Seattle School Board Meeting Oct. 17, 2018 part 1

Welcome to the October 17 2018 Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors legislative meeting.

As we begin the board would like to acknowledge and honor the first peoples of the Puget Sound territories by acknowledging that we are on the land of the Coast Salish tribes.

I would like to welcome Avridham Ali is that correct.

Representing.

Chief Sealth International High School District 6 who is joining the board on the dais this evening.

Mr. Ali will have an opportunity to address the board later in the evening.

Ms. Ramirez roll call please.

Director Burke present.

Director DeWolf present.

Director Geary present.

Director Mack here.

Director Patu here.

Director Pinkham present.

Director Harris.

Present.

Now if everyone would please stand if you choose to for the Pledge of Allegiance.

This evening Nova high school students will be joining us to perform a poetry reading.

I'd like to invite invite the directors to take a seat in the audience for this performance.

Hi everyone.

I'm very loud now.

So I have a lot of time to talk so get used to hearing my voice.

My name is Azura Tayabji.

I graduated from Nova High School this past June.

I'd gone to Nova since I was a freshman.

It's a place that's still very dear to my heart and I'm here frankly because I'm like mad as hell about two teachers being taken away from a school that probably desperately needs them.

So I'm here to read a poem that I wrote for my graduation and I performed it at our graduation ceremony because I really think that Nova is an exceptional place and I don't say that about a lot of places.

I really think it's at the forefront of radical education not just in the city but like everywhere.

Like my teachers there have really impacted me and inspired me to be a leader.

I wouldn't be doing poetry if it wasn't for these two right here.

Chelsea and Melissa.

I love them.

Also very dear to my heart.

And yeah you guys seem like a fun crowd.

It's great.

This next poem is so great.

We're really here on a Wednesday.

Wow.

OK.

All right.

The etymology of the word graduation comes from the 15th century alchemy definition, the tempering or refining of something to a certain higher degree.

Nova, noun.

Definition, a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness.

Nova Project, brilliant transformation of matter, the sanctuary that heightens silence into song, boredom into me, somehow enjoying math for an hour long increments, fear of public speaking into me four years ago, performing spoken word for the first time at the Naked Truth Showcase back in the old Meany building.

When I say that Nova is special I do mean it.

I've seen students commute hours on the bus every day to come here when they've been assigned another school.

I've seen students and been a student that when burnt out our teachers have rekindled our ash into miracle.

I've seen students and teachers become so close hierarchy seems to melt away with the laughter.

There's not a singular moment I could pinpoint when this house transformed into home.

Maybe it was the black studies class presentation on ancient African civilizations, standard curriculums would have never bothered to learn.

Maybe it was my math teacher going out of their way to patiently explain a concept to me after class.

How I realized the most loved teachers do not sacrifice humility for knowledge.

Maybe it was the POC committee breaking our first collective potluck over the first zine we published.

Maybe it was the Naked Truth class becoming a constellation of stars on stage.

How community became a sixth sense and a second language.

Who would have ever thought we could convert coal into diamonds, scattered atoms into supernovas, lead and budget deficits in the into the type of gold only seen within these walls.

I mean, look how bright this room is.

Look at all these stars within our reach.

The world is throwing challenge after challenge, but we are still here.

The world is presenting scapegoat after scapegoat on silver platters, but let's be accountable.

Let's name the black and brown skeletons left in the closets white queer folks parade out of.

Meaning students of color have still been left behind sometimes crushed like few ants in a sugar bowl.

I do not sing silver tongued unaccountable praise because if Nova taught me anything it's that the ocean will not part for those unwilling to wet their feet.

That's why it's called the Nova project after all because the school is always tempering itself into more resilient metal.

We are not satisfied with the pipe dream of perfect for all we have is this concrete now the celebration of coal turned into diamond diamond one day and a substance stronger that can ever be standardized.

I may be leaving Nova now, but the lifespan of a star is 10 billion years.

How exhilarating to be constantly becoming over and over again.

So let us remember and let us celebrate.

Congratulations, Nova.

Thank you for how you made me.

You shine brighter every year.

Thank you.

So I'll say a few words about that poem.

That poem was really one that I wanted to encompass like my whole experience at Nova not just like my personal experience in classes but how Nova is always changing as an institution and always is committed to growing and really committed to accountability.

It has something like that an institution of education does that I haven't seen anywhere else in that.

When students say that there is an issue at the school teachers and staff listen.

So Nova has been.

really like listening to students of color and beginning to like implement ways to like implement racial justice.

And it just has this remarkable humility as an institution that I think the rest of the school district can definitely learn from in terms of learning about equity.

Nova has been like the place for LGBT students.

four years for good reason especially.

And I'm just I'm so thankful that I was brought up there for four years.

It gave me a foundation for who who I am and I really I really need the rest of the school district to be able to recognize the power that it has and how much it can learn from a school that it continually tries to marginalize.

So.

That was my little speech.

Why don't I take this out.

This thing is annoying.

Yeah.

So I want to welcome up someone who is just incredible.

Oh my gosh.

Leo is a current senior at Nova High School making up a little bio right now.

She we were on a team together to do spoken word last year.

She's amazing.

A musician rapper everything.

I'm trying to fix this.

OK.

Let me make sure this won't fall before.

OK so hello.

My name is Leo.

I transferred to Nova High School.

Last February or this past February and I've been here for only a few months but I feel like that.

I feel I realize when I talk about school I'm just like you know public school wasn't working out for me and people are like well isn't Nova a public school and I'm like well I don't consider it like a traditional public school.

And I think that you know while while Azura came up and like did this really like beautiful poem about her experience with Nova like me personally as an artist I've never saw.

Like I feel like what I'm trying to say is that it's good that we both are showing two different sides of what we're learning from the spaces that we've come from.

And I think that you know with the poem that I'm going to share I'm addressing really like serious truth and like blunt ideas and mature themes because in any time when you're really trying to get a point across you're not making it pretty.

And I don't think that.

Making it pretty really gets a point across if you're really trying to make someone understand a point.

And this poem isn't specifically about school.

I think it's just about privilege in general and about how a lot of times in the world privilege from people goes unseen and how it's important that we acknowledge that and how it influences our decisions and other people's lives and how it affects other people's lives.

So this poem is called Transformation.

When you find that your truth is too blunt for blunted tongues, you will begin to speak the language that you think best suits the deniably silent.

You will find enough metaphors to wrap centuries around their bodies so they can remember all of the blood that's been shed to get here.

From the boats that made the sea so salt-washed with rotten bodies, with paddles that wore away, and the toxicity of bleached water, the water they tell us to wade in.

As if we doggy paddle long enough, we won't realize our skin being burnt.

We won't realize our lives, ourselves finding joy in drowning when we realize that letting someone kill us is a choice.

They will try to find the plan B that involves us wanting to die, but I say, transform we will.

no longer into martyrs but into space like the gravity past buildings and ceilings that cannot hold us we will sing praise like we never needed a guide or the cotton field or to swim in the first place because we don't need to tread light we will watch them chew glass and toast to their bitter wine hoping The tongues they laced in sugar will make the pain a little less harder to swallow.

They will swallow our traumas and spit up make-believe of their own.

Tell us that we have no idea what it feels like to know that they are raising monsters.

A 21st century slave master.

A two-decade-old misogynistic whiteness.

Sorry called two decade old misogynistic whiteness a young man called one decade old racist whiteness just a boy unknown.

But we will transform above it all.

We will reclaim the names we took with us from our plantations and never question if we deserve having something of our own.

For once, let them toss hands of bourbon and whip scarred backs to the stars.

Let the heavens keep skin meant to brandish us with the silence they have when a sister like me is raped, when a brother my color is maimed, when the black face is no longer worthy of a good name, we will transform the dictionaries and the textbooks.

We will learn that there is strength built in our tired spines.

Learn not to be ashamed of bruised knuckles and closed fists and hard heels.

This is us transforming beaten to healed from broken to steel.

This is evolution if it had skin.

This is the truth unveiled.

This is knowing that in my black body I will always have energy, forcing my organs to scream unworthy, to scribble danger along the walls of my insides but to be afraid of a body I grew this black is like giving into the darkness to letting the distance that stretches me thin enough to be pencil be enough to wear me out but we don't wear out we transform Their mouths into black power speech.

Their mouths into feminist megaphone.

Their mouths into a stage.

Their mouths into the siren of the revolution that has been repeatedly snoozed for centuries.

Their mouths will foam with the poison they fed us for light years and that will be the end of the silence.

We have had enough of dying and so we choose today to live in that.

is the kind of truth that can sew a mouth shut.

So when you find that someone is having a hard time swallowing your truth, let them choke.

Very quickly.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say that my experience with high school has not been amazing.

I don't think any teenagers high school with any teenagers high school experience is amazing.

But I've I've had a lot of problems like with schools and like showing up and like being able to be present in spaces and feel like I'm welcomed.

And I felt like that.

When I finally walked into Nova I was being welcomed in a space where I could speak my truth as bluntly as I choose.

And I feel like having the honor to be in front of y'all today is important as well just because I know when I walk out that door regardless of whose feelings are hurt I know that I was standing for something that was right for me.

And I really hope that like everyone's understanding that.

So I want to thank you once again.

When you leave this building you have left an impression that has touched our hearts.

Thank you for doing that.

Thank you for digging deep and speaking your truth.

Can you all talk a little bit about where you're going next.

Please.

You want to go first.

I'll go first.

Well.

As I said before I graduated in June I decided to take a gap year because I want to focus on my poetry.

I was recently announced as the Seattle Youth Poet Laureate for 2018 and 19. It was like such a weird pretentious title when I say it out loud.

But um.

Yeah so I'm working on a collection of poetry that's going to be released in May.

And I'm continuing with teaching.

Like my teachers at Nova have really inspired me to be an educator and to really push myself as a facilitator and someone who wants to encourage other people to learn.

So I'm going to continue that for the next year.

We'll see what happens.

I'm currently in my senior year at Nova High School.

So like at the end of the semester, I'll kind of be done with school.

So I'll be spending my time teaching a class over at Nova for the rest of the year about poetry that Azura taught last year.

It's called Naked Truth.

It's going to be really dope.

And in the meantime, I'm just going to be like applying for schools for college.

I'm going to be I'm trying to go to some schools in New York or possibly a school here.

But I think also Just like figuring out like also my poetry too.

I also forgot I'm sorry to mention that another one of our students nearby couldn't be here today.

And I'm so sad that she isn't because she's an amazing musician.

You guys would love to hear her.

But I'm also just going to be like interning at Totem Star over at Youngstown.

So just kind of like bringing like more arts education and stuff to youth which is really dope.

Did you want to say anything else?

I have a thought that's in my brain.

Yeah, so I'm also working at Youngstown at ArtsCore, which is an organization for arts education.

And I think NOVA really is an incubator.

for people in the arts.

We both came up in poetry through Youth Speaks Seattle.

So people know about Youth Speaks.

Yeah it's this it's this great organization for youth spoken word.

And.

I think the last team that we were on four out of the five people were Nova students and that's been consistent for the past like six years at least is that Nova students they're contributing to the spoken word culture in Seattle they're contributing to the music scene in Seattle to visual art.

They're really.

creating like the cultural landscape of the city.

So like that's what we need to invest in the school is because it's like an incubator for all that creativity that I think is so unique and that I'm really thankful for it.

So.

Sorry I also just feel really bad just because we recently lost one of our teachers Gabriella who was an ethnic studies teacher.

And I feel like for so long we've been kind of fighting for like this idea of like having ethnic studies taught in our schools.

And when we finally get a teacher for that she gets swept back.

And I think that I just wanted to like kind of like put her in the space so that we're all thinking about her too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I would like to invite both of you to accompany those of us who are fighting for more money so we don't have teacher rebalancing in Olympia.

Come the legislative session in January.

Thank you.

And thank you very much to the Nova project teachers and staff here.

Way to go.

Superintendent Juneau it's your turn.

Because we're flexible.

OK.

We're at board committee reports who would like to go first.

Director Mack operations.

Good evening.

Operations Committee and operations and capital planning work have continued to be really busy recently last week.

So it's a couple of weeks ago that we had our operations committee meeting and last week we had another work session on BEX V and that's going to be intro tonight.

So learn more about the proposed package that we've been working through.

And just for clarification that's not completely decided and done until it is adopted in another couple of weeks or later if something changes.

But at the operations committee meeting a couple of weeks ago we talked about a lot of important things including the facilities master plan which is also on tonight's agenda.

And potential upcoming boundary changes for the 2019 20 school year.

To clarify none of those boundary changes have been decided on yet.

There's still a fair amount of process to go through.

And there are some areas that have proposals on the table other ones that do not yet have those proposals.

