Seattle School Board Special Meeting District VII Candidate Forum PART 2

Our fifth question for these candidates.

What is your experience around utilizing racial equity analysis in decision making?

You each will have one minute to respond.

The first candidate, Salisbury.

Thank you.

So in my 22 years with the city as a project manager and now as a manager of a unit in a division, every decision I've made in terms of contracting, in terms of partnerships, in terms of resource allocation, I've had to use the race and social justice toolkit.

And so that is very important in our decisions.

It also impacts how I allocate those resources.

So specifically in the area of trails, I'm also the urban food systems coordinator.

So I speak a lot about food security and allocating resources.

For example, we put a lot of resources into Mara Farms in South Park.

opposed to some other areas of the city so I'm very familiar with equity and inclusion zones and in my volunteer life as a director board of director of real change one of the things that came to light through a study and our analysis on how we support vendors was the fact that most of the homeless a high percentage of homeless in King County are in fact african-americans and And that percentage has not gone down, even though we have reduced some homelessness.

So I have a lot of experience working in that area and applying a lens to those decisions.

Thank you.

Foster.

Thank you.

I come to this work with both experience as a racial justice organizer for organizations like Got Green and Puget Sound Sage and with deep policy experience having worked as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Policy and Innovation and Seattle Public Utilities in the director's office which is a billion dollar utility using a racial equity lens to analyze decision-making.

One of the things that I'm most proud of is an analysis that I did of a social service program we ran that helped support people who are coming to the utility to get bill support in crisis.

My analysis showed that people were coming in and getting temporary support, and while they were eligible for a more permanent support system, we weren't doing the work to automatically transfer them over to that system.

So I did the work with my colleagues, with our budget analysts, with other staff in the department to be able to address that challenge so that when folks were coming to us in their moment of crisis for temporary support, we're automatically putting them onto the long-term support program.

That's the lens, right?

It's our job to do that, to make it easier for the folks that we serve to access our services.

I also believe that racial equity analysis tools are critical, but it is the process.

Racial equity tools are helpful for getting us thinking about the questions.

I've seen projects that have been done without racial equity analysis, tools that have actually been great for racial equity, and I've seen the tool be applied for projects and not come out so good.

It's about who we're asking.

It's about doing the deep community engagement.

It's not about checking the box on using a tool.

Thank you.

Hairston I think it's me.

Candidate van Arcken.

Okay sorry.

So so so almost all of my work here at the district has involved racial equity analysis.

When I first worked with Director Patu on boundaries for the southeast I used racial census data to analyze who got to stay at their schools who had to leave and I proved it was unfair.

And then I conducted another analysis to look at where community feedback was coming from and I proved that most of it was coming from schools with mostly white students.

I've also worked with the district's research team to show them why they needed to disaggregate their racial data, and that has resulted in more funding for Southeast schools.

I've also analyzed the district's racial data to advise them on where I thought they were straying from federal privacy law and they've updated their work based on my advice.

So basically all of my decision making is done through a racial equity lens and as a director I would continue to analyze everything through a racial equity lens.

Thank you.

That was Ms. Van Arcken.

I didn't mean to get these names.

I was writing on it, and I should not be looking at my own writing.

Now, candidate Hairston.

Thank you.

So my experience comes in several things.

I think probably the first that I'll mention, which is less locally related, is I'm working for a very large global technology company.

For the past year, I've actually led a global project on improving education and employability outcomes for students around the world.

looking at the fact that most countries that are developed actually make their decisions for how they fund on the basis of working with students who are the farthest out.

And that an equity lens is the lens.

And so one, I'm not just familiar with models that work internal to the district, but bring experience for models that work really around the world for thinking about education.

in equity.

In leading a service organization working at about $112 million budget and serving about 3 million beneficiaries around the country, we had to analyze demographics, we had to analyze outcomes, not just to ask for funding, but to then make funding decisions.

And so I've worked across the spectrum of how we think about equity analysis, not just in how we improve service outcomes, which is one aspect of it, but how we allocate funding and also how we ask for funding, and then finally, I've worked at the national level to improve economic mobility for the lowest income Americans, which was a broad topic about three years.

Please summarize.

Yep, and our work can be found on Convergence Policy's site in terms of what we produce.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Vose.

So through my organization, we work with AmeriCorps members who are providing relationships and services to students in schools.

And one thing we realized a couple years ago was that a lot of our core members of color were not persisting through our program.

So they weren't feeling like they had what they needed in order to make it.

And we did an analysis of why was that?

Why was that happening?

What was their experience like?

And found that they did not feel like they belonged.

And I think this is a mimics a lot of the experience our teachers of color have within our school systems.

That when they were attending racial equity trainings, these trainings were geared towards white folks, and they were often being put in the position of being a teacher in those spaces.

So we re-geared all of our training, we re-geared our race and equity summits, and we've centered our people of color within that.

And that was a decision that now has led to a much higher retention rate of those folks in our systems.

And much to what Dion was saying, when we look at data, we need to think about disaggregating it.

So when we think about students who are underperforming across our school system oftentimes are black and brown students that are actually at high performing schools get lost in the shuffle.

And if you look at the school it looks like a high performing school.

And when you look at the students who are lowest performing they're often our lowest performing students in the district in total.

And so when we think about the decisions that we need to make it's not just about our students in Southeast community it's about our students holistically and what are the policies and practices that we can put in place that address that need.

Thank you.

Candidate Hersey.

Let me begin answering this question by telling you a little story.

During my first two years teaching in Federal Way I was the only black male educator in my building.

In fact I was only one of two teachers of color in my building.

So that could only paint a picture for you of how data was being used.

Now I have experience using racial equity analysis and data specifically in an educational context.

I serve on my school's leadership team on our positive behavior incentives and supports team which is basically helping teachers be more culturally responsive and also I serve as my team's data lead for second grade.

So I have experience not only at a building level but at an individual level as well.

In the classroom we use data to better serve students as it pertains to both academics and discipline.

Last year in a meeting one of my colleagues essentially said that the students that we were serving were criminals because black and brown students over were overrepresented in our data.

