School Board Meeting August 28, 2019 Part 1

Good afternoon.

Welcome to the August 28th 2019 Seattle School Board legislative meeting.

As we begin.

We would like to recognize and honor the first peoples of the Puget Sound territories by acknowledging that we are on the land of the coastal Salish tribes.

Roll call please.

Director Burke.

Present.

Director Mack.

Present.

Director Pinkham.

Present.

Director Harris.

Present.

And directors DeWolf and Geary are on much.

Earned and.

Well needed vacation.

For those that would like to please stand.

Pledge of Allegiance.

Since we haven't started back to school yet we have no student performances.

Madam Superintendent the floor is yours.

Boom.

Well good evening.

Thanks for.

It's good to have you guys back after a good relaxing break.

Right.

So.

Before I start this evening I just really want to give a shout out and thank Ronald Boy for stepping into if he were here stepping in to be the interim chief legal counsel over the summer.

He's provided great leadership and support to the team over the last few months and I really appreciate his wisdom and compassion for students.

As we all know he did some deep work with young people on development of the dress code policy and just has really been helpful throughout this transition.

His focus on students really is amazing and we're so lucky to have him working for our students.

So thank you Ronald.

My comments this year during the board meetings will be tied to our work with our new bold strategic plan.

And I really do want to thank again our community and staff that we have a five year strategic plan that is focused on serving students furthest from educational justice with a laser like focus and emphasis on African-American males and their excellence.

This plan is about changing adult behaviors and our systems to ensure that all students see their individual excellence.

As I'm sure you've heard me say there are no broken students.

There are only broken systems and it is on all of us to create a system where all students thrive.

This year as you know we will focus on three goals in the strategic plan.

We're aligning our staffing and our fiscal resources to ensure that all students are reading by third grade.

Each student enters the schoolhouse and classroom feeling welcomed.

A sense of belonging and feeling loved.

And our educators have the belief that each student will be successful in the classroom.

As you also know we launched Seattle Super Readers last June.

We provided 10 books for all K-3 students at 13 schools to take home for the summer with the hope that each student and family would read for at least 20 minutes per day.

We kind of push this out on all kinds of channels and we know that if students are reading 20 minutes a day that they will be prepared and ready to step into their grade without any summer loss.

This summer I put on my cape and I took to reading across the city.

I shared a story at Summer Staircase with our partners from Team Read.

I read to jumpstart students at Wing Luke Elementary.

I visited with students and our partners at Seattle Libraries.

I delivered a message to the students at the Read-A-Rama.

So just a lot of great activities out there.

And I do want to thank our partners in this work.

M.T.

from Seattle library shared the space with me at Beacon Hill library.

But as you see he forgot his cape that day.

I shared our work with Urban League and other partners that they convened.

They're excited about our work and they're ready to roll up their sleeves and help us out with the big lift that we have.

I also visited with CSEC and they are excited to learn more about our initiatives and how we're doing the work.

This Seattle Super Reader we have banners going out to every elementary school across the district just to remind people as they walk in that it is important to be a Seattle Super Reader.

This summer school leaders dove into the work their week during SLI started with a day long session on foundational coursework that is grounded in racial equity.

The student advisory board also met with our school leaders to share their work and their ideas to create welcoming environments for students.

Once again these young leaders showed how brave and how smart they are.

They spoke to all 250 plus school leaders.

And then broke into smaller conversations with their principals and they were really powerful conversations and I know one that the school leaders also enjoyed having.

And because school leaders seem to be a competitive group we finished the weeklong session with a rock paper scissor championship.

It was a great week of learning that was both serious about the hard work ahead of us and a fun time to build relationship with colleagues.

We are so fortunate to have this group of leaders and I just want to thank the team that organized and put the school leaders institute or SLI together.

It was really a great we had great feedback from principals.

As I mentioned.

School leaders had a week long session rooted in equity.

New to the profession teachers also spent time learning this summer.

Their training mirrored those SLI trainings.

They learned what it takes to be a teacher in Seattle.

Their trainings were grounded in racial equity as well.