But we if we.

are going to make changes to boundaries for the 2019 20 school year.

Those decisions will be voted in probably the latest by end of December early January.

So that's kind of the timeline of process.

We talked about the five main areas that are kind of under proposal at this point.

And Green Lake is one area that we were thinking May benefit from a bounty change but at this point staff is not recommending that because the enrollment has dropped a little bit and we think we can continue to eke out the space there.

Maybe still crowded but manageable.

Magnolia's boundaries because Magnolia elementary school is opening up in 2019 20. Their boundaries are going to be changing so that the boundaries for Lawton Elementary and Catherine Blaine K8 will be shifting.

Currently the proposals that are on the table for that are to not have the boundary go beyond 15th so it no longer goes into Queen Anne.

And the there are community meetings scheduled next week and the week after Lawton on October 25th at 630 at Lawton Elementary.

And then at Blaine K8 on the 1st of November.

Both of those are at 630. That's where you can learn about what the proposed boundary changes are and offer input.

Maple is another one that is under consideration.

The boundary change for Maple was proposed for a year out not this coming year for 2020. And the conversation has come up that because Maple is so overcrowded maybe it's beneficial to make a change a year earlier.

And the conversation that happened at the committee meeting was that we may need still some more analysis and planning and community engagement around those boundaries because we have Wing Luke opening up which opens up more space and there's a whole kind of southeast.

region that we might need to be a little more comprehensive in how we're looking at that.

So I'm not sure where we're going to land on whether or not trying to push forward a boundary change for 2019 actually makes sense at this point or if it will potentially not happen this year but more community engagement more analysis and study and conversation over the impact of wing loop opening in 2020. And to that end I appreciate all the feedback that's been coming in on those topics and the questions that folks are asking and the about it to have further conversation.

Staff is working on proposals for these all these different areas and we'll have a growth boundaries work session on looking at Michelle and Ellie.

Did we if we got that scheduled end of November so it's not scheduled yet but we're working on it.

So there will be a growth boundaries work session of the board towards the end of November and the Robert Eagle staff.

middle school overcrowding situation.

We've also I believe staff is working on the analysis around the potential proposals and there isn't anything specific yet on the table that we're discussing around.

And unfortunately we don't have meetings set up with the community yet.

I believe that staff is going to be starting by working with some of the principals.

In the meantime so TBD on the Robert Eagle staff boundary process as well as Mercer.

I think the Mercer conversations impacted greatly by whether or not it is identified in the BEX V levy projects.

So that probably helps influence the timing of potential boundary changes.

So we don't have any direct proposals on that one at this moment in time.

Stay tuned to that.

We also have in the committee ongoing work around our space available definition and our capacity management policies.

We're going to continue working on those closely with staff and the next operations committee meeting is November 1st at 430. I also want to mention that tomorrow there is a public comment public hearing here on the BEX V levies both the I'm sorry on both of our levies the BEX V capital levy as well as our educational programs and operations levy.

That'll be here tomorrow between 7 and 8 p.m.

That's a public hearing specifically focused on those levies which will be introduced tonight and look forward to seeing you at our work set at our committee meetings.

You're welcome.

Last time we got recorded by the radio.

That was great.

Public meeting.

Come on down.

and continue to send in questions etc.

Thank you.

OK we're going to switch back to superintendent comments because PowerPoint is working.

I won't take much time.

Thank you Madam President.

Good to see all of you.

It's been.

Is it up.

OK.

You have a corny joke for us.

So I wish I did.

I have so many in my head get it mixed up.

He tried earlier.

So it's been a while since I gave some comments at the board.

But you know as you all know I've been out listening and learning moving around the city.

It's been pretty busy.

I just finished stop.

18 last night out in the community as well as a lot of internal district types of meetings.

So altogether there will be about 40 stops on the listening and learning tour and it's been really great.

And so as you know I usually have my remarks separated by students and family staff and community.

You'll have to go forward again.

So this is that one of our listen and learn tours that was sponsored by and hosted by CSEC and this is Darlish 11th grader at Franklin and she spoke very powerfully about her experience in the high school and it was just really great to have student voice integrated into some of the stops that we made.

CSEC actually sponsored a an evening that really centered families of color and their voices and their experiences in our Seattle Public Schools and it was a really great event attended well attended.

This is Principal Dicer at Highland Park Elementary.

I was lucky enough to sit in this class during a reading lesson where we learned a lot about how to make sounds in different words.

This young woman or this young man shared his story about he was right about how when he nearly drowned.

But he's sharing a story with me at Roxhill at E.C.

Hughes Elementary and this is actually a listen and learn tour stop with students mostly Nova students who really.

This was students at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center and they were very clear as we've heard over and over again and even from the poets tonight.

Thank you for your words about how much a caring adult matters in the system.

And throughout the tour students have.

Urged me to find teachers who also look like them.

They want to see themselves reflected in staff and in instructional materials.

This group is from Nathan Hale and they were very clear in their ask during our listening and learning session.

This is a couple of young ladies from Cleveland High School.

I went to visit the health center there and kind of get a feel for what's going on and the great work that's happening around health and mental health in our schools.

These two young women were part were the leaders of the HPV vaccination campaign and actually through their work raised vaccinations within their school from 50 to 88 percent.

And so a lot to applaud there and around their leadership.

And these two are likely to be our next civic leaders.

I met them at Franklin High School and they're currently the student leaders of the high school and are doing a great job there.

I got to be on the radio with these Nathan Hale DJs.

So shout out to C 89.5 and just FYI they do play 80s music every Thursday morning from 7 to 9. Save the wave.

Yep.

The other group that truly amazes me are our school leaders.

This is Principal Ayers at Sanislo.

She showed me the big top.

They are one of the schools that have an open concept school.

And so there are several of them across our district as you all know makes it difficult to learn sometimes but they're doing the best that they can in the spaces that they have.

This dream team leads the Raiders of Nathan Hale and I visited during homecoming so it was quite the spirited school.

This here I am with the Franklin High School leaders in front of one of the many amazing murals in their school.

If you have not been at Franklin they're just amazing art that's going on there and art integration and the hallways are filled with murals.

So it's really an awesome place to visit.

Each of these murals have a different story behind them.

Students behind them who developed them.

And so it was just really awesome to see all of that.

So you should check them out.

I also visited the Washington Middle School where the principal is striving for 100 percent for 100 percent.

While I was there it was during the discover you campaign and students all across the school were exploring their college and career options and having really rich discussions about where they wanted to go.

where where they were going to college and sort of talking about their pathway to get there.

And so that was really great.

Principal Todd and I.

This is at Dunlap Elementary which is actually in my neighborhood.

So it was good to see what was going on there.

Principal Russo shared heartfelt stories from Graham Hill students and their families and I hope that she gets to visit with you when the agenda item comes up for shifting some of the work that's going on in her school.

It's very very powerful family voices that she's doing a lot around equity in her school and I think you'll be very.

very amazed by what's happening there.

Her destiny her her devotion to equity and providing equity equitable services to her students and families is really commendable.

Principal Scott and her team really focus on family engagement and the evidence was clear all across the school and it pays off.

They won the partnership school award and this is at Hawthorne Elementary in fact so much so that she brought her PTSA president along to kind of tour the school and fill me in on some of the efforts that were going on.

Principal Cuthbertson and her team at John Muir are focused on strong systems of support for each student.

So there's great work going on there.

And finally as you all know the amazing principal Williams of Aki Kurose and I we were speakers at the alliance for education black and orange gala last weekend and she knocked it out of the park and really she brought a former student to her speech and he had such a powerful story.

It's really good about the evidence of the good work that's going on in our schools.

And oh thank you.

And finally community by the end of this week as I said I will have held 19 external listen and learn sessions over 40 total.

We've heard from thousands of community members and I'm just really appreciative of the community members that come and share ideas on how to make our system even better.

This the first one go back one.

This is at CSEC the one that they hosted more of a Q&A and then really had some table talk and input into the question that we're asking all across the city.

This and I just want to give a thank you to our over 300 plus partners in this work.

It really does take a village to make sure that we run a good quality system.

This next picture was at the Chinese Information Service Center.

Next one.

We had a really good turnout was a translated event but also just really great stories to hear about how we can be even better.

And of course thank you to the city and Creative Advantage for hosting this at Langston Hughes.

And then the next one is thanks to the Pan-African community for gathering with me to share their stories.

And again they want students to have advocates and instructional materials where they see themselves and so that seems to be a theme across the city.

Thank you to Youngstown and Southwest Seattle for sharing their hopes and dreams.

That was a good meeting.

A lot of good feedback.

Thank you to Seattle Council PTSA for hosting one of our largest groups actually up in Northeast Seattle focused on centering the ethnic voices of Northwest Northeast Seattle.

Really great turnout.

Good stories.

Very very diverse crowd.

So I want to thank them and all of the attendees who came to that.

As I said I've been talking with each department within John Stanford I just finished up all the departments today and this is me meeting with our security and ops team last Friday and I'm just so appreciative of their work with students and our school safety in the district.

This one was last week.

Thank you to the Ballard PTSA for hosting.

The next one.

Thank you to Principal Cross and Seattle World School students and their families.

This was also a very well attended translated event or interpreted event where people really shared their desire for rigorous curriculum for all students a lot of powerful student voices who stood up and said they really want to be able to access college material that the classes need to be more rigorous.

And so that was powerful voices there.

Thank you to our special ed PTA PTSA for sharing their ideas.

We hosted that event here to better serve students with disabilities across our district.

And then of course this past weekend our guest partner the Alliance for Education raised money to support our work with students and I'm so grateful for the generosity of the Seattle community stepping forward and providing funds that are going to help us.

There are two and as all of you hopefully have read Amazon provided or gave two million dollars to the Alliance for Education at this event to help with right now needs for students and so.

Food clothes you know it'll be run the gamut about trying to help students not have to worry about finances or things that they might need or their family might need so that they can step into school to learn and so we're thankful for that partnership and the donations that come from the Alliance for Education and their partners.

There are two more listening sessions tomorrow night at Concord to hear from Latino families and then November 15th with native families.

Just so you know this experience of listening and learning has really helped me better understand the diverse needs across our city and I look forward to sharing our learnings with the community soon.

So thank you Madam President.

Thank you.

We're still on committee reports for circling back round.

Who would like to go next.

Director Burke curriculum and instruction please.

Thank you.

I'll be reasonably brief here.

We had a curriculum instruction meeting on October 5th.

You'll see some of the results from that coming forward.

There's four items policy 2023 which is digital citizenship.

It's sort of a philosophical bedrock policy around electronics Internet digital media.

We have the annual approval of programs using the ALE alternative learning experience model which is coming forward for full board approval.

We have some courses with new content including one that is highly conversed about.

We've got an ethnic studies course that's coming forward within this this BAR.

And then a real real celebration and approval of contract for the open doors youth re-engagement program that's going to come forward as well.

So I'm looking forward to everyone being excited about those.

The the upcoming C&I meeting November 6th highlighting that's 430 to 630 p.m.

in the board office back that away.

Public meeting all are welcome to come.

There are not always not usually opportunities for public to speak but at the discretion of the chair and time available we can sometimes pull some public dialogue into it as well.

Topics that are going to be covered there.

We're going to talk about policy 2024 which is a.

Formally online learning but it relates to outside credit retrieval and.

Courses.

That are taken.

Outside the system and how how they get applied as high school credit.

And then we're also going to be bringing back hopefully for board action or to move forward from committee the policy 20 90 which previously came to the board here amid some discussion.

And I think the feedback that I've gotten from my colleagues is that that is something which is an instrumental part of our governance.

Sorry district educational research and evaluation.

Thank you for that clarification.

So this is the policy that determines where we prioritize research projects whether we're looking at programs whether we're looking at SMART goals how we're investing our limited amount of research and evaluation expertise.

It's critical as part of our continuous improvement strategy.

And the feedback that I was getting from my colleagues was this is something that is really a board level thing.

So there's some changes being made to that to make that a formal board approved plan.

The that will come forward.

And so the policy will adjust to say that the plan is board approved and then the actual plan will come a little bit later.

I know that's fairly obtuse.

We also have next month an advanced learning update coming forward.

The advanced learning task force has been meeting regularly they met yesterday and their next meeting is November 20th.

So we'll get an update on that work at the C&I committee.

That's the majority of it.

I hope folks can attend.

And if you have any other questions around it please let me know.

Oh wait there's one more policy 2015 selection and adoption of instruction materials is also coming back to the committee for conversation.

This is another important thing and we've identified some gaps in that policy around supplemental materials and around electronic materials and we're trying to clean up the policy make it more relevant for staff and appropriate for staff to use and fill those gaps.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham Audit and Finance please.