We can not only use data as an outcome as in analyzing the outcomes for students but also improving our practice as educators and that is expertise that I plan to bring to the board.

Thank you.

Candidate Hahn.

Thank you.

On our building leadership team we have used the racial equity tool that Seattle Public Schools has and was really effective in helping us ask the right questions about the decisions we were making around budgeting and staffing to ensure that we included a racial equity analysis in that.

Somewhere else I'd like to see in Seattle Public Schools that we do more racial equity work is around the hiring of our teaching staff.

We know that 52% of our students are students of color and about 19% of our teachers are teachers of color and that's simply unacceptable.

Our teaching staffs should reflect the magnificent diversity of the communities that we serve.

We've seen in other parts of the country they have been able to do this chief chiefly by hiring teachers of color until such time as the as the demographics of the teachers reflect the demographics of the students.

I think that's something we should consider here in Seattle.

Thank you.

Candidate Rockey.

Yes so I've worked with my organization a nonprofit here and what we created was a strategic plan that actually aligns exactly with Seattle Public Schools.

And so our strategic plan was a five year plan that basically got students of color specifically black males to be able to complete and graduate high school.

at the same rate as their peers.

And so what we found was that we focused on black males.

We also focused on students of color.

We also looked at hiring more staff of color within our organization to work directly with students of color for those outcomes.

And then we also created a policy division within our organization to work with the legislature in garnering support for the program as well as funding that would benefit students furthest from the educational justice and we also enrolled our elicited other supports within partnerships.

So the other piece of my work I think in terms of using the racial equity tool as a PTSA president at Garfield High School I work with the school administration as well as the BLT and the teachers learning committee to align our mission and vision with allocations of funds to basically support our students of color and those who are furthest from the educational gap.

Thank you.

Candidate Smith.

Thank you.

I've had the privilege and honor to work as an intern in the City of Seattle Human Services Division Department a number of years ago.

And it was that department that's the catalyst to our current racial equity toolkits that are being used across our city and across our county.

Then for the City of Seattle, I went to the Civil Rights Office that now is an initiative that is across the City of Seattle.

I've also had the honor to use a similar racial equity toolkit in my current profession as a community engagement manager at the Children's Alliance.

At every policy or legislation that we look at, we always ask, how is this impacting racial equity?

What is the anti-blackness lens around this particular policy?

In addition to that as an officer for the Seattle Council PTSA we're always looking at the different policies at the district level with regards to an equity lens.

I want to highlight though one of the main components with all these toolkits is that you have to be accountable accountable to community and allow community at the table at the beginning of the planning of policy and not after the fact.

And I also want to highlight that it's important.

Please summarize.

Thank you.

Sorry that I paused.

At the end of the day, I have plenty of experience with the racial equity analysis.

What are your ideas for equitable access to appropriate advanced learning services?

Again, what are your ideas for equitable access to appropriate advanced learning services?

Thank you.

I want to start off with two data points.

In 2017, there were 26 schools where over 50 students were identified as advanced learners.

Only one of those schools was in District 7. I think in 2018, in HCC and the Highly Capable cohort, black students made up less than 2% of the students in Highly Capable, despite being 14% of the students in our schools.

The district is not identifying bright, black and brown students who belong in the Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Program.

That's the challenge.

There's currently a task force that's working on solutions.

I first want to name that if we're doing community engagement, we need to listen to what the community says.

So I want to see the recommendations that come from the task force.

I'm also interested in looking at options that include sort of school based norming.

I'm interested in options that look that rely less on our standardized tests.

We know that our standardized testing demonstrates a bias towards white students and middle class students.

So if we want to be able to solve the equity in advanced learning we need to look at our tools that we're using to identify the advanced learning students and be be willing to change those tools.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Van Arcken.

So I've spent the last 14 months working on the Advanced Learning Task Force, and I personally wrote the department's commitment to eliminating all racial disparities in advanced learning services.

In order to achieve that outcome, the solution we've come up with so far is that there is no one solution.

We can't just rely on a cognitive test, because all cognitive tests are biased.

We can't just rely on teacher identification because of implicit bias.

We can't just rely on achievement tests because achievement tests reflect affluence more than student potential.

So I think we need to look at multiple ways to identify overlooked students, including 2E and ELL students.

And if our results don't reflect the diversity of the district that means our results are invalid and we need to look again and again and again until we proportionally identify our students who are furthest from educational justice.

Thank you.

Candidate Harrison.

So I want to speak to what I think is at the heart of all disparity.

I think we have to think about assessment.

We have to think about access.

We have to think about the practices that lead to equitable outcomes.

But what underlies them is the cultural competence in our capabilities around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As a diversity and equity leader in my company, where I work and in our team, what we realize is unless we change the cultural competence of those who do these things and then change the measures by which we identify those students, you never get to outcomes that are equitable.

And commitment is great, but strategic practice change at the cultural level takes leadership.

And so while I believe a lot in the practices that we need, I believe a place where boards govern and provide the most strategic guidance is in the vision that they set for the kind of system we want to create.

Systems drive performance, and I think that's through thought leadership, through listening, through communicating.

We have to be active advocates creating places for the community to speak and for us to speak back.

Thank you.

Candidate Vose.

All of our students are highly capable and exceptional, period.

And we need to remember that language matters when we talk about this issue.

Tracking students and access to advanced rigorous curriculum does not have to be the same thing.

We know that students who are at different academic levels learn when they learn together, and they have access to curriculum that is rigorous and extends their thinking, all students achieve at higher levels.

Right now, we've currently seen at Washington Middle School, at other middle schools, at other schools that are in our district, that when students are tracked, oftentimes the students who are in traditional education fall farther and farther behind.

We need to advertise HCC to all parents in their family language and make them aware that this is an option.

Too often, entry points into these programs is a one-time thing that if you miss it, you don't have access to it as you continue on.

To me educational justice is not just about pigeonholing students into one dominant culture definition of success but allowing them space to create a path that is meaningful for them within their own context.

