to focus on a lot of the good work that has been put into place moving forward that is purposely been focused on closing the achievement gap and it is very hard I will say that sitting through these meetings for the first time.

It is very hard to hear all the voices out there and understand the value of everything that is being asked of us and to have the commitment to stay focused on a path that has been laid out that we hope will ultimately close that gap.

I just had to jump in there I get a little ahead of myself.

Thank you Ms. Nguyen for coming it is lovely to see somebody who sees a future for herself through the programs offered by the Seattle Public Schools so wonderful for you.

Thank you to the Seattle substitutes and all their good work.

What I have learned is that when we create schools with welcoming cultures it is easy to get substitutes to come and work in them.

And so we need to continue to do that so that our substitutes enjoy going into our schools and feel a welcome members of those communities because then I know from my own children that they appreciate it when the substitutes know them and feel welcome and so that is something that is just rewarding all the way through.

And thank you to the hard work of all of our high achieving students.

which gets me to the fact that it is graduation week and so not only congratulations to those who have won awards but congratulations to all of our seniors who are facing graduation.

What an accomplishment for them and I'm so looking forward to my first graduation ceremony at Roosevelt high school and being able to sit up there and congratulate each graduate personally.

That is an exciting thing for me to do it just really feels like a culmination of this role in some of the most positive aspects.

I've been out in the community I got to go two times to Thornton Creek and sit and listen to their fifth graders give their reports sort of summing up their time at Thornton Creek and what a wonderful thing.

They have to speak for 9 to 14 minutes and take questions from a panel.

and talk about the things that they've learned, the high points, their strengths, their weaknesses, what they're looking forward to in middle school and their expeditions which are a deep dive learning experience that they have done each grade at Thornton Creek and this year it was learning about the cell and then each one of them went into a team and learned a little bit more, a deep dive into a body function.

And at the end they had to take their boards and they were all very excited about the fact that they had something so official as a board like a doctor and that they could talk about the digestive system or the pulmonary system.

So what a fantastic thing and one of the comments that those fifth graders made about that school particularly was that it was a place where they didn't feel bullied.

That they felt welcomed and that everybody felt welcomed.

And that is something I know from my district that that is the reputation of that school.

So congratulations to them for being so welcoming.

And I know from the principal he is always asking more for more diversity within his school and he is, Principal Minor just has open arms.

And that gets me to then of course the horrible horrible event.

You know, we have fear amongst our LGBTQ population.

We have fear amongst our Muslims.

But we clearly also have a fear and separation amongst a broad band of young men that are growing up so disenfranchised from their communities.

that they are going out and committing these horrific acts.

And it's not just against Muslims, it's not for or against anybody particularly, because I think it stems from the heart of those souls that have been left.

to completely isolate themselves.

And so getting back to Director Blanford's comments, the work that we've done in terms of equity, in terms of positive behavioral interventions, in terms of social emotional learning, these are the tools that we have identified that are supposed to make each student feel valued for who they are, for when they walk through the door.

And it's to create a safe learning environment for everybody in our schools.

Even the students who don't see themselves as carrying a label that gets special grouping or attention or shout outs because obviously we have a disenfranchised group of people that they don't think they carry a label and maybe we identify them as being privileged but they are falling outside.

And so all of these tools though designed to address groups that we identify that we need to bring up through the achievement gap if we do them right they will address every child's heart and then we can have a place in our schools where every child feels welcome and feels valued and respects the student next to them as well.

And that is my goal for our schools and that is where I will put my priorities.

And if using these tools that we've developed is the path to do it, then you have my commitment to continue to say that.

And we've had discussion about putting that on our board action requests.

That we just have a line.

Did you run this through the equity tool?

And I hear from our principals that that is something that you would like us to do so that we are making sure that that box is checked with every decision that comes before us.

So I think that's something that we have interest in doing and will continue to do.

I want to thank our Senator Frock and Representatives Farrell and Pellett coming to talk to us about the funding that comes out of Olympia.

They definitely sent us a message saying make sure that everybody tells their legislative representatives that education funding should be a priority this time because although we have a great delegation in terms of supporting education everybody has their key issues and we need to make sure that we're all on the same page that the key issue this time is funding.

I want to thank Ashley Davies for coming to that meeting and providing such clear explanation about our enrollment process and Linda Srebring who put together this lovely budget book that makes it so easy for us to talk about our budget and you can understand each of your school and where the money is coming from and how in spite of Olympia's belief that they are giving us money to reduce our class sizes that when you take into account all the special things that our schools need and all of these programs to close the equity and achievement gap that it still isn't enough and that we need their continued support to fund the programs to make sure that we are providing equity for every student.

I want, we did go through the board retreat and I want to give a shout out especially to directors Harris and Kerry Campbell for putting on I think a really great segment about community engagement and looking forward to a tool that we are going to use to assess all of our issues much like the equity tool in terms of how we are going to get the community engaged.

It was so far my best retreat it was led internally by our own staff.