Thank you.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

The Audit and Finance Committee met Monday October 8th for the introductory items will be discussed this evening including renew or getting our contract out with the state auditor's office elevator maintenance repair contract that will go out.

Also updating some of our policy going from the letter to the numbered system as well as making some clarification about job sharing that we have amongst our staff here with the school district.

We also want to emphasize again we got the BAR 4 coming up for the replacement of our current levy and we do want to hopefully emphasize with our community that this is a replacement of our current levy versus adding another levy on top of what people pay.

I actually struggle with my wife sometimes trying to explain that to her.

No this is a replacement.

It's not.

going to add on to the current levy.

So hopefully we'll get through this what's coming through the intro is more the amount not what's going to be on the levy.

We're still going to do that with the community input before we make that final decision.

So this one is just authorizing the amount that we'll seek.

We also had a couple of notifications about a few of our contracts exceeding the two hundred fifty thousand dollar mark and information about upcoming changes that are impact us as far as health care benefits and FMLA changes and laws in particular with the health care that instead of us contracting out with their own health care we will rely on the state's health care system and the transition for that.

We did not have any monthly financial updates this past board meeting because we're closing out one of the financial calendars.

And don't ask me which one I get them all confused.

So we'll get an update on that our next meeting which will be November 5th.

If you can please attend.

I also want to inform you that we will have a summary from our internal auditor this evening.

So I'll leave that portion for when he comes up to do the presentation.

But that's the update from A&F Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Director Geary being the only executive committee member at the executive committee.

Could you give that report please.

OK.

We held our meeting on October 11th.

The one board action item that was discussed is also up to Dave today for introduction which is the legislative agenda.

So I'll be rolling into that as well since I do the legislative committee announcements as well.

We our special attention items were that Superintendent Juneau gave an update on her listening and learning tour and some of the equity issues that she has been noting including looking at field trips transportation and ASB fees.

The big conversation that executive had was around our own the board's oversight work sessions.

which we by policy have to conduct to over oversee the work of our district.

And the question being is that are those oversight work sessions fulfilling their function for us.

Should we be analyzing how they can change in order to allow us better oversight.

Should that oversight be better aligned with the bodies of work that we are doing.

Are we finding that they are redundant in terms of the use of our time and the information delivered.

So those are questions that we as a board need to continue to think about.

And so my fellow board members if you have thoughts for the executive committee.

on the efficacy of the oversight sessions and what information you would like for them to provide that is not currently being provided and what information you find not to be helpful.

That is something that you should share with us and be looking for our communications.

to you as well to streamline that process for our staff because it takes an incredible amount of time to prove to create those sessions and we want them all to be helpful and a good use of everybody's time.

Some of the other standing items that we'll be looking at is of course we are engaged in our strategic plan update and I just want to emphasize again that part of the function of the listening and learning tours is to get the concerns of our district and our families district wide.

citywide as we enter the work of creating a new strategic plan for our district.

So it's very important when you have an opportunity to attend the listening and learning tour to to do so because that information doesn't just end there but will be analyzed in terms of directing our district in a very major way going forward.

And then finally I think the last thing I'll report on is that we as a board are also updating our own goals.

And so we had a discussion about the different areas including collaboration between the board and the district staff practices of governance potentially community engagement and And also making sure that whatever our goals are are well aligned to the overall goals of our district and that we are working in sync with our staff and the directions we're giving to the district and doing our work.

So we'll be looking at putting together a board goals proposal for everybody to look at as well.

And I think that will conclude that portion of my report and I'll just move into the legislative aspect of it.

We have been working on putting together our legislative agenda.

It will be up for introduction today.

So if you are interested in what we as a district will be advocating for or informing our legislative delegate about when the session begins and as session approaches in the new year that will we will be discussing that today and that will shape then how we go about talking with our legislators next year.

We try to make them broad enough that we can talk about a lot of different things including equity fully funding the cost of our education increasing our levy authority providing funding for the class sizes that are being mandated and providing funding for comprehensive school safety are some of our big ones.

We have capital projects and then whatever assistance that they can provide us for eliminating the opportunity gaps but more details are provided within the legislative agenda if.

The public is interested.

It will be coming up for introduction and then action in a few weeks.

And so if the public has input on that please let us know.

And finally the next executive meeting will be November 8th 2018.

At 3 p.m.

in the boardroom.

OK.

Mr. Ali.

We lose him.

Great timing.

You're up.

Mr. Ali is a senior at Chief Sealth International High School where he serves as the Academy of Finance president as well as a senior class spirit commissioner.

Over the summer he had the distinct pleasure of participating in an eight week long internship at KPMG through the National Academy Foundation.

He has hopes of attending the University of Washington.

Go Dawgs to pursue a degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting.

The mic is yours.

Thank you.

As said my name is Abdur Rahman Ali I attend Chief Sealth International High School.

Today my main form of service here at the board meeting is to talk about the needs of the students at Chief Sealth International High School as well as the staff and community members.

Throughout my time at Chief Sealth I've seen the growth of student population within many programs as well as more particular in the academy program.

Last year we proposed a new idea of adding a sophomore class to the academy program which had a great turnout.

And this year as seniors we are.

kind of fundraising for the annual senior trip to New York.

That trip mainly serves as to kind of further the already existing interest in business.

We'll get all meet along with me and my colleague will get into that later in our testimony but.

I think one thing I really want to talk about here is my experience with a friend who is struggling in terms of getting to school.

As you guys know the school district has a designated program known as the McKinney Vento program.

I've attempted to kind of direct the student and my fellow friend to.

talk with our school social worker.

Unfortunately there has been a lack of resource in that field.

He has been told that by the regional supporter here at the district that the that they can't provide such services and that has been a detriment to his career as well as experience in high school.

I think I just have the idea of here being here and kind of asking what is the district doing to kind of get students.

Yeah.

Assistant Superintendent McEvoy can you wave so that he can make contact with you with respect to this issue before you leave tonight.

OK.

Thank you.

She's the one.

Thanks.

OK.

As I was saying if there is anything you guys are doing to kind of.

limit the possibilities of such things happening.

Yeah.

Please director.

DeWolf.

Great question and I personally am professionally and also personally very interested in our conversation around student and youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.

I think I want to elevate one really critical frustrating issue is that the state doesn't give us resources for transportation for our McKinney-Vento program so we actually pay I think about two million dollars that we have to come up with to support these students which is which is our goal and we want to support those students but it's also money that we don't necessarily have from the state.

So we have to kind of piece that together.

The McKinney-Vento program is a federal program and the state of Washington gets a one million dollars from the federal government for the whole state.

Our district I think receives about ninety thousand dollars of that for McKinney-Vento programs and that is a large program.

And this is my personal soapbox but.

16 17 school year with about 42 that 4200 students experiencing homelessness.

125 of those were unsheltered.

708 of those were unaccompanied.

So this is a really big issue in our crisis in our school district and the resources do not come with the growing need from our state.

So.

It's not a helpful or easier or nice answer but I know that the program does a really good job of bringing together critical partners from outside of the district to be able to fund some of those basic needs.

In addition to what Superintendent Juneau brought up was the fact that Amazon will have about a two million dollar pot of money for students either that are experiencing homelessness or have any housing instability or.

are kind of the margins of poverty in that way for those kind of needs.

But there are a lot of efforts across the county and so there should be more resources coming into the county within the next couple of months.

But obviously that doesn't get to the direct need.

But I know that we're doing everything we can with limited resources we do have.

So thank you for bringing that to our attention.

That's it for me.

So you want to go to the University of Washington.

Study business.

Yes accounting.

Why.

And are you well prepared for that.

Well to answer your question in terms of why I want to study business I think mainly a lot of credit is due to the academy program.

I entered the academy program after my sophomore year and before then I had a growing interest in computer science.

I thought that industry was really cool.

In fact, I took in gateway to tech classes before then, but once I kind of saw this opportunity to kind of I thought, hey, I'll do it.

It's a credit class.

And so initially I just did it for the credit.

But as I took the class and continued to take the class and participate in the annual career conferences and the case studies, I also noticed that I was really enjoying the topic.

After the career conference, I actually got to visit the KPMG campus.

And one of the things they did was, it wasn't just accounting.

They also had subdivisions for advisory, human resources.

It just had a ton.

And they also had their growing, as we know, IT is a growing industry, and they also had a subdivision for that.

In the beginning, I thought, hey, I'll do this and kind of have my foot in the door and kind of double dip on both ends.

But I was really fortunate enough in the spring to be given the internship where I worked as a audit intern as well as an operations intern for eight weeks.

And right off the bat, My interest kind of stuck with accounting and from there I kind of was given the opportunity not only work in that field as well as also network with higher ups such as partners managers and.

kind of my cohort team as well.

And so in terms of being prepared I think the Chief Sealth Academy has prepared me very well.

Hopefully I'm currently actually applying for UW and hopefully I will be directly directly directly admitted to the Foster School of Business where I can kind of get started with my field of interest right away.

Outstanding.

Thanks so much for sharing.

You are welcome to stay here when we have questions of staff.

You are welcome to join us and asking those questions on the intro and action item.

Yeah no problem.

One thing I was going to be joining my colleague for testimony.

Not a problem.

Just come on back up when you're done.

Got it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

You're not done yet.

OK.

Director Burke.

Yeah.

Thank thank you for joining us.

Thank you for not just sharing your story but also bringing your your colleagues along as well to get us engaged but also really focused on the problems that our students are having.

I I'm excited hearing about the the academy and how it's impacted you.

It's one of one of my areas of personal personal passion is how we build more of that type of learning into our system.

And so you really covered a lot of the questions that I had in your reply originally but I have two kind of detailed ones.

You mentioned that the the way in was this this kind of this OCAD class.

Why did you pick that one versus any of the other opportunities that you could have taken?

Well, the reason I picked the Academy OCAD credit was simply because it had a little bit more interest to me, whereas kind of just taking a graphic arts class or another PE class didn't really resonate with me.

And so, kind of just the name kind of brought it to my attention, and I thought, hey, I'll take a shot at it, and then it just went from there.

And then the other challenge that we have is you know the Academy has a series of classes and a lot of our students have troubles fitting them into their schedule.

How were you able to make that work with your schedule.

Was that a challenge.

Did you have to give up things to be able to take this sequence.

Well for me I kind of gave up some classes early on in my high school career.

When I was a sophomore I doubled up on math classes to kind of get the higher end in the IB curriculum as our school our school has the IB program and so it fit a little bit easier for me.

I.

didn't really have to take an elective and I just doubled up on math and then the following year I just added my IB or my academy class to it.

So it wasn't really that challenging.

I assume it might be challenging other more challenging for other students but unfortunately that wasn't the case for me.

Thank you.

Just to put in another plug for my for this program among my colleagues the Seattle Academies at Chief Sealth Franklin and Ballard celebrate 100 percent graduation rate.

And there's lots of stories much like Mr. Lee's story.

Thank you.

And extraordinary internship opportunities.

Yeah definitely.

Director Mack you have questions for Mr. Raleigh.

Sorry my my thank you for coming and speaking with us today.

I was curious what you do when you go to New York.

What are the sites you're looking to see and what's the what's the educational component of that trip.

Well, for the Academy, once we get to New York, we kind of get to see all the things we were learning about.

From what I remember last year, for much of the first semester of my junior year, we played a stock market game.

And as we know, Wall Street is a big boom in New York.

And so we get to really engage in the things that we were learning about for the past two years, whereas other programs, you kind of just learn about certain topics but you don't really get to indulge in them.

And so I think the New York trip serves as more as a hey this is what you've been learning and it's in action whereas other programs don't necessarily have that.

They also have recreational they also come with recreational purposes as well as networking purposes.

So I think the National Academy Foundation gets together with all the seniors who were part of the National Academy Foundation we get on a cruise and I don't know that all the specific specifics as to that part of the trip but we kind of kind of celebrate that accomplishment that we've made.

And then also we get to attend other networking events where we kind of meet with higher ups.

So it's just a liftoff off of the of the annual career conference which we have tomorrow in fact.

And then yeah it's about it.

Thank you very much.

OK.

We have hit the consent agenda.

I have a motion for the consent agenda please.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second the motion.

Does anyone have anything they would like to take off of the consent agenda this evening for us to deal with separately.

Director Mack seeing no one wishes to take anything off of the consent agenda please signify moving the consent agenda by saying aye.

Aye.

OK.

We have 10 minutes before public comment starts and we want to start that right at 530. We have a very long list.

We have time for one or two board comments.

Who would like to go first.

Are you suggesting.

OK.

Director Geary.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm going to keep them brief.

So somebody think about following me.

Well I have been doing my pretty consistently been holding community meetings every Tuesday morning at Zoka behind University Village on Blakely.