That is up to us as adults to rethink the support that we provide so that all students have are honored as highly capable within our district.

Thank you.

Candidate Hersey.

Thank you.

I agree with all of the policy proposals that were aforementioned.

But what I think we also need to consider is that all students benefit from the curriculum and best practices presented in highly capable classrooms.

So while I am interested in making the access to those programs more equitable I am also interested in seeing how can we implement those same practices in every single classroom.

Because our students deserve it and we know that they are capable of it and we have to work closely in partnership with the Seattle Education Association our communities and other stakeholders in order to realize that we can make sure that every student in this district is treated as if they are highly capable because they are.

What can we do to.

not necessarily eliminate bias because that is not within our power as individuals.

But what we can do is augment the system to better serve all students especially those furthest away from educational justice.

Thank you.

Candidate Hahn.

I would echo Brandon and Sophia.

We have.

highly capable students in all of our schools, all of our children are highly capable, and when we give them the resources they need, they will succeed.

At a philosophical level, I think I reject the idea of needing to do highly capable education because I think it's fundamentally biased and discriminatory against the students who do not receive it.

I think if we do have to do it, Then we need to do it in a system in which our highly capable cohorts reflect our entire student body.

And there are other cities in the country that have done this like Miami.

They've been able to do it but by changing the means of testing to find ways for more students to have access to these services.

And that is where I would like to go with highly capable education in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Rocky.

I would agree with all that's been shared thus far, but I think one of the pieces that is often missing, and certainly not all of our students can be measured the same, and they have gifts and talents that often go unrecognized, certainly in the arts, and often or not, academics are certainly important, but when we think about highly capable, I think we also need to think about our students who also are gifted in other ways, also allowing students to self-advocate themselves to enter our Highly Capable programs.

Because if students can see themselves, then why not listen to them and give them the opportunity to be able to advocate?

Why not allow their teachers to refer them into Highly Capable?

And why not allow partners who work directly with them in schools to also refer them into Highly Capable?

And also supporting the families in that process as well.

So communication is key, access is key, but advocacy, self-advocacy for students is huge because if I can see myself, then I can tell you that I am highly and more than capable and it goes beyond just academics.

Thank you.

Candidate Smith.

Thank you.

I agree with the candidates up here, what they have shared, and they've highlighted the highly capable program.

And so we definitely see some disparities or some inequities of who has access to that program or not.

But when I read this question, it asks about advanced learning.

And my understanding about advanced learning, those are students who didn't quite make it or get determined to be highly capable.

So when I think about advanced learning I think about South Seattle District 7 the different schools trying to figure out ways to support those students to give them the rigor educational support that they need.

And what what's happening at the schools is a different it's different at every school depending on what the principal assesses or depending on what that particular student or that population needs.

And what I would want to see is more alignment some shared best practices of how we can make sure and ensure that our students are getting the services and the rigor that they need.

But also the transition from middle from elementary school to middle school.

I would like us to evaluate how are we ensuring that these advanced learning students are still considered advanced learning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Salisbury.

Thank you.

I am a supporter of advanced learning.

I worked closely with Principal Howard at Garfield High School during that first year of AP for All, and there were some tenuous times with certain parents for and against it, teachers for, mostly for, so I was in, and that was my first real experience in really hearing from both sides of that debate.

One of the things I like to talk about, though, is that research has proven that Black and brown students are written off through racial bias at a young age by age by grade three you know and I truly believe that the bias is cheating our district in our community out of a generation of potential and When folks arrive in middle school, some of them arrive in high school, they're not even equipped to even feel as though they are ready to go and do advanced learning if they were able to, right?

And so to me, I'd like to see us engage and invest in allowing people to feel as though they are advanced learners at an early age.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What do you understand to be the highest priorities for your District 7 constituents.

Candidate Van Arcken.

I believe the priorities for District 7 families are the same as the rest of the district.

We want our kids to leave school prepared for college career and community.

We want our staff to look like our student body just like in the north.

We want our cultures to be valued in our schools.

We want our kids to feel fully included even if they're getting special education or English language learning services.

And we want our kids to get all of the good stuff the arts the music the drama just like at other schools.

And we want our kids to feel safe and supported in our schools with the same positive outcomes as the rest of the district.

Candidate Hairston.

I'm going to try to sum my response to the question into three words.

Respect for their human dignity, resources to practically achieve, and outcomes that we can be proud of.

I'm going to go off script, though, to say when this question asked the highest priorities, I also think leaders have to say, I don't know that we fully know.

This early in the process, I haven't heard from enough of you to have a solid answer to that question.

It's the role of a governing leader to create those spaces to listen.

And I still believe there's lots of room for me to listen, to understand, and to know.

And while I think parents want the same thing that I want for my kids, we want the same thing that we want for all students, I realize there's a lot to learn.

And I'm a learner, but I'm also a person of the people, and I'm interested in understanding more of what you all think.

The last thing that I want to say, which is a part of what I believe is a unique perspective I bring, is thinking outside of the box of what's been presented And I think as we think about education, we've got to create a greater link to employability.

The reality is that education is a pathway to success, but employability is the engine.

And it's something I've worked a lot on.

And I want to see how we start to not just think about the answers for today, but the answers for tomorrow.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Voth.

I find that often adults are centered in conversations that we have about priorities.

So I want to name something that I've heard from students across the district and from students in District 7, which is that overwhelmingly students of color want adults in their buildings that look like them and that respect them as students in their building.

Educators who look like our students is a long-term issue that needs to start being solved today, and also we won't see the proportion of educators of color match our students of color, especially in our district, for 50 years at the pace that we're going.

So we need to keep investing in those resources.

We need to continue expanding things like the Para2Cert program that allows our paraeducators to become certified teachers, and the Rising Educators program that takes young people who are interested in teaching and puts them in schools, and Knowing currently the reality we need more professional development around race racism bias that is consistent high quality mandatory and is supported with resources from the district.

In conjunction with that we need restorative justice and healing practices that honor and respect our students.

How do we hold teachers and adults accountable when repair happens within a building within the limits of the law.