I had the privilege to attend the Academy for Rising Educator Social at Seattle University and I really can't wait to see these young adults in our classrooms as instructors.

Thank you to Seattle Colleges and to the city for this partnership.

This program is targeted at high school students in their junior and senior years who have an interest in the teaching profession.

The program provides a pathway for recently graduated high school students to attend Seattle Central College and earn their associative arts degree.

And while earning those degrees.

Students can choose to work for Seattle Public Schools as a paraeducator classroom assistant.

Earning a salary and full benefits while they're in school.

Once students complete their AA degree they enter Seattle Public Schools class to cert program.

To begin earning their B.A.

and a teaching certificate with the goal of returning to the classroom to serve and make a meaningful impact in their home communities.

This program provides a supported pathway to a career in education advancing racial equity in our institutions and providing success for our students.

So.

It is a.

Long term view of diversifying our workforce which you know is a priority in our strategic plan.

So it's really great work and it was fun seeing all those students.

And finally you know I'm on the Twitter so feel free to connect with all these areas and stay engaged with efforts that are coming out from the district.

So thank you.

Director Harris.

OK.

Board committee reports.

Director Mack are you ready for Ops and Director Pinkham for A&F.

And Director Burke will you be giving the C&I report and Director Geary's absence.

There you go.

Thank you.

Well good evening.

We did have a Ops meeting.

Since the last board meeting.

Which was full.

And I think we went a half an hour late.

I apologize for that happening.

Try to do our best to get everything through but we had a lot of important things to talk about including we had a great conversation around policy 6900 and 6901 6900 is a facilities master plan policy that we don't have in place yet.

We're looking to get into place and then retain 6901 which is levy planning and it was a robust conversation with the drafts in place to kind of fundamental things that came forward from the committee were.

The importance of including the technology planning into.

The levy.

Policy.

Which is the 6901 as well as ensuring that 6900 gets a full racial equity analysis on it.

So we'll be getting updates at the next meeting about where we're at in the process of those two things.

We got some special attention items around updates for the playground redevelopment fund.

The.

Policy 3208 sexual harassment annual report which is an annual report that comes to Ops.

Regarding the.

Title 9. Requirements for sexual harassment.

The actual report didn't come.

There's a new task force being formed so we kind of got an update about what's happening with that and the actual report will be coming.

Next Ops meeting.

It's been added to the agenda for then.

We also got updates on.

Where we're at in the process of doing recruitment around the.

Capacity enrollment and facilities master planning advisory committee as well as the.

Task force and in short both of those are moving forward.

We're working on getting the.

Notifications out.

And facilitators.

Etc.

So those are moving forward.

And you'll be seeing those soon.

Next meeting is already next Thursday because of timing of.

Calendars of the summer and so forth so.

We've got a number of construction bars that are coming forward.

10 of them I think.

Maybe even more.

Lots of construction activity happened over the summer so that makes a lot of sense.

The special attention items I already mentioned the sexual harassment annual report.

We're also going to get a start of schools update around operations including.

An update on the enrollment numbers and that compared to projections etc.

So we'll kind of see where we're at at the first day of school.

And I think we'll probably get an update on.

How transportation seems to be going etc.

Those sorts of things.

We are also getting an update on the process and timeline for the 2020. Dash 21 student boundary changes and student assignment plan.

Where that what's happening in terms of community engagement what things are going on and.

We have a work session now that's scheduled for September 25th.

On that topic.

A board work session here in this room.

And finally I am super excited about the ribbon cuttings that are happening.

We have two of them tomorrow and two on Tuesday.

And this is one of those really exciting wonderful celebrations.

Of amazing work that.

Our staff and communities do.

In support of students and.

Can't wait to.

Be there at Magnolia tomorrow and Ingram and then.

Tuesday is Queen Anne and Lincoln.

So.

You can find the agendas for the ops on.

Line I believe.

Which also includes information about other meetings like the BEX BTA oversight committee meetings and so forth so.

Oh and then just a quick update on legislative stuff.

Legislative assembly for WSSDA is coming up.

In three weeks or something.