I won't be holding my meeting next Tuesday and I'll be sure to post that on Facebook because I have several meetings scheduled here.

instead but will then resume October 30th back at Zoka so if you want to come there's always a handful of regulars that are happy to talk about education and then usually one or two people bringing in other topics that are timely in terms of our vote.

Well since our last board meeting I had the honor to attend the unified athletics kickoff and I would thank Ingram high school for hosting that event and many of our schools sent their unified teams to Ingram to celebrate the beginning of the season.

And for anybody who doesn't know what that is unified athletics.

is the opportunity for our students with disabilities, our athletes with disabilities to pair with a partner who is usually more typically developing and then they compete in different sports and it is an awesome opportunity for inclusion in your school And most of our high schools many of our middle schools have teams and so if that is something of interest to you or you think somebody would be interested in participating please spread the word, contact your principals.

This year there will be money for the stipend for coaches and so if people are interested in becoming a coach that's a really important piece of the unified program.

are the adults that choose to lead and it can be parents, sometimes it is teachers, but they are people who are passionate about inclusion and making a really fun environment for everybody.

So again, thank you to Ingram for hosting that.

I also had the pleasure of attending the special education listening and learning tour gathering here.

And again just really honored to see people show up and present and talk to our superintendent about the things that are important to them.

And I always want to acknowledge that our families with students with disabilities it's for them to show up it's just so meaningful to me because the logistics that goes into them being able to leave their home to come and talk come downtown.

It's just it's it's such a huge lift and we have to continue to work on better ways to get their voices in when they can't find the help that they need to to leave their families.

So if there are things that those families want to want to share with us that they didn't feel they could by coming.

Be sure to reach out to us and let us know because your voice is definitely welcome and I do appreciate how hard that can be.

And that'll be it for my comments for today.

Thank you.

Director Burke have at it.

OK starting from most recent I want to give props to Superintendent Juneau and JoLynn Berge.

I had the pleasure with Director Geary of sitting in on today's all staff meeting.

So we as directors get all sorts of things that show up on our calendar.

And so I've seen these all staff meetings that pop up every once in a while.

and thought for the last three years I should really go to one of those I should really go to one of those.

And this was the first time that I went to one.

I'm slightly embarrassed to say but I was really interested to see how our new leader creates culture.

I've got this thing about culture and culture is what you celebrate what you're willing to tolerate and what are your non-negotiables.

And that's what shapes your culture.

And I was interested to see how she What what what sort of poise and what sort of messaging she had in in reaching out to this group of of district leaders and district staff.

And it was really really cool as was JoLynn Berge's presentation on budget.

So I just want to publicly give both of them a thumbs up on that.

Good stuff.

Last night I joined the Kimball PTA they invited directors for a visit and you know they're they're excited about the the change the evolution of our our BEX program.

And there's there's both excitement and some discomfort about you know unintended consequences.

So it was a really rich discussion.

I want to mention to staff and I mentioned this to Michael Tolley but I want everybody to know around our CCC literacy adoption when the building leadership shared with PTA their their principal's report they mentioned.

Yeah when we go to central office we hear about this adoption and the support for it.

So that work has gone from the board to the district to the district leaders to the to the the schools and is now actually being communicated enthusiastically with the parents.

But what I was surprised to know about is that many people at Kimball didn't know both staff and parents felt a little bit blindsided sometimes positively sometimes negative about the BEX V process.

So despite a lot of work to get the messaging out there we still haven't really penetrated a lot of our communities with.

What what is our process of identifying schools.

What is our process of of of getting feedback on that.

So I think it was a little bit humbling.

But I also own the fact that we have to make some decisions that are just based on it seems a little cold and uncaring but based on numbers and statistics from from consultants.

And then the other take home from that visit is there were a lot of folks who are really passionate about the existing school feel it's an open concept school.

And so when the when that school should it be a BEX school should the voters approve the levy when that goes to the design phase the feedback from that was from that community is that they really wanted to engage around that design process and make sure that they could maintain.

The sense of community and the feel that they love about their school which is a very very cool building.

I just walked into and I felt like oh this feels like home.

It's just very very comfortable.

So that was a neat neat visit.

Earlier this week on Monday we sat in on the ITAC the information technology advisory committee shared that with Director Harris committee is grappling with some some document reviews some fairly heavy document reviews one on educational technology research that's like this one that's OSPI technology standards which is also like this and then one which is the district technology plan which is also.

like this and all of them sort of knit together around how do we use technology to help our students.

And then we also had a what I consider a slightly scary but confidence inspiring presentation by April Murdoch around our district I.T.

and data security.

You know there are definitely digital threats out there and we've got some super smart people and some really cool systems that she wasn't completely willing to share because she would have to kill us.

She probably wouldn't do that.

And then we wrapped it up with a rowdy conversation around computer ratios and you know the value of 1 to 1 versus 3 to 1 versus 5 to 1 and educational impact on students.

So that was a really neat experience as well.

Great group of people.

I have some community meetings coming up.

I have a tentative schedule meeting October 24th at the Maple Leaf Community Council general meeting which is at Olympic View Elementary 630 p.m.

On Thursday the following day the 25th of October Sacajawea Elementary PTA is having a potluck and this is celebrating their receipt of the Jan Harp Dominy diversity award bestowed on behalf of the racial equity team.

So that's going to be a really neat thing.

And then I have two community meetings tentatively scheduled November 3rd Ballard library 4 to 5 30 p.m.

and December 8th 10 to 11 a.m.

sorry 10 to 11 30 a.m.

Greenwood library.

Once I get confirmation from the libraries on those they'll get posted on the calendar.

Thank you very much.

Harris.

Fabulous timing.

We are at public testimony.

Can you read the.

I can read the caveats regarding public testimony in accordance with board 14 30 policy and corresponding procedure 14 30 BP.

One person speaks at a time unless they're students for the first piece Mr. Ali.

Two comments should be addressed to the board.

Three please adhere to the time limit.

You have two minutes to speak when you have 30 seconds left you'll have a yellow light so you can wrap up your comments.

The focus of the comments should be on the issues and solutions and the majority of your time should be on the issue that you signed up to speak about.

No racial slurs personal insults ridicule or threats will be allowed or tolerated.

No comments regarding personnel matters and all signs to the meeting must are subject to the same ground rules.

And we had one change I believe with respect to one second here we had a change on our public comments.

because we had it set up a little differently.

She'll she'll call.

OK perfect.

Thank you.

So if you could read off the testimony folks three at a time and if you hear your name behind come on up and get in line so we can do this efficiently and.

We can all hear what you've come to tell us.

Thank you.

First up for public testimony we have Audrey Putnicki followed by Anissa Rodad and then Emma Fedore.

Hello my name is Audrey Putnicki and I am the president of the hospitality and tourism program at Chief Sealth International High School.

And my name is Abdirahman Ali, and I serve as the Academy of Finance president.

The National Academy Foundation's program is taught at three different Seattle public schools including Chief Sealth, Franklin and Ballard.

Chief Sealth is fortunate enough to have two academy programs hospitality and tourism and finance.

We have over 30 board members that consist of professions from Amazon, Marriott, KPMG and so many more.

We also have a lot of support from our teachers that are also directors of the Academy of Business at Chief Sealth.

Through this academy, I was able to get an internship at a Marriott hotel, which taught me a lot of useful professional skills.

And in class, we learn about different parts of the hospitality and tourism industry, just like hotels and cruise ships.

We are currently planning our annual auction dinner in order to raise money for our class trip to New York that Abdul was talking about.

I was also very fortunate to be given an internship at a big four.

This summer I worked at KPMG where I acquired keen skills that I will continue to carry with me in the professional world.

The National Academy Foundation success rate speaks for itself and is very much amplified in us as students.

The Academy Foundation has 100% success rate and 90% of those students are college bound.

Both academies learn how to build resumes cover letters and business cards.

We also learn how to network through an annual career conference where we take tours of different businesses around Seattle and network with businesses business owners and higher ups of our respective industries.

The academy has taught me and I think every other student in academy a lot about the business world and how to step into it and I feel very fortunate to already have connections with people in the hospitality industry.

Thank you.

Anissa?

Oops.

Hi my name is Anisa Roydad.

I'm a student at Ballard High School and I'm here to talk about two things that are long overdue ethnic studies and the renovation of Rainier Beach High School.

The district assembled a task force to create content for ethnic studies last summer.

I had the privilege of reviewing this curriculum.

It discussed topics from indigeneity to redlining to taking action taking action for what you're passionate about.

It pertained to students lives and problems that communities in Seattle face.

It was comprised of different perspectives ones that actually reflect the student body.

Simply reviewing the curriculum had such a big impact on me that I can't imagine how powerful learning the curriculum would be.

How long do students have to wait to learn ethnic studies.

Ethnic studies needs to be made mandatory.

It needs to be a graduation requirement.

It empowers students and opens their minds up to different perspectives and prepares them for a world that is diverse.

The first step to getting us there is adding Jesse Hagopian's ethnic studies class to the course catalog so that students can take it and get credit for it.

Now Rainier Beach while countless other Seattle public schools have been renovated Rainier Beach hasn't been fully renovated since its opening and it's not because Rainier Beach is an immaculate condition.

Quite the opposite.

Students have asked for a renovation countless times and they've been dismissed every time.

And now it's going to happen again since Rainier Beach is getting deprioritized on the list of renovations move below schools that have already been renovated like Ingram.

This is unacceptable.

Students should have the resources they need to learn.

They should be able to focus on their learning not be distracted or hindered by dilapidated conditions or wondering whether their drinking water is clean or not.

Oh they should have the same privilege I do on the north side of going to a nice clean well-equipped Seattle Public School.

Thank you.

After Emma we will have Shirin Ariana followed by Chris Jackins and Amina Adams.

I can just lean down here.

My name is Emma Fedor and I'm a senior at Ballard High School.

I'm here to discuss the necessity of adding ethnic studies to the course catalog and conceivably becoming a graduation requirement.

In my school I've heard from many teachers that they want to remain an objective figure in their students lives.

They feel uncomfortable tackling issues of race and ethnicity and want to comply strictly with the textbooks.

But our textbooks are primarily teaching from a Eurocentric perspective a point of view that skews history in favor of making it more palatable for white people.

I've been fortunate enough to have teachers that have not only taught me a holistic narrative of the past but that have held oppressors accountable for their actions.

In seventh grade I learned about the internment of indigenous people on the Aleutian Islands during World War II.

In ninth grade I learned about the Abbasid dynasty a Muslim empire that thrived while Europe was mired in the comparatively uncivilized Middle Ages.

In 11th grade I learned that Martin Luther King Jr. was in fact not a racially colorblind pacifist but a radical.

These teachers overturned my preconceptions of the world and they're the reason I stand before you today.

But I've also been in an environment where my teachers have been unsuccessful in challenging the biased history we're often taught.

When discussing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in my U.S. history class last year the incarceration of Japanese-Americans was never brought up.

Instead most students vehemently defended the U.S.' 's actions that resulted in the death of 150,000 Japanese civilians.

It's not that the students in my class were bigoted it's that the teacher simply did not give them the resources to explore how internment represented the vilification of Japanese people.

The teacher did not give them guidelines to discuss this sensitive topic.

I was shaken by the debate but as a white student I can't imagine how I must feel for my ethnicity to become a pejorative.

Too often I hear the discussions about race and ethnicity make white students feel alienated uncomfortable and upset.

What about the students of color that have to sit through courses that only portray their ancestors as inferior uncivilized or enslaved.

It's time to subvert the norm of teaching the history of the oppressor and it's time to break the taboo on discussing race and ethnicity.

Making ethnic studies a graduation requirement will open that dialogue.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Shireen Ariana and I'm an eighth grader at Washington Middle School.

I would like to know why digital citizenship and media literacy were not provided prior to beginning online French and Japanese at Washington in the first place.

We do not come to school for online classes but if they are provided this resolution should be implemented because learning can be so difficult without it.

After a month of school, we finally started the online language program.

It was a rough start because many students were not notified that the class had started or knew how to log in once they did get to class.

As soon as we began, we found that before every practice test, there were a list of new vocabulary words that we were expected to learn.

Most of the terms were new to me and my classmates and following it were instructions to practice saying them aloud.

All of us had a difficult time doing this.

To begin with we had no idea how to pronounce any of the words and being so close to my classmates in a library with headphones on while attempting to speak this new language without any help is definitely not the ideal situation.

It was awkward let me tell you.

After lots of confusion and help from Google Translate we finally made it through the lesson.

I've heard plenty of students taking online French and Japanese remark that they would rather we take this course in high school instead of keeping the credits because they know they aren't learning anything.

Languages should not be learned while staring at a computer screen but with an experienced instructor.

Another thing that my fellow classmates and I are extremely worried about is something called a conversation cafe.