We do that through having people be proximate to each other and requiring that when harm is done repair is done as well.

Thank you.

Candidate Hersey.

Thank you.

So I spent a lot of time in this building especially since announcing my candidacy for this position specifically here at Rainier Beach and other schools across the South End.

And I have heard not only from parents not only from community stakeholders but from students as well.

So much of what has already been said.

We need more teachers of color.

We need curriculum that reflects our students lived experiences.

We have to do something about ending the school to prison pipeline.

We need more representation and inclusion not only for our students but also for their families in the decision making process.

But what we also need to remember is that when we are having a conversation about what our priorities are that that conversation needs to be a living breathing dialogue.

It does not end tonight and it does not end here.

We as directors have to consistently be in communication not only with parents not only with families not only with stakeholders but with every member of this community because only together with as many perspectives as possible are we going to end educational injustice.

Thank you.

Candidate Han.

The theme I've heard repeatedly from many parents in District 7 is that we need to concentrate on the use of language and how we communicate with our parents.

We speak more than 140 languages in the Seattle Public School System and our families here in District 7 are new Americans from all over the world.

And I've heard from parents who try to communicate with their teachers and they speak too quickly.

I've heard from parents who talk about that they only have one chance a year to speak with their teacher when an interpreter will be present, which is at the parent-teacher conference.

And that's simply unacceptable and unwelcoming to our families who are new here and who are trying to navigate a new country.

I would like to see the district be much more proactive in providing interpretation supports to our families that need them.

You know when you go into a hospital or into an airport there's always an interpreter that you can reach by picking up a phone and talking to them.

And I'd like to see the district employ similar techniques to make sure that any time a parent has a concern that they want to raise with their child's teacher or vice versa a teacher needs to speak with a parent that they have the interpretation support they need to bridge that language gap.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Rocky.

Yes.

I think one of the things is that District 7 is no different than any other district in terms of what families and students want is access is equity.

It's to be cared for.

It's to be heard and to be valued.

And so my experience of what I've heard a lot from students and certainly their parents who echo that because often parents in our district are deferring to their students because when there are language barriers they don't feel a sense of empowerment or even welcomed into our schools.

And so one of the things I think that if we focus on bridging our community and understanding the subgroups of our community, yes, we know that we all want access.

We know that we want equity.

And we know we want our kids to be cared for.

But we also have to dive in deeper into our subcommunities, because there is a lot of suffering that's going on, suffering that our students bring to school with them.

It's mental health.

It is very serious.

And so when our kids find that education is daunting, that it is more labor intensive, then they are not even close to engaging academically or feeling that school is a place where they belong.

So I think as a community that we need to understand that our subgroup in our communities are also an issue of what concerns are.

So paying attention to those needs and concerns and issues as well.

Thank you.

Candidate Smith.

Thank you.

As I share my colleagues up here, their comments, but as I said earlier, that District 7 issues are similar across the district, but you will find that they're more concentrated here.

Because of the diversity within District 7, you can't say, what's the priority?

Every parent, every family here cares about their child.

And whatever their issue is, that's the most important issue.

That's their priority.

So it's hard to even prioritize that.

But the way I would lump it is that the priority is educational justice.

Whether that means we're dealing with bullying in the school, welcoming environments, Morse teachers of color whatever the gamut is nutrition it all feeds into the fact that we want to make sure that our children are having a quality learning experience that will access them to opportunities to thrive to whatever they want to be or whomever they want to be as in their adulthood.

Thank you.

That's my answer.

Thank you.

Kennedy Salisbury.

Thank you.

I think that one of the highest priorities for parents and in fact the District 7 overall is accountability.

If you look at policy 0030 and some of the other policies and the strategic plan, there is a great guiding set of principles, but it's about the accountability and implementing those principles on a day-to-day basis in each and every building.

So, what I think is the highest priority for my constituents is education and empowerment and participation that will lead to overall accountability.

If parents in the community know what's expected and know what's in policy and know what's in the plan, they can speak to that when they walk into the building.

and when they're holding their teachers, administrators, and other community members accountable, other parents accountable to what's in the plan.

Decisions that are made, we need to look at how those are made in relation to your education and knowledge of the system.

Thank you.

Candidate Foster.

So I share in much of what's been said.

I think over the last couple of weeks I've had the opportunity to talk to parents teachers and family members from about a third of the schools in the district and also participated with many of the candidates on the stage today at a forum that CSAC held last week.

The thing that I hear the most is that people want to be engaged.

that our district needs to make sure that our board representative is present in the community, that we're doing intentional outreach, that we're connecting with them on our decisions.

Because I think the community has a deep belief that if we are engaging with you in our decision-making, we will be making the right decisions.

That means when it comes to things that are important like disproportionate discipline.

That means when it comes to things that are important like having teachers that represent the students in the school district.

That means that when our students are graduating from high school, they're ready for college or career and technical service and career and technical careers rather.

So I think for me, my biggest thing I hear from the community loud and clear is be present, show up, listen to us and come back and tell us how your actions align with what you heard.

Thank you.

What is your position on charter schools in Seattle?

Candidate Hairston.

A hot topic and a live wire.

Having worked in the nonprofit community, the philanthropic community, and the corporate world, I fundamentally believe that competition is born out of opportunity.

While I have similar concerns around the question of do charter schools siphon money from public education, what's the accountability that they have, how do we think about the ways that they serve students and the outcomes they achieve, I fundamentally believe in the power of what Seattle schools can do for students that people aren't looking for alternative choices.

And I think the thing we have to pay attention to is families seek alternative choices when they're not satisfied with what they're receiving.

And that's where the customer's voice speaks.

And I would like to see Seattle schools be a place where no parent would ever think of taking their child to another school and I am also a candidate endorsed by Betty Patu.

I was actually invited into the process by the family and have met with them about three times and I believe that's because of my commitment to the quality of education to hearing from the people to a belief in the value of what I can deliver with my skills and experience and that's what I'm hoping to do as a part of this process.

Thank you.

Candidate Vose.