And I believe that Director Geary is going as well.

Director Pinkham A&F Audit and Finance.

Thank you very much.

We our last audit and finance meeting was this past Monday August 19th.

Grateful that all of our members were able to join.

I'm going to just.

Jump first to the special attention items that we had there was regarding some of our contracts that are going over the 250 K.

A lot of it was just more for us to compliance.

We had a yes we need to proceed with these we.

Don't have much choice but it's again just a notification for us.

Others were just about contracts that we have were either some positions weren't filled.

Do we do the temporary or do we seek for hire.

So appreciate our.

People keeping us posted of when we exceed those.

250 K.

The five bar arms that we discussed will be introduced today and.

Appreciate again again our committee members that really had some good questions in particular with Gates first data infrastructure they were asking questions about student privacy and what's going to happen there and.

We provide got some good feedback on that and some discussion I think will.

Possibly continue today as well that some of the other board members may have.

The Amazon future grant with that with their FIRST Robotics I'm glad to see where it's actually expanded that because it did.

FIRST Robotics was in some of our schools are now being able to hopefully to offer that to more of our lower income those schools that want to target it.

Yes Washington FIRST FIRST Robotics yes.

FIRST Washington whichever yeah whichever way it goes.

Yeah.

Yes.

And then also a science grant that was applied for and there's some questions that the board had without as that as far as the timing when that grant was submitted.

The 2019 best primary.

Preliminary award.

This looks like a past five years we've had this grant and hopefully we can continue.

And this year it looks like we'll exceed the 250 K.

And the teacher diversity contract I think you touched on some of those things that we're looking at and what we're doing there it's great to see that.

I hope that's one thing I always kind of dream that we grow our own and get our students that are interested in teaching and get them in there and provide that direction for them.

So it's good that Seattle Central what they're able to do and get them moving forward there.

So I appreciate that.

Our next.

Regular A&F meeting will be September 9th.

But prior to that we will have our quarterly audit and finance meeting on September 3rd.

So.

Hopefully people that want to make it there and you'll see the agendas posted when they're available.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.

Thank you Director Burke.

Can you step in for Director Geary the chair of curriculum and instruction.

Absolutely.

So curriculum instruction policy committee met last week.

Tuesday August 20th.

Topics that were covered.

Some of them you'll see here.

The.

Board action report.

Which also came through A&F around the.

Amazon engineer.

Grant update the.

1st Washington.

We the other thing that.

Came forward that is.

Up for intro is the annual approval of schools the CSIPs.

We as a board talk a lot about the continuous school improvement plans and so I just want to continue to elevate that.

As a governance tool.

As a public transparency tool.

As a vehicle for.

Essentially.

School leaders.

Families educators.

Administration to find common voice common alignment.

So.

It did come through committee.

With a request to have a little bit longer review time so we'll discuss that.

When it's introduced.

We had special attention items.

An annual assessment report that talked about the.

Negotiated assessment calendar for the upcoming year and other work that's being done in assessments.

And a brief advanced learning update.

As well.

We talked about.

The.

Policy 2015. And instructional materials adoption policy.

And then also some of the specific adoptions that have already taken place.

Implementation to date on the science materials.

And since time immemorial there were a couple of questions that came up and there were some replies.

Some feedback from that in the Friday memo.

So looking forward.

Next meeting.

Is.

Whatever the next Tuesday is I don't have the date in front of me but.

The.

We'll be doing an adoption update on the Spanish.

Adoption.

Which is in progress.

As compared to something that's already been done.

Thank you.

September 10th.

Much appreciated.

There will be an update.

Updated discussion on advanced learning and the advanced learning task force.

And then the intention is to bring policy 2015. Instructional materials adoption.

Policy.

Forward.

That has been a very heavy lift a lot of policy and procedure work.

So I encourage my colleagues in the public.

To take a close look at that and let us know if there's things that we feel like we missed.

We're also.

Going to.

Be talking about anti-racism policy that's under.

Underway doesn't have a number yet.

We're looking at policy 2023 which is around instructional technology.

We have a standing item to discuss the strategic plan.