It is a part of the course that requires us to speak to a person through the computer in order to practice.

Many kids have anxiety about talking to a complete stranger in a different language and are even considering switching to a different class.

Additionally there were some lessons that were completely inappropriate and unnecessary for middle schoolers like one about a tobacco shop.

The funding for language world languages was used by the school for language arts.

So we request that you please help us fund a language teacher for French and Japanese to provide the required education that all of us deserve in our learning experience.

My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4 on technology purpose purchases three points.

Number one the board action report references two different costs five hundred and twenty thousand dollars and five hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Number two the report states that most teachers responded very favorably quote unquote was most 51 percent or 99 percent.

Number three please discuss straightforward examples of the intended use of the laptops.

On final acceptance of the contract at Whitman the board action report seems to include an incorrect address for Whitman.

On the distressed schools grants at Coe and Magnolia.

Seven points.

Number one will these projects reduce playground space.

Number two have these proposals been reviewed in light of the citywide enrollment drop this year.

Number three has the proposed Magnolia K-3 class size reduction been evaluated as a site specific academic priority.

Number four the district is asking for exceptions to the zoning code for the co-project.

What are these exceptions.

Number five.

Unfortunately it is currently in vogue for district leaders to pooh pooh concerns about the history of our public schools.

Not every past district leader felt the same way.

Number six a former board member Michael Preston fought to save the spiral staircase at his old elementary school Stevens district staff declined the request ripping out the staircase noting that a similar staircase would remain remain at Stevens twin co.

Number seven then during subsequent renovation of Coe the district allowed Coe to burn down.

Thank you.

After Amina Adams we will have Carrie Brown Wooster followed by Kiyoko Sakuye and then Kim McCormick.

Did you say Carrie Brown Wooster next?

After Amina Amina Adams is next.

OK.

Hi my name is Amina Adams.

I'm a senior at Rainier Beach and I'm also here for the renovation of Rainier Beach and having ethnic studies.

But I want to start off with Seattle's mission statement and they said committed to ensuring equitable access closing the opportunity gaps and excellence in education for every student.

And by Beach getting renovated we need to be learning in a flourishing environment.

And my brother's in ninth grade and I want him to go through high school with an environment that's safe.

and a very an environment that's not broken down.

And also to for ethnic studies it's important for us to know the history of minority people and going through all these history classes learn about the European cultures is not beneficial for us because.

As a person of color I don't want to be going around not knowing my history.

And it's important for people to have ethnic studies because learning about different cultures opens many opportunities for studying abroad and going international learning new cultures.

And that's important especially for younger people.

And that's what I have to say.

Hi there.

Thank you for listening to me this afternoon.

My name is Kerry Brown Wooster and I'm a proud parent of a second grader and a fourth grader at John Rogers Elementary.

John Rogers is a Title 1 school and has been recommended for levies since 2007 BEX III and has somehow been pushed to the side for the last 11 years.

Neighborhood schools in the northeast have been overlooked.

John Rogers, Sacajawea and Northgate Elementary have been left to rot while option schools around us have been given upgrades and brand new buildings.

The decision for my children's elementary school was made years ago and I urge this school board to not make the same mistake when considering these schools.

I was here three years ago.

I was here three years ago asking you to please consider John Rogers for a rebuild.

It was then the fifth worst building in the district.

We now top that list.

John Rogers is the worst facility in the district and it needs to be rebuilt.

Do not look overlook John Rogers again.

Some problems that we have include room 16 is separating from the rest of the building.

Our electrical capacity is maxed out.

Breakers are often blown when the heating comes on.

When it rains, hard water leaks into the building onto exposed wires in the hallway.

The roof has passed its lifespan and is failing us.

Our boiler fails to work a few times each winter.

The boiler is from the 1950s and could stop working at any time.

These are but a few problems at John Rogers and the school district expects building money to go to pay for some of these repairs.

We can't even afford all the paper that we need.

One teacher told me that starting work at John Rogers 15 years ago, the upgrades that she has seen has included new linoleum on the floor in some classrooms and a magnetic chalkboard in others.

The facility is estimated in eight point seven million dollars in repair.

We're doing nothing to neighborhood school buildings like John Rogers Northgate and Sacajawea.

You are telling some of the most vulnerable students students that their environment does not matter.

A safe environment is basic education.

Thank you for my time.

After Kim, we will have Thomas Sorster followed by Molly Schmidt and then John Greenberg.

I'm just going to hold it.

Hello.

My name is Kim McCormick.

I'm a Seattle Public Schools parent.

My comments will pertain to John Rogers as well as Jane Addams Middle School.

According to the 2018 facilities master plan which is to be introduced this evening.

John Rogers has once again scored the lowest in building condition assessment district wide.

John Rogers also faces capacity challenges.

There are over 340 students enrolled in a school built for 260 and the electrical grid is maxed out making it difficult and costly to add more portables.

A new larger building is desperately needed to accommodate growth and to mitigate building condition issues.

Thank you for including John Rogers in the BEX V project recommendations.

It appears that the smaller of the two BEX V building options has been recommended and I agree that this is a better choice for the John Rogers site.

If approved the new building will house 500 students if class sizes are held to 17 students for grades K through 3. The maximum capacity of the building is about 660 students.

Jane Addams Middle School opened in 2014 and substantial interior modifications were made to the building to repurpose it from a K-8 to a comprehensive middle school.

Unfortunately modifications to the outdoor site were not within the scope of the repurposing project and numerous safety hazards and overall lack of functionality remain.

A master plan for the Jane Addams site has been developed through a community led process supported by a city of Seattle neighborhood grant.

The estimated cost to implement this plan is approximately 3.3 million.

Please approve funding for the Jane Addams middle school site improvements and please accept the replacement of the John Rogers building as a high priority BEX V project.

Thank you.

Hello my name is Kerry Clark and I'm a senior at Rainier Beach High School.

I'm from Oakland California and I've transferred to 10 different schools throughout my school experience.

Rainier Beach is a great school with a great administration but I felt as if something was off as my first year my first days there.

Almost every kid in Seattle has heard of our school yet I felt as if our priorities were put off.

When I looked at how many championships the school has brought home and the history behind the school It made me wonder why the internal appearance was slightly rubbish.

Beach is already surrounded by a line of fast food chains and corner stores already.

And you understand that kids come to school to feel safe and to get away from that and and be in a safe learning environment.

And.

The administration is not the problem.

It is the.

The outside is the scenery of where we're surrounded by our classrooms are hot.

The heating is horrible on the low low.

It's just a lot.

But yeah we just need renovation.

I can't really explain.

I'm from Rainier Beach also.

My name is Israel.

I'm 17. I would just like to say it's definitely a need and it's very urgent especially that we put we put our faith in you guys time after time again yet we're let down.

We feel like our students fight hard for this and we don't feel like a priority and I feel like if we were to have a renovation that affects the students emotionally and it affects our performance.

When you're when you're surrounded by you know Just a school that is slowly deteriorating is not the best feeling.

And I can say that as being a student there you know and just just being able to be in the school already gives us pride.

But being in a school that is actually a beautiful something beautiful to see it'll make our work even more beautiful.

And that's my point.

So piggybacking off of that I would just like to like to say please put us back in the number one spot.

It's needed.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Molly Schmidt and I'm a parent at North Beach Elementary and I'm here to discuss the upcoming BEX levy.

Lately North Beach Elementary has been in the news which is exciting because frankly we'll take any attention we can get.

So we've been in the news and I'm sure you're wondering why.

Was North Beach in the news because 44 percent of our student body is in portables?

No.

Was North Beach Elementary in the news because our 62 year old building has never received a capital improvement?

Was it the sewage that backed up in the first grade classroom?

No.

Was it because North Beach is enrolled at 120 percent to capacity and we had a 13 percent growth rate?

No it was none of these.

North Beach has been in the news because we are ranked third worst in the conditions and capacity criteria.

Yet we are off the BEX levy list.

Third worst right next to our middle school Whitman on conditions and capacity.

Seattle Public Schools deserve to be the top choice of schools for our Seattle neighborhoods and families.

There are so many schools that deserve and need improvements.

We have a world class economy.

We should have world class schools.

North Beach Elementary supports Seattle Public Schools to ask for one point four billion dollars so we can blanket this city with improvements including a replacement at North Beach Elementary.

Thank you so much for your time.

After John Greenberg we will have Jesse Hagopian followed by Gloria Briggs and Michael Waite.

I concede my time to J.J.

Hall.

Hello my name is John Hall but people call me JJ and I am a ninth grader at Chief Sealth International High School.

As a biracial person with parents who have been dedicated to making sure that I received additional education outside the Eurocentric books that I learned from at school I know I've been lucky.

My father, who was a professor in African American studies, who unfortunately passed away in April, and my mother, who is white and who minored in African American studies, both made sure that my readings that I read when I was a child from day one were diverse in ethnic points of view.

I know firsthand that by doing this my parents did more than provide me with additional education.

They also gave me pride and confidence in who I am strongly rooted in the heritage of both my parents equally as important.

It taught me respect for other cultures their histories and traditions.

I moved here from Ellensburg in August and my mother intentionally chose Chief Sealth because of its international status and its respect for customs and traditions.

I just ask that you give all students what my parents have given me, a way to see from a different lens and gain empathy for what others have had to go through to get where they are today.

In the past year, I think we've seen what can happen when an entire country openly values Euro-Americans over all other ethnicities.

I also think that teaching history from a variety of worldviews is our only hope to instill empathy into future generations.

So I ask, please don't leave us with a single story and give us ethnic studies.

Thank you for listening.

Good evening.

My name is Jesse Hagopian.

I teach ethnic studies at Garfield High School.

Today I taught a lesson to my students where we looked at a standard film that's shown in a lot of different classrooms about the very beginning of American history.

And this film America the story of us has a camera that sweeps over the entire continent.

of the United States as the colonies are forming.

And it says that there are 8 billion trees on the continent of America, and there are 8 billion buffalo on the continent of America, and there are many untapped resources on the continent.

And that word untapped didn't sit well with a lot of the students because what wasn't shown in that video were the people, right?

And that's what this curriculum tries to do.

The ethnic studies curriculum is about revealing the histories of people who are made invisible by by the standard curriculum.

We see it with with indigenous people we see it with African-American people.

We know that the textbooks that that are assigned to too many classes are overtly Eurocentric.

We have a book called Modern World History that's used in the Seattle Public Schools that has a balanced view of colonialism in Africa.

You have the negative impacts of colonization and the positive impacts.

And yes, it stresses that there's a lot of negative impacts, but setting up that dichotomy that way can be very harmful for students.

And our class tries to paint a much, much bigger picture.

And I think in a society like ours, where we have white supremacist marches growing around the country, where we have a president who says that Africa and Haiti and Honduras are asshole countries.

It is desperate that we teach our kids a different narrative.

I agree.

I'm a former student and I've grown so much as a person and as a student through his class.

So thank you.

After Gloria Briggs we will have Michael Waite Mikhail Page and Sabrina Burr.

Gloria.

Michael.

Good evening.

Thank you so much.

Excuse me, I've got it coming down with a cold, so I apologize.

But my name is Michael Waite.

I'm the proud parent of two girls and one more on the way, so a third, in February.

And our oldest attends Kimball Elementary.

I also serve as the president of PTSA.

And I just want to thank on behalf of our community, our entire community, our gratefulness for the consideration that's been given to us over the last few weeks.

for an investment that is sure to change not just our community but a tremendous amount of lives in the years ahead.

I particularly want to acknowledge to Director Burke for coming to our meeting last night seeing our school seeing the reality of this message and there's so many people behind it.

But there's certainly some people that are wondering how do we be a part of this process and that.

And so for his support and help I tip my hat and thank you.

This BEX levy has been an example of how a process can work, although it's been tough and intense on our community.

The Kimball equity score has increased over 150%, but we do appreciate the diligent efforts of the directors to see that that actually happened and the consideration was given to enable that to happen, and that the board of directors created a safe environment for staff to also do their job.

Kimball's a perfect example of what BEX was about and how to support it and what what it can bring.

The school's not meeting the needs of the students the school's not a safe environment in so many ways and will be better served by the new building.

Thank you again on behalf of the Kimball community.

Hi my name is Mikkel Vassar Page.

I am a proud parent at Kimball Elementary School former child and now a employee of Kimball Elementary School.

I'd like to thank you for your consideration in us in considering our school for rebuild in this process.

My deceased father was a former school board president.

T.J.

Vassar is known in Seattle as the president who desegregated our schools and we had our family as well as him.

Paid a huge sacrifice for what he had to go through when he bused children across neighborhoods in order to segregate our schools and make them better.

He believed in equity and that's why I'm here.