There are many families in our district, especially black and brown families, who have experienced generational harm and mistrust at the hands of our education system.

And because it hasn't worked for them, charters provide a choice.

So I empathize with why some families would choose to go that route.

However, regardless, if the charter schools were our highest performing schools in our country, which they aren't, public education matters, period.

I work in public education every single day.

And that's a choice I make because as a society, I will always believe that we are measured against the question, how are the children?

And until we can answer that every child in our public education system has access to an excellent education, we can't say that all of our children are fine or that all of them are good.

Sometimes communities choose at the ballot box and sometimes they choose in their actions.

And the fact that we've seen a couple of charter schools closed down locally in the last year is indication of what our community wants and needs.

Candidate Hersey.

Charter schools have no place in Seattle.

Point blank period.

But let me explain to you why.

Charter schools disrupt our mission of educational equity because I work very closely and I'm good friends with teachers who teach at charter schools and what I have heard from them is that within those systems students are over tested.

They are often not permitted to go to the restroom when they need to.

In fact, in one of the charter schools that recently opened in South King County, a child literally wet himself because he used all three of his restroom passes for the day.

We have to do something about this issue even though we I'm speaking as we as a community because frankly our board does not have any responsibility for what happens with charter schools in this district.

But let me be clear charter schools disrupt educational equity and they do not serve black and brown students as well as public schools do.

Thank you.

Candidate Hahn.

Thank you.

I'm very I'm much more concerned about how we make our Seattle Public Schools here in District 7 so attractive that every parent chooses to send their child to one of our schools.

I don't want to question a parent who's made a choice to send their child to a charter school and I think that the evidence of charter schools in District 7 points to the fact that there are things we can be doing better here.

What I would like to learn more about is why do educators who have been successful in the Seattle Public School System start charter schools.

Why aren't they staying in the Seattle Public School System and contributing there and what about of the environment of SPS is pushing them away.

To be clear though I'm not a supporter of the school board becoming a charter authorizer or the expansion of charter schools within Seattle.

I think we just it's incumbent upon us to really listen to parents and find out why are they sending their children to charter schools and what we can do better so we're more competitive here with our schools in District 7. Thank you.

Candidate Rocky.

You know the question becomes how do we get here.

How do we get here where public school is now quote unquote being compared to or what can you get better somewhere else.

I'm a product of public school.

My children attend Seattle Public Schools and they are receiving a fine education for many reasons and a lot of that definitely I have to attribute to parent engagement.

But the other thing that we must understand for black and brown people we have not always had options and choices.

There are economic issues that keep us from being able to have choices.

And so when we want to think about how are we going to educate our kids and making sure they get the best just like everybody else has had the best, that we must understand that when we as an education system for public education, when we are not doing it, Now black and brown people have another idea.

Something else has come forward.

But what I say to us as a public school and as a district, we can rise above it.

We can make ourselves better.

Because I believe in public education.

But I also know that black and brown children need to succeed as well.

Thank you.

Candidate Smith.

Thank you.

I first and foremost want to say I support family choice.

There is many families here in District 7 who have chosen to go to charter schools.

So I support family choice whether you choose a public school or whatever I just support your choice.

My involvement and participation is about holding the education institution no matter what it looks like accountable to the children that are serving because they're in my community regardless of what school that you choose.

I studied charter schools as a graduate student at the Evans School so I understand on a national level what happens with charter schools.

I understand how the money follows each student and if the student isn't in Seattle Public Schools we're losing funding and that plays a role in our teacher staffing and the resources that we get to offer our children.

In understanding that I've sent my children and I've chosen Seattle Public Schools.

So I just want to highlight that and that's my personal choice and I have my reasons for that.

And I also want to highlight my understanding of how charter schools work nationally and how they're working in Washington State.

I agree with the decisions that were made by the board because I understand that the majority of our students black brown indigenous what have you are in Seattle Public Schools.

So we have to make a decision that we can't just break.

The system's not working.

Our families are seeking refuge in other spaces.

Thank you.

But at the same time we cannot break down and dismantle the system that they're sitting in where it's going to be worse off.

So that's where I sit and I'm a hold every education institution accountable whether my children are there or not.

If you'd like more information go to the Seattle Public Schools website where they'll show you what charter schools are in the.

I'll have to ask you as a courtesy to close.

Thank you.

Kennedy Salisbury.

Yeah I too am a fan of family choice.

I believe that each and every family needs to make the choice that's best for them.

With that being said as I mentioned at the opening my children have attended Seattle Public Schools.

My son goes to South Shore right now.

I did send my daughter to a private school but at that for middle school because I wanted her to go to all girls school.

But that again that was a family choice.

But she did end up going to high school at Garfield High School.

And I do echo, I see you family, I do echo Barbara Rockey's sentiment that black and brown and Latin students and also Native American and indigenous students are doing terrible.

We've seen the data, we've seen the, you know, the analytics, the gap, the achievement gaps, we all see it.

And I just question when people say, you know, where do you stand on charter schools and the impact, I counter with, Where are you at on the exclusion gap?

Where are you at on the achievement gap?

Where are you on these things where we're failing our brown and black students?

Thank you.

Candidate Foster.

First, like many other candidates have said, I want to state that I empathize with families that are seeking options for their children when Seattle Public Schools hasn't worked out.

Second, I want to say I don't support charter schools.

I don't think they have a place in our community.

I look at the voting record.

I look at how they got here.

King County voters did not support charter schools.

Thank you.

But for me what I see as my role as a director is to work as hard as I possibly can to make Seattle Public Schools create equitable outcomes for the students of color and all students that are in our district.

You said it perfectly.

It should be a place that no family wants to leave.

I love the way that you said that.

That is the work of the board and that is the work that I will do if I'm appointed as a director.

Thank you.

Candidate Van Arcken.

I agree I want to make this district a place that no family wants to leave.

I oppose charter schools in Seattle in Washington State and across the country.

As a citizen I have consistently voted against them because charter schools bring a destabilizing destabilizing force to our city.