That also will be.

An opportunity to touch on some of the things that Superintendent Juneau mentioned.

That's it.

Director Harris.

OK.

Well the executive committee.

Met last week on August 21st and we spoke about several issues.

We talked about an amendment to.

Superintendent Juneau's contract and you'll see that on the agenda this evening.

We spoke about the extension of the contract with Durham school services and I believe Chief Podesta will be presenting on that as well this evening.

Durham has stepped in to assist us and we're mighty appreciative of that.

And I might add that work still continues on the think tank as far as alternative solutions that has been very community based and driven.

We talked about the district 7 appointment process.

We talked about oversight work sessions for the year 2019 20. And.

It gets a little awkward when there's going to be a transition of the board and the.

Present board.

Sets the agenda for the next board but we're trying to be sensitive to that and.

Executive committee meetings are open and we've seen some folks that will be stepping up at those meetings and we highly encourage that attendance.

We talked about the 1920 school year calendar.

There was one day.

That was mistaken on a bar.

However all of our outward facing communication had the correct information.

So that was determined to be a Scrivener's error and an amendment.

We talked about the ITAC advisory committee and the annual report and the fact that the first year terms.

Are expiring and.

Director Burke and I and.

Chief Berge and members of the.

Technology department.

Met and.

Vetted candidates and we're very excited for the new candidates to step up and huge huge thanks to those that served and are not continuing.

And we did approve.

Some continuing terms re-upping if you will.

Been lucky enough to attend several of those meetings partial meetings and I'm really impressed at the level of.

Dialogue and.

Input.

And we can only do better when we have more.

Communication.

More outside experts helping us out.

And again those are public meetings and you're welcome to come sit and sit and learn.

Board policy 1400 meeting conduct order of business quorums etc.

That's the policy that sets our start time at 415. And then we have these wonderfully awkward gaps.

Until public testimony starts at 530. It is not.

Lost on us that.

Perhaps we need to tinker with the timing of these meetings.

And it's not lost on us that.

There are a number of folks that continually testify.

And.

In order to keep these meetings from not lasting until the lights go out at midnight.

We're thinking in terms of potentially you know putting students first.

If in fact the students have written their own comments as opposed to others for them.

Potentially.

Slotting some strategic plan or race and equity.

Slots out of that 20. To be continued.

It's a rich conversation and it's probably one that the board.

In December.

Will want to take up.

There are so many moving pieces.

To.

Changing a policy like this but but know that we recognize the issues and the.

Transparency issues and the difficulty of coming down to the John Stanford Center during rush hour.

Many of us live that life as well.

And the other issue is.

To have our.

Very capable staff here to advise us when they've been here all day.

So.

To be continued if you have thoughts please let us hear from you.

And.

We talked some about community engagement public affairs and then we ran out of time.

And at 10 o'clock everybody gets up and leaves.

So to be continued.

We have reached the consent agenda portion of our agenda.

May I have a motion for said consent agenda please.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second the motion.

Does anyone have any items that they would like to remove from said consent agenda speak now or forever.

Director Pinkham.

I think again as kind of what we do when we have someone that in public testimony that lists they have something they will address on the consent agenda and we do have someone that says they want to address the consent agenda.

Number one.

From public testimony.

So I would request to remove number one from the consent agenda.

That's six.

Meeting minutes.

Approval.

Do we have anything.

Clearer than that kind sir.

Other than what's on the public testimony list that's all I have.

OK.

It's your right.

Do I have a motion.

To pass a consent agenda as amended.

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended with item number one.

Removed.

I second.

All those in favor of the consent agenda.

Please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

OK.

Thank.

You for that.

And we will move.

Item number one.

On the consent agenda.

To action item number one.

And I'm sure you all remind me if I forget.

As we're a collaborative board.

OK.

We have.

50 minutes before we start public testimony.

As many folks know we had a historic vote last night and this board will be going into.

A closed session.

So this meeting will be recessed so that our staff.

Can advise us on.

Labor.

Negotiations.

We will be back.

530 on the dot.

Thank you so much.