The district talks a lot about community engagement.

commute family engagement our school does not allow for that to happen because we don't have a big enough school or meeting space.

to engage families.

Our gym is so small that we have to limit the resources the free resources that we have because we don't have the space to to run them.

I personally have volunteered as a school at the school for seven years after school doing a free jump rope club for kids teaching them how to jump rope.

And it's unfortunate that I am not able to offer it more but we don't have the space.

We don't have a multipurpose room.

We don't even have a covered area where I could take the kids outside.

I would take anything.

So that's a huge limitation.

I grew up on Beacon Hill.

I know a bunch of people in that community and I tell them about Kimball because it's such a great school and they ask they say where's Kimball.

And I said, you know, it's on 23rd.

The building that looks like a water treatment facility.

And they all go, oh, yeah, that's Kimball.

OK, OK.

So I know my time has run out.

I just want to, again, thank you for your consideration and hope that Kimball will jump up on that list.

Next up we have Sabrina.

After Sabrina we have Monique Stallings followed by Kara Golger and Carol Shane.

Good evening.

I'm going to start off.

I'm going to start off reading you a sign in Sullivan's Island South Carolina by Fort Moultrie.

A place where Africans were brought to this country under extreme conditions of human bondage and degradation.

Tens of thousands of captives arrived on South Carolina's shores from the West African shores between 1700 and 1775. Those who remain in the Charleston community and those who pass through this account for a significant number of African-Americans now residing in these United States.

Only through God's blessing and a burning desire for justice persistence to succeed against monumental odds have African-Americans created their place in the American mosaic.

America is built on a lie.

The white race was not even invented until the 1700s.

A lie is a lie even if you keep telling it, it doesn't make it a truth.

Our children sit in awkwardness in lies because we are not telling the truth, not for the African-American culture or not for any other culture.

It should not be ethnic studies.

It should be American studies because it is American history.

We talk about closing gaps.

We talk about identity safety.

We talk about safe environments.

We cannot do that on a lie.

Yesterday my daughter wanted to write up a sub because she was racist to a classmate and she stood up.

We have to build our education system on the truth.

We need ethnic studies.

And lastly I want to say I graduated from Rainier Beach in 1979 and for years I've watched these students come and beg.

The school is run down it's raggedy.

I know it's prime real estate property.

We don't need condos.

We need a great school.

Please rebuild Rainier Beach.

And we have the tool to see teach about African-American studies.

Good evening.

My name is Monique and my daughter Daviana is not getting the help she needs culturally or educationally at Roosevelt High School.

When they take Black History Month out of the school the one thing that connects our children to their true self and replace it with kindness month.

I have a problem.

Meanwhile every single day my child walks into that school and sees slave masters all over the walls.

Every single day she opens up her school book and has to read about them.

She walks around school and is looked at as less than every single day because there is approximately 120 black students in a 1500 plus student body school.

She has to endure fellow classmates to be called nigger with no outcome.

Teachers openly make insults on children's skin tone and talk down on them and disabled students in their class.

Then she leaves school and has to endure racism outside of school because of where we live every single day.

This is why we need ethnic studies in classrooms.

This is why I need to get my daughter out of Roosevelt High School toxic and hostile learning environments.

And I need your help Superintendent Juneau to make this happen immediately.

Ethnic studies is needed because it honors all cultures and allows my daughter to show up as her whole self.

Thank you.

Good evening board and superintendent.

My name is Kara Golgart and I am a teacher at Sacajawea Elementary School and a community member and a past parent there.

And I've come tonight to ask you to continue the hard work that you've already begun on BEX V. We appreciate all of the.

the thoughtfulness and the listening that has happened to community members around what is needed most as a developmental preschool teacher.

I am literally teaching children to walk on a play field that is falling apart.

I am teaching children not to pick up asphalt and put it in their mouths and I built a fence to keep my children out of.

my students out of worse situations on our play field.

We know our neighbors are in need possibly greater need in terms of the overall building and rebuild.

But while we wait another.

six to eight years to be rebuilt we need asphalt.

We need safety in our surface.

We need ADA accessibility for our students at Sacajawea.

I am here without a crowd tonight because our parents are participating in a work party to be ready for a move-a-thon where we will again raise money for our own needs to supplement what we don't have from the district.

They are sweeping the chunks of asphalt and gravel out of the way so that we can have a move-a-thon tomorrow.

I thank you for the work that's already being done and please let us know as a community what we can do to help and give you feedback.

We need pieces to be done while we wait.

Thank you.

After Carol we have Sarah Gist followed by Carissa Palmerin and Greg Ramirez.

Hello my name is Carol Shane and I'm a parent of two students at Whitman Middle School in Northwest Seattle.

I am here to ask you to request the largest levy possible so that we can complete as many of these capital projects as possible in the next six years.

I believe that middle student middle school students are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to having someone advocate for them here in this venue.

They are there such a short time counting the days until they're old enough for high school until they get that learner's permit and start driving.

But these students need us to stand up for them.

Both the students that attend Whitman now and those that will be there in a few short years.

Middle school is a pivotal time in a student's life.

It is essential that we provide all of our middle schoolers with a safe and collaborative learning environment so that they feel valued and that they know how much we truly care for them.

Planning for.

planning for student enrollment should be easiest at middle school.

We don't know where these students are.

We know where they're coming from and we should be able to plan accordingly.

Whitman is a 60 year old building one hundred seventy thousand square feet.

It has received very limited project funding since 1995. The last seismic improvements were compete completed in 1995. It was one of the first schools to be to receive improvements.

But how sound were those retrofit retrofits.

Whitman scored sixth for building conditions.

There are ceiling tiles that have fallen from the ceiling while students are in class.

What if a student had been sitting there.

Whitman scored fifth for health and safety.

It lacks basic essentials for keeping our students safe.

Students must access interior classrooms from the exterior creating a significant safety barrier.

I'm an immigrant here in the United States.

I am shocked by the lack of tax support for our students here in Seattle and in Washington in general.

It is our responsibility to provide all students in Seattle with a safe and adequate learning environment.

I ask again that you consider asking for the largest levy possible so that students don't have to watch for falling ceiling tiles.

Thank you.

Thank you Superintendent Juneau and directors.

My name is Sarah Gist.

I'm a parent of a fourth grader named Natalie and a son who graduated from Kimball two years ago and he's currently at Mercer International.

I was the president of the PTSA for two years two years ago when both kids were at the school and I'm here to ask for money for Kimball to be rebuilt from the BEX V levy.

As you know Kimball Director Burke you were there last night.

Kimball is a very diverse school both culturally and economically and that's something we're very proud of.

It also serves two of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the south end and in all of Seattle really Columbia City and North Beacon Hill.

And well we love the current building and its concept of openness.

It's way past due.

It's shabby.

It's dark.

It's low ceiling and it's sprawled out across something that's taking up valuable resources that could be kids playing out on the playgrounds.

Thank you for correctly identifying Kimball as one of the highest need schools for this levy and identifying its proper ethnic component that makes that up.

A new school would benefit our youth and the rest of the community in a number of ways and I've been giving it some thought and I have kind of four buckets where I think it's going to make a really big impact.

One it's going to be safe.

We need proper egress.

We need fire sprinklers.

We need updated pipes so that there's potable water in the school.

There's no water in the portables that's potable.

We need environment and environmentally sustainable solutions where the water runoff doesn't clog up the streets and make it a flood for the whole month of March.

I was at a meeting last night and there were a record number of attendees.

It was standing room only because we don't have a capacity to have a meeting.

I hope we can figure out an inclusive and transparent way that all Kimball families can be part of this selection process, and I thank you and appreciate all your work in this.

School district directors thank you for having me.

My name is Carissa Palmer and I'm the parent of a Kimball elementary fourth grader first grader and this guy hopefully a future kindergartner.

I wouldn't be here with a two month old if it weren't important.

I'm here to ask you to move Kimball forward and rebuild our school as a part of the BEX V levy on the February ballot ballot.

I'm a Seattle native and a proud alum of Seattle Public Schools.

The resourcefulness grit and compassion that I learned in my public education have helped shape me into who I am today.

I definitely knew as a parent I wanted the same thing for my for my kids.

And when our oldest son entered kindergarten at Kimball our whole family joined a bustling and diverse community.

One of the first dads I talked to told me that our kids teacher Ms. Wu had actually taught his friends kindergarten back when they were students.

I was really struck by the commitment of the longstanding teachers and staff at our school.

In first grade our oldest tested into the HCC program and we were faced with a tough choice.

Although the chance for him to be in a more rigorous academic setting was appealing we decided to stay at Kimball.

We just couldn't leave the beautiful community and the chance for him to have a really unique educational opportunity learning from and alongside peers of many different cultural backgrounds different religions and life experiences.

In closing Kimball is a beautiful asset to our community.

One worthy investing in.

We're so proud of the Kimball we have today despite the serious failings of our facility.

But we absolutely need to give our students a safe and modern building to give them the opportunity to succeed that all kids should have.

Finally we really appreciate you having us and for hearing the need to invest in Southeast Seattle.

Thank you so much for keeping Kimball on the list as you move forward.

My kids our community and future generations are so grateful.

Thanks.

After Greg Ramirez we will have John Persak followed by Brian Terry and then Rebecca Aldrich.

See if I can get this to stick.

There we go.

Good evening my name is Greg Ramirez and I'm a lifelong resident of Georgetown.

My family has lived there for almost two generations.

I'm also the chair of the Georgetown Community Council which represents the thousand plus families that reside in our neighborhood.

Georgetown is a diverse community with families from many different backgrounds.

For decades Georgetown has been overlooked and taken advantage of because we are surrounded by industry.

I remember growing up and telling people where I lived and the response was almost always, where's that?

And when I explained to them where it was, it was usually followed up by, there are houses down there?

Over the years we have faced many different attacks.

Pollution from the aforementioned industry, cuts in public transportation, and a general lack of basic services.

Maple School itself has been demolished twice to make a way for business interests impacting Georgetown.

This new proposal boundary proposal would remove most of Georgetown from Maple School and cut our community in two.

It would take away the one thing that helps mitigate all of the negative impacts we face.

This boundary change will have a ripple effect that decreases our community's quality of life.

Georgetown is defined by many things and one of those things is our resilience.

We come together in times of need and adversity.

We do this out of necessity not privilege.

We wear this as a badge of honor.

If certain entities had their way Georgetown would have been gone long ago.

But we fight and we will continue to fight.

The original boundary proposal gave other residents involved five years to prepare for this change.

This new proposal being thrusted onto the Georgetown community would give our families 30 days to rearrange their lives.

We also believe the data influencing this new proposal is inaccurate.

One example of that is why Georgetown is being potentially cut in two.

SPS claims no families with children live in the north part of Georgetown that is being allowed to stay at Maple.

This is incorrect.

I met with a family that currently has two children attending Maple that live in that area.

If this is wrong what else is.

If the board is serious about making a decision on equity around equity take the time to do it right.

Honor the timeline and decision made in 2013 that would keep Georgetown together and Maple School on behalf of the Georgetown community.

I urge you to stop this new proposal now.

Thank you for your time.

Brian Terry.

Good evening.

In our schools today a white student is 20 times more likely than a black student to be identified as highly capable.

This is a result of more than three decades of putting the needs of privileged students first.

These misplaced priorities are the primary obstacle to equity today.

Last year the WAC was updated.

Districts must now document how they will identify more highly capable low income students.

In your handout you will find a list of three things our district promised to do.

First is universal testing.

Unfortunately this was not a priority and we did not complete the testing in time.

No students were identified as highly capable.

Second on the list is to share our data with a nonprofit and hope that they can make up for some of our neglect of low income students.

Third and finally we will reach out to students of color with high achievement scores.

This process identified only a few students as highly capable of those identified.

It is not clear if any of them were actually low income because we did not prioritize these efforts.

They failed.

If we do make it a priority we can make a huge difference in these students lives.

And if we don't we need to ask why our priorities are so at odds with state law with district policy and with racial equity.

Thank you.

After Rebecca Aldrich we will have Martin Cortez followed by Anna Howell.

Hello I cede my spot to Rosario Medina.

Hi my name is Rosario Maria Medina.

My family has lived in Georgetown for five generations and I have lived there my whole life.

Maple is the closest and safest school to walk to.

Concord Elementary is not a walking option when there is no sidewalk or pathway to South Park.

The families would have to cross the train tracks on an active route that does not have any signage or marker to notify when a train is coming.

And I would like to highlight there is no sidewalk.

Woon Luke and Van Asselt are not walkable and it takes two Metro buses to get there.

I was not able to attend Maple due to there not being space for me.

I was bused out to Columbia City Wallingford and Lake City.

The school bus was almost two hours long as I was first to get on and last to get off.

I had a single mom with no car and two jobs.