Charters can cap their enrollment at whatever level they choose while Seattle Public Schools must accept all students.

So it is not a level playing field.

When charter schools open it's nearby public schools that lose funding and when charter schools shut down again it's those nearby schools that need to suddenly expand to welcome back those students.

In that way charter schools make it harder for us to provide the predictable and consistent operations promised in our strategic plan and that harms our students furthest from educational justice.

Thank you.

What are your thoughts on the student assignment plan and boundary adjustments in District 7 and the rest of the school district?

Candidate Smith.

Thank you.

Again, as a parent at Dearborn Park International School, I've had a chance to see firsthand how student assignments and boundaries affect the school's enrollment and resources at our school.

My youngest son started there when the World Language Program started, Spanish and Mandarin.

And every year from kindergarten to the current year we're always trying to figure out how are we going to sustain that program.

We have a wait list right now where students could come in but the district won't allow more students to come in.

Understandably though because we take a student from another school it's going to disrupt the resources or the staffing at that school.

So it's a constant challenge.

So I understand the challenges.

I personally would want to look deeper into it look into other recommendations but I do see how our schools are struggling around that and I think it's really unfair to sit there and have our students in particular and our families always trying to figure something out by a system or decision that wasn't really made with us in mind.

Those are my thoughts.

Thank you.

Candidate Van Arcken did I pass you up again.

The question I should have asked you is, what is your position on charter schools?

Did you respond to that?

OK, I didn't put it on my notes, but thank you.

I was feeling really, really bad just now.

I was going to go, don't tell me I did it twice.

The candidate Salisbury.

My thoughts on student assignments and the boundary adjustments in District 7 are much like my colleagues here.

I believe in, first of all, walkability and the budgets, the stability of the budgets in the building to allow the ongoing programs and resources for the students there.

And I think it's unfair, and it's definitely unfair when we remove students based upon arbitrary boundary guidelines.

And so I'd like to see a balance.

I know that walkability to me as a parks person, I think it's very important and I like the fact that people are able to walk to school.

And so I'd like to see boundaries that really take that into effect.

And that's how I feel about some of the boundary plans right now.

Thank you.

Candidate Foster.

First, I want to actually take a second to celebrate a little something.

So I want to applaud the expansion of the international and dual language services at Rainier Beach that were in the last student assignment plan.

So many things that we're talking about where we're thinking about what we're doing upcoming, but it's important to celebrate things that have happened previously.

I think if I'm considering student assignment plans and boundary changes, I want to talk about the criteria that I would use.

And for me, those are community voice, making sure that there was adequate and deep community engagement and that the Parents and families of the impacted students are well informed and have been able to converse about the options.

Walkability and transportation and the impact on the displaced students from cultural and community connections.

I think it's important to look at who the students are that are impacted by race, by English language learner status, by students who are receiving disability services and to take those things into consideration when we are making decisions on which students are being moved according to boundary changes.

Thank you.

Candidate Van Arcken.

As I've stated over the last six years we need to ensure that all school boundary changes are racially equitable.

At Maple Elementary the district has suggested that we disproportionately displace black students Asian students Latinx students ELL students and special education students and send them to the eighth school away from their house.

And that's not fair.

We also need to make sure that our schools have boundaries that bring the right number of students to each school.

We can't have some schools stuffed to the gills while others are under capacity.

We need to make some hard decisions about these boundaries and make them in a fair and transparent way.

Thank you.

Candidate Harrison.

I want to agree with the panel on a number of things, particularly Foster and Van Arcken around the question of the criteria for decision making.

A few things I want to add to that is I fundamentally think we have to be data driven in the decisions that we make.

And data has to inform the way we think about how these things happen.

And I think it was mentioned earlier that there are community organizations like CSEC that have gotten input from How do people want to give us input on these kinds of decisions?

I think that parents and families need walkability.

I think they also need community.

And I think we know that children who are in community-based schools tend to have greater outcomes than those who have ever been bused into environments.

And so I think while we have to balance the data that leads us to decisions around funding, we have to also then take into account what that data tells us about experience.

And the kind of experience not just that students will have, but that parents will have.

Parents who have to work, who have to get their kids to school, who have to do all kinds of things.

And I think we have to add to that a sense of how do we combine this with thinking about not just how students are assigned, but how the educators who come into their classrooms where they're coming from and the kinds of cultural competence they bring to that equation as well because it's always...

Thank you.

Candidate Voss.

if you're in a low-income community with a certain percent of people of color, it's statistically probable that you are going to a school that's underperforming.

And that's mirrored here in Seattle, and school outcomes reflect the deep segregation that's present currently in our city.

Research also shows us that you can draw boundaries that either further segregate schools or boundaries that integrate our schools.

And analysis shows that in Seattle, we continue to draw boundaries that segregate our schools.

That has an impact on student enrollment, which any teacher in District 7 knows.

And enrollment is a very important thing to pay attention to because that is how resources are allocated into our school buildings.

So when we draw boundaries that pull resources away from schools that already need more resources, we're just furthering inequity in our school systems.

Often those boundaries are built to benefit our white schools and our white students and often the parents and families that show up at board meetings the loudest around this policy are ones that are furthering this divide.

So this is where we have to utilize that racial equity lens that we talked about earlier tonight when we're thinking about the ways in which we're drawing boundaries and we need boundaries that funnel more resources into the schools that need them most and not away from them.

Thank you.

Candidate Hersey.

I agree with much of what has already been said around boundaries and option right.

So when we are thinking about this three key things come to mind family and community voice sustainability in is whatever we do whatever action we take does it perpetuate mitigate eliminate or does it actually get to the point of redrawing the boundary.

Now we have to really understand how does this affect educational justice for the students who need it most.

If we are moving boundaries in an unsustainable way then that does not bode well for the longevity of that choice.

And the only way that we are going to be able to do that is with community voice with partnerships with the city council with partnerships with our legislative districts in order to best understand what is happening geographically in our district.

We have to make sure that if we were to make a decision like that that we get it right because as has been said it can oftentimes do more harm than good.