And I think it was a really meaningful conversation and I felt it was very productive in bringing us all together as a team so thank you everybody for your participation in the retreat as a whole but Director Harris and Carrie Campbell you just really did a great job on that.

And I'll just I have more but I'm going to just for time I'm going to wrap up and say that I will have a meeting it's a midweek meeting this time June 22 at the Northeast branch library from 4 to 6 p.m.

just going to try to make myself available during a different time slot to reach a different group of people.

Thank you everybody for coming and your comments are heard and we will keep that we will be mindful of them in the decisions we make I know.

Director Peters.

Director Geary you stole at least one of my lines.

And that was a shout out to Director Harris and also our chief engagement officer Carrie Campbell for the board retreat that they recently oversaw for us.

I thought it was a very rich and engaging discussion, very productive.

You know we discussed community engagement and how we want to move forward and how we want to do a better job of that as a district and as a board.

And then we also discuss what our budget and goals are which is an ongoing issue.

I also want to thank Pearl Wynn for joining us and wish you the best with your nursing career and your ongoing education.

Congratulations to all our athletes who are here at the beginning and all of the students who are going to be graduating in the next few weeks.

Regarding the Loyal Heights issue I have also heard from parents and we have received some emails regarding a different perspective on that from community members who say they support the project in its current plan.

I am pleased though to hear that we might be able to pull back on some of the playground space coverage that has been planned.

and afford our students there more playground space and so I'll be interested to hear the details of that.

I believe we are trying to listen to the community, I believe staff is trying to be responsive and at the same time acknowledge that we are a growing town, a growing city and we have to plan for the future.

And I also want to let parents know that the mandate from the state to have smaller class size means that we literally do have to have fewer kids in these classrooms and so we do need more classrooms.

So we are currently discussing what to do with some one-time use funds and that's I think it's $11 million and it's still an ongoing discussion.

I believe that we should do whatever we can to put money back in our schools, money that will directly affect our students and help our students.

So I'm interested in mitigation funds, I'm also interested in the middle school math, providing new materials there because we are way overdue on providing current materials that will help all of our students, all of our students reach the math confidence and skills they need to move forward through high school and onto any career they pursue.

And currently our materials are out of date and inadequate.

At my recent community meeting the topics that were brought to me were Loyal Heights and also the 24 credit issue is on a lot of people's minds and there is a lot of concern about that, about how we are going to roll out and implement which is another state mandate.

So I am looking forward to ongoing discussion about that.

I also have concerns about how we are going to do it.

We are just sort of beginning this discussion although the task force has met on that and so I think I'll be interested to know how we are going to do that.

I am concerned Because I have not seen the research that shows that this is going to improve the situation for our students and I know it is going to cost us in terms of resources and it is not clear how we are going to cover those costs.

I'm also very concerned about putting our high school students in a situation that is high stakes where they need to pass every single class in order to graduate or need to pass a lot more and there's not much wiggle room for them.

I think that puts them in a more stressful situation and I honestly believe that right now our students are incredibly stressed already.

I had the good fortune to join Director Geary at Thornton Creek recently and I was on the panel of I guess officials or adults who had the benefit of hearing the fifth graders do their end of the year presentation and it was charming it was impressive and it was good fun.

It was also fun to take a look at the project that's happening over there, the construction project for Thornton Creek.

But the kids were fantastic so thank you Thornton Creek for thinking of me for that.

I've also had the benefit of attending some performances, some musical and choir performances at Hamilton Middle School.

and theater and music at Garfield High School and it really is wonderful to see all the kids coming together.

In the case of theater we get to see the actors work with the musicians and there were even students from students of cosmetology I guess who were doing the makeup for the actors and then students creating costumes, students doing choreography.

So it brings together, these performances bring together lots of different students and lots of different skills.

So to the students who came out tonight to testify about all gender bathrooms, thank you for bringing to our attention that we haven't really addressed this districtwide.

It was great to have the West Seattle high school students who have been trailblazers on this give us a report on the success.

And Nathan Hale as well, thank you.

And also to There are some signs out there saying that we also need to extend this to our middle schools so I'd like to look into that possibility as well.

And of course that does dovetail into the very passionate testimony we had today from Lisa Love who is both a staffer and a parent.

and who highlighted the importance it is for us to support and embrace all of our students.

Students of every single diversity and to be there for our students in times of crisis.

You know as we saw in the horrible tragedy of Orlando.

I send, my heart goes out to Orlando right now, there's been multiple serious issues in Orlando this past week and so I'm glad we as a district are talking about all of our different students.

In this particular case we are talking about our lesbian, gay, transgender students and we are also talking about our students of various different religious backgrounds and how it's important to protect them all, love them all and support them.

Let's see what else.

I also want to send my condolences to the family of Phil Conkle.

Phil was somebody I met in the last, I got to serve with him for two years on the Seattle scholarship fund trustee committee.

And he passed away about a week ago unexpectedly.

He was a wonderful character and a passionate member of the Seattle school district community.

He served as a teacher at Franklin high school.

He was also a big supporter and served on the Seattle schools retirees association and he was also the church organist.