So on days when I missed the school bus I would take two Metro buses or walk alone.

Because I did not have a nearby school I was denied the opportunity to be in clubs and sports.

I was too tired from my commute and was not the best student.

My community has many health disparities.

Georgetown residents have a life expectancy of seventy three point three years eight years shorter than Seattle and King County average and 13 years shorter compared to Laurelhurst community.

Our air quality is three times worse than Beacon Hill and we have no amenities our community hub.

We are an environmental justice community that is ignored underrepresented and underserved.

I am a board member of the Friends of Georgetown History Museum, and I work at the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition Technical Advisory Group.

Please contact me to learn more about Georgetown.

Please honor the 2013 promise to keep Georgetown kids at Maple.

Please give us time and support that we need to address the overcrowding and equity issues within the school and find a solution.

I would like to give you a healthy impact information and my information as well.

Thank you.

Hello board.

You guys are doing great hanging in there.

My name is Martin Cortez and I am a father of a second grade Mexican-American English language learning student at Maple.

She's been thriving at this overcrowded school and I'm really grateful to the teachers and staff at Maple for enabling her to thrive.

Oh there she is right now.

OK.

So I'm also grateful to you all for allowing me to give this testimony today.

So I'm here because my historically disenfranchised daughter's future is at risk.

It's become threatened by a proposal to suddenly gerrymander Georgetown out of Maple.

This proposal which was put forth with zero solicitation from the Georgetown community is the result of unofficial repurposing of the racial equity policy of SPS.

The arguments for this proposal misrepresent a small sample size of data to create a false narrative that, quote, Georgetown is white, and therefore it should be impacted in the name of racial equity.

Meanwhile, the SPS documents itself that this data is quote, showing no significant difference in the demographics of impacted students.

Georgetown is not white.

When you make that argument, you erase my family and all other families of color from the neighborhood.

Georgetown is increasingly diverse with over 58% of a sample of new residents in the past year being people of color.

It is a small, scrappy, and welcoming patch of land that champions racial equity and wants to keep all of Maple together.

Board, please squash this alternate boundary proposal now.

Take the time to refine and confirm the reliability of your equity index before considering updating the existing agreement.

Maple Elementary is overcrowded, but it's thriving academically.

It's a model school for diversity.

Stop this proposal now, take it off the table tonight.

Take the time to get racial equity right and support Maple.

Support its staff as well as all of the Beacon Hill and Georgetown communities to help keep Maple united and thriving, thank you.

Good afternoon or evening I guess now.

Seattle Public Schools board staff.

My name is Anna Howell.

I am a proud Seattle Public Schools employee of 13 years.

I'm a mother of two wonderful Maple students and I'm a resident of Georgetown.

I have a lot at stake.

I'm here because of the recent news that SPS is potentially going back on commitments and put forward a rezoning option for Georgetown and to move from Maple to Van Asselt on South Beacon Hill.

I'm shocked as a parent because we are going you are going against previous commitments to keep Georgetown with our neighborhood school when this option was previously discussed and roundly rejected in 2013. I'm also disappointed as an educator given this district's significant reinvestment in 2009 back to neighborhood schools.

Maple is our neighborhood school.

As residents of Georgetown we have chosen to raise our kids in part of town that suffers from many disadvantages like you've heard.

Porous air quality in the city, crime rate much higher than those of other areas, as well as being isolated from other neighborhoods due to freeways and rail yards, industry.

And the reason many of us continue to invest in our tiny little neighborhood is we have an awesome school community.

It's reasonably within walking distance.

Many of our families don't have access to cars.

and personal transportation.

Forcing them on buses would take them away for kids after school programs that are vital for enrichment after care tutoring.

They won't be able to participate.

A neighborhood study presented to the district proved that the route from Georgetown to Van Asselt was objectively unsafe.

It lacks pedestrian buffers being walking across freeway on ramps.

break corridors exposing kids to traffic risks environmental hazards and pollution.

Lastly we understand nobody wants to leave Maple.

But five years ago you made a decision.

Please honor that decision and don't move us from Maple.

Thank you for your time.

This concludes the sign up list for public testimony this evening.

Thank you.

OK we return to board comments.

Director Mack.

Good evening again.

I think the public testimony is my favorite part.

I'm sad to see a number of folks that were here testifying that have already left the room because this is.

This is our opportunity to feedback and share our thoughts on your testimony and for you to know that we are we are listening and incorporating it.

I first wanted to say right off the bat that I have my community meeting scheduled the same day as Director Burke does November 3rd.

Mine's at 11 to 1 at the Magnolia library and the December 8th 11 to 1 at the Queen Anne library.

So not exactly at the same time you can hit both of our community meetings if you like.

Again I'm so grateful for everyone that came out today.

The BEX process has been long and extensive and challenging I think for everyone to be keeping up with how the process has been going.

What you'll find today in the agenda is a full comprehensive facilities master plan that had update that has a lot of great information including the condition scores the buildings etc.

The scoring system we've used lots of great information.

And also what is on our docket for today is the proposed project list for the levy.

And I think that in the shifts that have gone on over the last few weeks and the development of the proposed project I think some folks may not be updated or may be a little bit confused about what's actually on there and what's being proposed.

I want to clarify that currently and this can change because it still has to get voted in but.

Currently John Rogers is on the list for a rebuild.

Sacagawea is on the list to have some major seismic not seismic site improvements and then to have some planning for the rebuild of the building be done.

Kimball is presently proposed to be on the list.

Mott Lake Northgate Viewland.

West Seattle for a classroom addition that's still needed in that area of town.

Mercer Aki Kurose has a design only eight million dollars that is proposed and Rainier Beach is on the list.

It did not get deprioritized.

Rainier Beach is on the list.

It's on the list.

I also want to say that I you know I really appreciate the input and the community comments in the process and staff's responsiveness to that.

And I also want to thank my colleagues for participating in our board process around.

The policies that we set forward to set our guiding principles and to have objective measures to to weigh against those guiding principles.

And as you all know we set equity as the overarching principle for BEX V and I feel really proud of the work that we've done to attempt to get to a package that meets the needs of our students.

When we're making Sophie's choices because the reality is that we have identified well over two point five billion dollars of need.

There are 20 schools on the list that need to be rebuilt.

We can't do all of them.

We are making Sophie's choices when we are making these choices of which ones actually get to be done first.

And it absolutely positively breaks my heart.

But what I think folks need to also know is that What also is in this package is addressing the critical needs of those buildings that aren't being rebuilt or renovated.

So with Sacajawea for example their site improvements those critical needs are in there.

There's there's a long list and it's in this package.

That a lot of schools that have critical needs are going to get those needs met.

Now they're not getting the full rebuild but we want to ensure that safety and security of our students is being met.

The other thing that I want to bring up that I.

About the package.

is removal of the old portables.

That's another piece that's really important.

So there'll be more about this and when we talk about it in a little bit there will be a presentation on it.

But thank you so much for all of your comments and please know that you're being heard.

Director DeWolf you're next.

Thank you President Harris.

First again I want to recognize that we are on stolen indigenous land and I am honored to live work and serve in the Coast Salish territories in the city of Chief Sealth who was a descendant of the Suquamish the Muckleshoot and the Duwamish.

I want to give a special thank you to Principal Lori Kazanjian and Assistant Principal Alexandria Redd and also family support worker Mr. Irvin at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School.

I was really grateful to visit.

Bailey Gasser yesterday to hear about the incredible work and the magic that they do.

That really happens at their school through the critical partnerships that they've developed with the city Seattle University Seattle Housing Authority neighbor care and a few others that ultimately are rooted in equity and and help each student reach their full potential.

I do mention Mr. Irvin for a reason because I am a bit concerned about the ways that some of the folks in our community are talking about the city's levies for our schools.

Family support workers like Mr. Irvin are deeply critical to the climate and the day to day harmony of operations at our most vulnerable schools.

Our family support worker supports the whole child their health their housing needs mental health sometimes families fleeing domestic violence.

We know that each student's success can be more assured when they have a caring adult in their life like our city funded family support worker Mr. Irving.

Another issue I'm tracking and I'm greatly interested in is our work around ethnic studies and I'm becoming concerned about one key aspect of this work as it relates to native history and curriculum.

So I want to make just an explicit point in hopes that it will help inform our work around ethnic studies native studies STI and ethnic studies are two separate departments.

A key difference particularly as an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree tribe.

A key difference is that Native Americans are not communities of color.

We are sovereign nations.

Ethnic studies can add STI.

However I hope that they do not write or create any new curriculum as it relates to indigenous peoples.

Tribes must be consulted about this curriculum.

I encourage this work to maintain fidelity and purity of STI and our future ethnic studies curriculum.

And finally I'm hoping for LGBTQ inclusion to be if it's part of the ethnic studies to be thoroughly reviewed by our partner and friendly organizations here in Seattle who are doing LGBTQ work.

Also I was really grateful to be able to sit into the executive committee last week with Jill and Eden and one of the ideas I shared I just want to bring up here is to move a couple of our work sessions out into the community and I look forward to incorporating that into our board goals as we move forward in the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow I will be at the African-American male advisory committee for their monthly meeting.

Friday we are working on I'll be joining some folks Lisa Love in particular here at the district working on refining our student information system slot name and gender markers in our system so that's more inclusive for LGBTQ folks.

I'll give a report out back after that.

I'm looking forward to joining Leslie and Betty is we're going to drive over to Leslie's meeting this weekend for her community meeting so we'll be there on Saturday and then next week I'll be traveling to Baltimore for the Council of Great City Schools conference with Leslie and Superintendent Juneau and really looking forward to that and I'll report back on any high level items of importance to our board and our district at the next board meeting.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Who's up next.

That would be Director Patu.

Good evening.

It's always a wonderful thing to come here and just listen to what communities bring to us.

I think is a That's our purpose is actually to be here and make sure that we hear you loud and clear and that we're doing everything we can to make sure that we provide the best excellent education for all your all our kids because it's very important that our kids are well educated.

I believe that you know just being on the board itself is a very important thing because we make very important decisions in terms of what does education look like and what is that we can do more of in order for us to provide those opportunities for all our children so they can be able to excel in many ways when we talk about education.

I'm from a family of 14 kids and that's a lot of kids.

And our parents actually my father was a school teacher and he believed that education was very important and to try to educate all 14 of us that was really hard in those days.

But he became our teacher and taught us that education was very important.

So as a child.

I you know I always believe that there was always more to learn even though at times I don't want to learn as a lot of kids you know that you'd rather have fun than actually learn.

But in reality you know education leads you to a direction that a lot of time as a person from a different culture you find different things in terms of when you're actually learning about different ways and just so much to learn.

And I think it's you know as a board director it's so important that we provide those opportunities to all our students in Seattle Public Schools.

And I have to say that you know being on the board for I'm actually the longest board director sitting here.

I really applaud all the board directors up here because their hearts in the right place.

And believe me I — That's right and we're fun.

But you know it's important.

It's an important job because we decide what's best for all our kids in Seattle Public Schools.

So I also thank the parents and community for supporting us.

We may not always do the right thing or say the right thing but I believe that our hearts in the right place and that we're here for a purpose and that is to make sure that every student that is served in Seattle Public Schools get the right education and actually are able to when they leave our schools.

that they actually have something that they've learned from whatever school they went to that will lead them to the next generation or their next future.

Betty do you have a community meeting or are you going to combine with mine on Saturday.

I'll probably combine with yours on Saturday.

OK.

Game on.

So I'm going to combine with.

I'm going to keep us moving here because we still need to have the.

OK.

I'm almost done.

Wrap her up darling.

But I want to say at the end is I thank you so much for all the support.

As long as I've been on this board and you know there's more to come and hopefully that by the end of the year or end of my term that I was able to serve your kids as much as I can in terms of providing that excellent education for all your kids.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Director Pinkham you're up.

I'm going to keep it short.

Got to have the internal auditors report prior to our taking the break.

Thank you for coming and good evening.

Thank you to all the speakers over here sharing your perspectives and viewpoints because we need that as your representatives elected representatives to hear your voice.

Shout out to the Nova students who are there at their poetry and spoken word allowed their creativity to come through.

Thank you to our student.

Yes.

Tonight Mr. Ali from Chief Sealth Chief Sealth International School.

Thank you.

And.

Ethnic studies.

You know I do see a need that yes we need that are in our schools are making the graduation requirement.

University of Washington student body actually was the one that fought and eventually mandated that a diversity credit was required to get a bachelor's degree from there.

So for us to say yes we support the diversity and respect and acknowledge where we're at to require that of our students to graduate from high school I think is a step in the right direction which also kind of ties into my support eventually if we can get American heritage high school back not as a school just for American Indians but to respect where we're at as far as a city and.

and population that if we can have a school that would show hey here is a story from the native perspective of what happened and would also welcome other perspectives and it wouldn't mean that all our native students go there but any student can go there.