But if it is in the interest of students and the board thinks that that is the best direction to go with community voice then I am in support.

Thank you.

Candidate Hahn.

Thank you.

As we look at school boundaries I think we really should as a number of other candidates have said prioritize walkability.

I think as a parent there's nothing better than seeing your child be able to walk to their school every day and then when they come home play with their friends because we're all living together.

in the same community.

As we draw our school boundaries I'd also like to see special education services for all of our children provided in all of our schools.

Far too many of our special education students or students in special education are bused far from their neighborhood schools and for many special education parents that's a really a really big issue that we'd like to see fixed.

Another area I would like to see and this isn't exactly pertaining to school boundaries but I would like to see more of our teachers and our staff living within the neighborhoods that they serve and that means paying them enough so that they can live in our neighborhoods but also so that they know what is happening and they know our students.

The incident in Van Nuys was extremely disturbing on many levels.

One of the things I note the most is that that teacher did not live in Seattle.

I want to see our teachers who resemble our students and who live in our communities along with us.

Thank you.

I think everyone has said it for the most part of other candidates here.

Walkability is critical.

And when we look at our schools where boundaries are being considered to be redrawn, our elementary schools, and what does that say when young children who are developing in life and just in their formative years of their education, that they are now being placed in a position where perhaps they are not going to be included in their community in which they once were.

to know that a parent is having to think about, I have two or three children, and one goes to this school, then I have another who's going to transition to another school, and every school is a little bit different.

And so how do we think about families, and how do we think about the students as they're building their education, to be excited again about education, to feel safe about education, So I think when we think about redrawing our boundaries for our schools, and certainly when we look at elementary schools, they are formative years.

And so what imprint do we want to leave with our young students?

How do we want them to feel about going to school, engaging in school, if they cannot have a positive view and thinking about walking to school, building friends, also community, and also their parents are not kind of tight to how they're going to get to point A to point B to figure out how to get to one child or if it's going to sacrifice their job leaving early.

There are consequences, I think, for families who are having to think about boundaries being redrawn.

Yes.

Thank you.

That was our final question.

It is time now for closing statements.

Each of you will have one minute for the closing statement.

Candidate Salisbury.

First of all, I'd like to thank the committee and the directors for allowing us this time today.

This has been very informative and educational.

And I'm very excited about continuing to serve District 7 in any capacity.

I currently, like I said many times, I volunteer.

and I'm engaged in my community and I think this will be a great step forward.

I'm committed to working with the students and families of this community and I've done that in a real way consistently over the last 23 years in many capacities and I feel like I can continue to do that.

And I put the work in as a volunteer on a daily basis in this community.

And I would like to continue it in serving the families of District 7 and the families and students of the city of Seattle through the school district.

And I look forward to working as a thought leader and a collaborative board member.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Foster.

I just want to express my thanks to the audience for sticking it in for three hours.

To my fellow candidates up here, it's been such an honor and I'm truly humbled and proud to be here with you.

I'm really excited about the opportunity to serve our community in Southeast Seattle and our broader community across the city.

as a school board representative, as a school board director.

I believe I'd bring both the expertise in research and policy analysis, community engagement and collaboration, and the commitment to our kids to be able to do this work.

You all have a very difficult decision in front of you.

And lastly, I think I want to say thank you, or I said thanks to you guys, sorry.

I also want to say I'm proud to have the endorsement of Senator Rebecca Saldana, who serves this district well, and I would look forward to being just as strong of an advocate for you all.

Thank you.

Candidate Van Arcken.

I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to talk about all the work I've done for Southeast kids from student assignment to racial equity to special education to community feedback.

Besides being endorsed by Director Patu I've been endorsed by former Seattle City Council member and Hawthorne parent Kirsten Harris-Talley multiple presidents of the special education PTSA Past and present PTSA board members at Maple, Hawthorne, Aki Kurose, Orca K-8, and Dearborn Park, and by parents from schools across the Southeast.

I appreciate your support and I look forward to working with you to help our kids.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Harrison.

I'm extremely honored for the opportunity to be here and exceptionally grateful to everyone who has been a part of making this event an event.

And for all those who have yet to see it and will, I just want to maybe affirm a few things.

One, I'm committed and passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, not just in the cultural attributes of that, but in the outcomes we see from it.

I'm a data-driven leader with governance experience across a wide range of organizations, projects, and institutions, and I have a passion to serve and a belief in all students.

The other thing I want you to know is that I'm open.

I have a great sense of what I know, and hopefully you've seen some of that, but what I also know is what I don't know.

And I know that there are voices we have yet to hear and people who have yet to be engaged.

What I also want you to know about me is that I'm community engaged.

I've been a leader in this community for 30 years at a business level and a community level.

And that I'm committed to seeing how we can all work together to better improve outcomes for kids.

And then the last thing that I would say is I'm experienced and qualified, 30 years of history and even more than that in family and parent.

I'm a product of public education at both the college level and at the high school and levels of secondary and primary education.

And my children are in public school.

My daughter is at Asa Mercer, and my kids have graduated from there.

And I'm excited about the opportunity for what we can all do together on behalf of children.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Boss.

Thank you all for being here tonight.

You could be anywhere and you chose to be here with us.

And thank you to the board for their putting on this process and for making sure the community had a chance to hear from us.

I'm grateful and humbled to be part of this process.

Like I said I've spent the last 10 years working alongside members of Seattle Public Schools and families in thinking about educational justice and working towards it for our students.

While I've worked adjacent and outside of that system, I want to utilize the skills that I've developed around creating policy, around using a racial equity lens, and around holding others accountable to work within our systems, to be within the system and do work from the inside out.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, this is simultaneously really personal for me, and it's also not about me.

The what is important in what we do and equally in this district the how is really important.

We must have students and families at the table when decisions are being made and when solutions are being crafted.

I don't know what is best.

I know that families and students know what is best.

I see my role as standing in the gap.

that between policies and systems that squeeze our families out and creating space for them to have a voice and to share my power with them as we come to think about what is best for our district.