And he was a great guy and so it was with great surprise and regret to hear of his passing.

There will be a memorial service for him in July.

Let me see if there's anything else on my list.

So there's two messages, oh yeah there's something else.

I also wanted to thank Laura Gramer for her incredibly powerful speech today as well as Chandra Benito's speech.

Thank you.

You know it's really troubling to hear that we had a program that isn't what it once was.

And I know fundamentally we are talking about funding.

And which brings me to another topic that has come up tonight and that is how do we prioritize our funding?

And we've had different passionate people bringing to our attention tonight, different groups who all need our attention.

And I have, I'm troubled by the message that we got tonight from a few people that we should not listen to certain people who come to us.

Who come to the board because they are maybe louder than others.

I don't think we as a board can embrace that message.

We have to listen to everybody who comes to us.

Whether they are loud or quiet.

Yes we have to reach out to those we are not hearing from a lot but I have to say in my three years on the board there have been quite a few different communities who have come to us on many different issues.

People from various walks of life and backgrounds who have been passionate and have come to us.

I will not ignore any of them.

It worries me when we get in a situation where we seem to be playing a zero-sum game where we are pitting groups against each other.

Naive as it may seem I want to embrace all of our children, all of our 53,000 students and meet the needs of all of them.

I recognize it requires priorities but I will not dismiss the concerns of any of our groups.

I just won't.

So I understand that we are in a difficult situation where we have limited funds and we have to prioritize.

It is my hope and my goal that we address issues of equity and fairness and with an eye to all of the students in need and that we don't forget any of our students.

Thank you.

I would like to actually say thank you to Ms. Nguyen for being here with us and sharing your aspirations and moving forward with what you are doing.

Thank you so much for your presence.

Congratulations to the all the graduates who are graduating this year and this week is going to be a very busy week.

Looking forward to all the graduates that are graduating at the Memorial Stadium.

And I also want to congratulate all the state athletes who are here today who won champions We know it's a lot of work to be able to win those championships so congratulations and thank you for the hard work.

I also want to say thank you to our Seattle substitute association for all the great work that they do.

We know that without substitutes we will not have anyone to actually to replace many of our teachers who cannot make it on a daily basis and I appreciate the schools that actually treat our substitutes with respect and welcoming them because we definitely need our substitutes.

There are times that we were short of substitutes so we have to take good care of our substitutes so they can continue on coming and helping us to be able to support the work that we do in the schools.

I also want to say thank you to all of the LGBTQ students who came and talked about transgender bathrooms.

I believe that it is something that needs to be done and hopefully that we can be able to provide transgender bathrooms in every one of our schools because I believe that these kids or students deserves equity just like every student that we serve in the Seattle Public Schools.

And if that is a need that is definitely something that we need to look on and hopefully that we can provide those opportunities.

I also want to say thank you to Laura Kramer also for her heart and passion in fighting for the deaf and hearing students.

I believe that she's been here almost on a regular basis telling us what needs to happen.

And as a district we definitely need to look at the needs of these students.

They are as much our students as the rest of our students that we have in Seattle Public Schools.

And I'm a little disappointed that we have not come to a conclusion to actually look into this program and provide equity for all these kids.

I am hoping that we can actually be able to have Laura come the next time and tell us how wonderful the program is for all the hearing and deaf students in our next board meeting that we have.

We need to look at this and hopefully that we can be able to do something.

to help bring equity for all these kids and I can't believe that we have them in the basement.

We're going to have to find another place for these kids.

Those kids are about as important as the rest of the kids that we serve and I'm hoping that we can find a place where they can actually be able to see sunlight.

and not being underneath a basement so hoping that we can actually look at that and make a change in those areas.

Principals I appreciate all of you coming tonight and telling us about equity tools.

We definitely need to look at that and hopefully to support what you're asking us to do because that is something that is our goal.

We definitely need to close our achievement gap.

The only way we can do that is for us to work together as a team.

We can't do it by ourselves as board directors and the staff can't do it by ourselves.

We all need to work together to make that happen.

So thank you so much for reminding us what our job is.

We're working on it right now but it's kind of slow but it's our goal to be able to close the achievement gap for Seattle Public Schools.

I also would like to thank all my directors up here for coming to many meetings that we've had on a day-to-day basis.

I know that it's probably I don't know maybe this year has been more meetings than I've been in the board for six years and I think we have more meetings this year than we've ever had in the six years I've been on the board.

But I thank you for the time and effort that you put in to come in and just figure out what do we need to do to make Seattle Public Schools the best schools in the state of Washington.

I want to thank Teresa and Erin for also all the time that they put in to help us make sure that we move forward and getting us in the right track and also thank Anya for calling me 24 hours a day and asking me if we are changing on a regular basis.

But thank you for all the hard work and I want to thank you to our superintendent for putting up with us.

I know we are a hard button to work for but you know we want the best for our district and best for our kids.

53,000 kids that's a lot of students to be able to serve.

But we thank you so much for the support that we all are working together to make this happen.

So right now we are going to take a 10 minute break and be right back.

Thank you so much.

you