So that's why I see we can tie this into a good effort.

Ethnic Studies Indian Heritage High School to acknowledge where we're at as a school.

Thank you to the Georgetown community coming here and sharing your perspectives as well.

You know that I just enjoyed the diversity of your population that were here.

It wasn't just one particular ethnic group or racial group.

The diversity I really appreciate.

Thank you for coming here and sharing your words.

The levy the levy project director Mack addressed that as well.

I want to say that I won't support a levy unless Rainier Beach and John Rogers are on it.

Plus all the other things that will be for safety issues that we need to make sure our schools are.

safe for our students.

Remember Superintendent Juneau talked about sidewalks.

Students need sidewalks they want sidewalks to be able to walk to school.

So listen to hey if we don't have sidewalks are going to help our students get to school safely.

We need to think about some things as we look forward to progressing with the levy.

to my next community meeting will be Sunday October 28th at the Northeast library.

It'll be from 3 to 4 30. Please come and share your perspectives.

I don't have lasagna to share but I'll say eager to hear what you have to say.

Listening and learning tours.

I was at the Lake City and Roosevelt and thank you to all the community members there especially the one and not to say especially but I really appreciated the Lake City because again they're diverse turnout there and knowing that they said hey we are a diverse community as well.

We don't just have pockets of where there's really diversity south or north east or west in Seattle.

It's all around this district and we got to acknowledge that in our In our schools I think Lake City said there's 20 languages spoken just in that area alone.

And to know that it helps us to move forward.

I know they want me to wrap up here.

We got some time because I do need to get to Andrew Medina's report here.

So I just want to say Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ thank you.

And I do also see in the future that we have teachers that we hire that hopefully they'll come in with diversity experience.

The University of Washington College of Engineering is now requiring that of all our new faculties to submit a diversity statement before they'll be considered for employment.

So maybe that's something we can talk about here.

Can we ask teachers applying for jobs to submit a diversity statement.

Thank you.

Director Burke quickly.

Thanks.

I already mouthed off before the public testimony so I just wanted to add a quick thank you to everyone who came out because it is amazing to hear your voice to hear your stories.

Two topics around BEX V. I also remain committed to the Rainier Beach rebuild.

And I want to really emphasize for all the communities that are coming out here.

You know you're not a number.

We've got a rating system that doesn't mean you're a number it doesn't necessarily say oh this is because I am ranked number four or ranked number six that it sets who you are.

It's a tool that helps us refine.

And it can't capture everything.

Nothing can capture everything.

And so I think that that's the great dialogue that we've had around Kimball.

It's been a test case for other folks that feel that our our our tool is not working.

Help us make it better.

It's just going to get better and better as we go.

So thank you for that.

It does break my heart that Whitman and North Beach both alum schools for me are not on the major project list.

I think that that is going to be something that's going to.

create challenges in the future from capacity and condition point of view and we recognize that we're going to do everything we can to mitigate it both with incremental projects.

But those are the difficult conversations or think difficult decisions that we have to make.

And then I want to close the we had a Mr. J.J. Hall speaking about ethnic studies.

He said something that stuck with me and I just I want to echo it back and credit him for the words.

Don't leave us with a single story.

And I just thought wow.

Don't leave us with a single story.

And that was that's his call for you know ethnic studies provide those perspectives.

So it's in here it's in here it's in here and I just wanted to make sure it's out there as well.

Thank you.

OK last not least and fairly quickly my community meeting is indeed this Saturday from 3 to 5 at the Delridge library.

You have a 50 50 chance of getting lasagna because we are now down to the last two meetings of three used to be 33 and a third.

Now it's 50 50. And I'm told that my pals Director Patu and DeWolf will be joining.

So come on down we'll have a good time.

It's always robust.

Sometimes rowdy several really quick issues.

I did attend the Alliance black and orange gala on Saturday night and to my friends out there that think that I have sold out by that attendance I assure you I have not.

I would suggest to you though that the landscape has changed dramatically with the Alliance for Education.

We do not have a Seattle Public Schools Foundation.

We have to partner with folks that are willing to assist us in the philanthropic community and I'm ever so pleased that Amazon gave us the right now needs money for two million dollars.

I've I've teased Lisa Chick that I'm not coming unless they double it next year.

Put my pearls on and my heels.

The Monday ITAC meeting information technology access committee advisory committee could be accessed.

What a great bunch of folks.

What robust and rowdy conversation and and how technology seeps in to all of our issues whether it's pedagogy whether it's commerce whether it's how much computers cost whether it's are our staff trained appropriately on this.

How do we replicate those things that are in fact working.

These folks are doing a heavy lift and it's hugely appreciated.

Speaking of heavy lifts ethnic studies.

I hope folks aren't thinking that there is some way in heck.

The ethnic studies wouldn't be passed by an extraordinary margin.

This board has has supported the task force and the committees on ethnic studies throughout the last year and a half.

Now should it have taken pretty aggressive pushes from folks NAACP and some of our fearless leaders within our community to get us over the hump to do that work.

It should not have.

But we're in it.

I think and it's very rare that I speak for the rest of my colleagues because they're perfectly capable of speaking for themselves.

I think that this board is absolutely committed to that with respect to making it a requirement.

We're not there yet.

We're pilot projecting.

We've got a new coordinator of ethnic studies someone that is committed to the process.

Could you wave your hand there.

Miss Tracy Gil Castro.

This is exciting times with respect to Rainier Beach.

I don't think there's a person at this dais that doesn't believe that Rainier Beach is going to happen and remember Just because there's a ranking doesn't mean that one school gets built first etc.

It is a package.

And also remember that this board wasn't here during BEX IV and and BTA III.

So let's let's have a little historical lens here if we could.

Again.

Lots of good things going on in this district.

It's an honor.

It's a privilege.

I read every one of your e-mails I don't respond to all of them but I'm really proud of the board office for putting together some pretty thoughtful pieces going out on the hot topics and those are vetted and they're argued about and and they give you real information and get on that Web site because we are doing a better job than we ever have on uploading information.

We have a ways to go.

We sure do.

Listening and learning Youngstown was a blast.

Thank you madam.

Welcome to my neighborhood and art core and all the good stuff going on over there as well.

I'm going to wrap it up so that Andrew Medina our internal auditor can present.

He needs about 10 minutes before we take a break front and center sir.

Andrew Medina and I'm here to the director of internal audit and ethics officer and I'm here to provide two annual reports.

The first annual report is the internal audit report board procedure requires that I provide an annual report that covers the audits completed major findings corrective actions taken by administrative managers and significant findings not addressed by management.

We completed eight audits this year which is fairly consistent with our productivity of prior years.

We did have an auditor resign in December position was vacant for six months due to some delays in filling the position.

However we are currently fully staffed and happy to have a new auditor on board.

A majority of the completed audits this year were school audits but I wanted to highlight that this year's audits.

This year school audits included procedures beyond our traditional cash handling and receding objective.

The school audits this year contain procedures related to a variety of topics.

Even though we were auditing schools we were able to address a lot of different audit areas.

In essence we were also auditing areas such as substitute reimbursements student records graduation waivers online learning nutrition standards and building keys.

The next three slides identify the findings we noted this year.

These are just the titles of the different findings we issued.

I'll let you read through them but I wasn't planning to go through each of the each individual finding in detail mainly due for time limitations and also because.

Those are all posted on the web are they not sir?

Correct.

OK so knowing that you can count on those folks that want to know more about it to go to the web And each one of these directors I'm sure has read the report.

So yeah.

And then it's also very transparent.

Each finding is discussed in detail.

Each report is discussed in detail at a public audit and finance committee meeting.

Completed reports are on our Web page and then chair of A&F also makes an announcement at the next board meeting when we complete an audit.

The next topic is the corrective actions taken by administrative managers.

It's important to note that the corrective action process is a management function.

Auditing standards require us to remain independent.

As a result we make recommendations only.

We don't write procedures implement internal controls or direct staff.

Once we make a recommendation it's up to management to decide how that's going to be resolved.

They have an audit response manager who helps with that process.

Management prepares a detailed corrective action plan and then provides quarterly updates to the Audit and Finance Committee and then follow up audits can be performed if necessary.

The next slide shows some data that demonstrates the progress management is making towards resolving the audit recommendations.

We've issued 460 total recommendations since the audit department started.

Of those less than 1 percent are overdue and about 12 percent are still in progress meaning they're within their six month window to resolve an audit issue or they've been granted an extension by the Audit and Finance Committee.

This shows that management is making progress towards the corrective actions.

But the important thing to keep in mind is that this is based on management's assertion.

Management informs the audit finance committee that has resolved an audit issue but internal audit does not verify that the corrective actions were sufficient unless we've gone out and done a formal follow up audit.

We do not have any disagreements with management.

They have concurred with all of our findings but there are occasionally items that take longer to implement sometimes due to funding.

Currently there are a couple of.

Items requiring bargaining items that haven't been fully resolved yet because they need bargaining to go through bargaining.

The next annual report is the ethics report ethics policy requires a report detailing the number and type of contacts received percentage of contacts submitted anonymously and the status of the ethics training program.

I track every contact receive and log them into one of 10 categories.

Advisory opinions make up 40% of the contacts I receive.

These are people asking for advice.

Usually they're being proactive and wanting to know if something is acceptable before they do it.

The high number of advisory opinions is encouraging.

To me it demonstrates that the majority of employees want to do the right thing and are being proactive and making sure that they're making ethical decisions.

And then these numbers represent the total contacts I've received since becoming ethics officer which was July 2014. And overall my workload has remained consistent at about seven contacts per month.

This chart shows the percentage of anonymous complaints.

This is just complaints not the doesn't include all types of contacts just complaints anonymous complaints can be a bit concerning because they could signify that there may be a may be a lack of trust with the system or perhaps a general fear of retaliation.

The next slide provides a little bit more detail breaking down the anonymous complaints by the type of complaint.

Overall 50 percent sorry overall 57 percent of the complaints are submitted anonymously.

But you can see that a majority of those are actually personnel complaints which are usually related to discrimination harassment intimidation bullying that are actually investigated by H.R.

and not the ethics office.

When you say personnel complaints does that mean it's from our staff or complaints about.

our personnel.

That's very vague to me.

Help me understand.

It's about it's about a personnel issue involving our staff.

OK.

And could that come from fellow workers from students families.

Where does it come from.

Well with 77 percent being anonymous I don't always know where they're coming from.

But from the ones that aren't anonymous it can be either.

OK.

Thanks.

But if you do remove the personnel complaints then less than half of the remaining complaint types are submitted anonymously.

There are no changes to the ethics training program this year.

Currently the ethics policy is touched on in new employee orientation and then I'll provide training upon request.

I've also reached out to our media operations center about providing some online videos but to date there hasn't been funding provided for that option.

So the ethics office was funded mainly to be reactive to complaints and inquiries and we have some good established procedures to address that.

But as of now we don't really have the resources to be more proactive and provide ongoing ethics training.

The audit plan for the current year has been approved by the Audit and Finance Committee and is also available on our public web page along with all our completed audit reports.

There was one item I wanted to highlight in the plan.

It includes an item for board director projects.

Since the board directors don't have your own staff and you have to rely on district staff or other sources for information internal audit will provide board directors on a limited basis our services for informational research type projects.

Each board director will be allowed up to 16 hours of internal audit services and examples of this would be.

Verifying data researching compliance requirements or maybe benchmarking something against other school districts or organizations.

It couldn't be anything requiring a formal audit or opinion but just more informational research type projects.

And then lastly I just wanted to remind everyone that the audit plan can be changed if new risks are identified.

So if you so please don't hesitate to contact me if you learn of any significant concerns.

I also shared that same information with the superintendent when I had a chance to meet with her and asked her to view the internal audit department as a resource if she develops any concern concerns or questions along the way also.

Questions.

Colleagues have comments questions or concerns.

Director Pinkham.

I just want to thank Andrew Medina for all the work that he does for our office and appreciate everything that you do and that you were short staffed for a while and we're still to proceed and match what you did in previous years when you're at full staff.

So looking forward to this upcoming year and any of the other directors up here.

I'll take some of your 16 hours if you're not going to use them.

I said it first.

Hold on.

But again thank you.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Thank you.

Let me echo that.

Chairing Audit and Finance and working that closely with you really was a highlight.

And I have to say this sort of balancing if you will having an internal auditor you're our second board employee after Superintendent Juneau.

We have two and only two and folks have a real misimpression sometimes that we have lots more power than what we may have.

But your graciousness and your willingness to take a look at things is hugely appreciated.

Thank you.

We are going to take a recess until 7 20.

you