My promise as the director of District 7 is to continue to engage our families and communities and have them at the table when those decisions are being made.

Thank you.

Candidate Hersey.

Ashe, Ashe, Ashe.

Thank you so much, everyone, for being here.

In my classroom, we have this thing that we do at the end of the day.

It's called a closing circle.

And my students give me feedback.

We talk about how the day went.

They tell me that the test was too hard.

They tell me that I give them too much homework.

And I feel that this is an incredibly important practice because it gives us the opportunity to reflect.

And I am so fortunate to sit alongside so many candidates who have in-depthly talked about the issues that are facing our district.

And now we all have an opportunity to reflect.

And in my reflection I'm thinking as Director Patu steps down from this position there is no longer an educator's voice serving on the school board.

There is currently not an African-American male voice serving on the school board and I hope to bring my experiences not only as a male of color not only as an educator not only as a union leader and not only as a resident of this district to the board but I hope to work closely as a team with my fellow board directors in order to achieve the outcomes for students that we need.

Thank you for your time and I hope to have your support.

Thank you.

Candidate Han.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Sims, for being an amazing moderator tonight.

Thank you to the board for giving us this opportunity to interact with the community.

And thank you to all who are still in the audience and listening and watching us on Facebook Live.

We really appreciate your involvement.

I'm a proud public proud product of the public schools from grades K through 12. My parents were both lifetime educators.

My children I'm proud that they attend Seattle Public Schools and we made the choice for them to go there.

I believe deeply in the promise of our schools as a fundamental part of our democracy.

to create a real multi-ethnic, multi-racial democracy where we share power and justice with each and every one of us.

And I think we can do that if we stop making incremental change and we start moving a little bit faster and a little bit tougher.

We need to ensure that we roll out ethnic studies immediately with as much expediency as possible and devote the resources that it needs.

We need to ensure that we strengthen the strategic plan so that there are real time bound goals that we can hold folks accountable to.

We need to empower our students in our schools and we need to respect our students enough that we fully and completely eliminate the use of isolation restraint and suspensions.

Thank you.

Please reach out to me and I look forward to your support.

Candidate Rocky.

Thank you.

What an evening.

What an evening.

I came here full.

but I'm leaving even fuller.

And I pause because to take in this experience is so meaningful beyond words.

I thank the board for allowing me to step into this position to give to my community extensively beyond what I already have and will continue to do.

I think in terms of you think your greatest purpose you know someone always asks what is your purpose in life.

And I always said I was chosen and I do believe that I was chosen as the kid who went through foster care.

With no parent, no support, just a system.

I went from one system to another system, day in and day out.

My everyday job is what I do.

It's all about outcomes for students who don't have.

They don't have the very thing that most of us would want, which is support, advocacy.

They're trying to build that for themselves.

And so when I think about everyone that sat here this evening, all the candidates, I have no doubt or question that none of us are beyond capable.

We just are.

And so I am thankful for this evening and this opportunity to push forth equity, access, community engagement, and making ourselves accessible to our students.

They need us like you wouldn't believe.

They really truly need us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Candidate Smith.

Again, thank you all for being here today.

I am accountable to the community.

I'm accountable to you.

I'm here because of the work that I've been doing consistently.

I am the candidate who's ready to go.

If the train is moving, I've been on the train and I'm ready to continue to stay on the train and get this work done.

This particular strategic plan is phenomenal in a sense.

It's new oftentimes African-American males students furthest from justice are not even they'll say all students but it's not even like explicitly said this is an opportunity for the person who is ready to move take action and do the work.

I too have been endorsed by Rebecca Saldana our senator for 37th District.

I too am supported by our Seattle Council PTSA officers past present.

I too have the.

support from the community.

I've been doing this work with you.

There's leaders in this room right now that I stand on the shoulders of.

I'm the first person in my family to graduate from college, and ever since then, since high school, educational advocacy and criminal justice reform has been my passion.

I'm not going to falter on that.

As I said before, it's about holding our education institutions accountable.

Hold me accountable, and I look to you for your support.

Thank you.

Oh, you can stand and give them a cheer.

Stand.

This is an exceptional group.

All right.

OK, thank you.

Madam Chair, this concludes the presentation.

You have a, and the board have a very tough job.

This is an incredibly strong, strong field of candidates.

And did we do and I wanted to say Speaking of standing on shoulders, and I'm short and I need all the help I can get Thank you so very much for giving to the community in your career and Stepping in tonight, and we know where you live, and you're not done yet Thank you I

All right, come and meet your friends.

No, sir.

Oh, you got that.

Oh, yeah.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This is my meeting.

OK.

Let me see what you have.

God bless you.

Oh, look at all that.

I can sit down.

No, I was joking.

Go ahead.

I'm just teasing you.

We'll sit you down.

OK.

Folks, thank you for coming.

I'm going to go off script.

Ellie expects it.

But I'm going to get your dates.

for next steps.

And I would say a couple of things.

One, we know where you all live too.

And whoever, whomevers, does not get selected to finish out Director Patu's term, we need you, we want you, and I am awestruck by the brilliance on this panel.

And you're giving each of my colleagues, who I respect and adore, a collective headache.

We'll get through it.

Frankly, it'll be a little messy.

But good things usually are because it evolves and we collaborate and we like each other.

And whoever joins us, you're going to love us too.

And thank you for that.

August 12th, we have a public work session from 4.30 to 5.30.

for directors to discuss the logistics of the appointment process.

And as you've seen, we've made these conversations in collaboration with the help of our extraordinarily capable staff.

The comms team, way to go.

Thank you.

Ellie, way to go.

Thank you.

Hugely appreciate and you can't do this work alone especially when you work outside the home especially when your plate is full.

So staff director collaboration is the key to success and we're doing a better job of that every darn day aren't we Madam Superintendent.

She's nodding.

OK.

August 21 we hold a special board meeting to select the three finalist candidates.

September 11, 6 to 9, community questions.

All rules, all scripts are out the window other than time standards to answer said questions right here.

We'll see you again.

Good night, everybody.

And we are finishing early.