Seattle School Board Meeting Jan. 9, 2019 Part 1

OK on that note I would like to call this meeting to order.

I'd like to welcome everybody to the January 9th 2019 regular board meeting first board meeting of the year.

Happy New Year everybody.

As we begin this meeting the board 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.

Ms. Ramirez the roll call please.

Director Burke Here Director DeWolf Here Director Geary Here Director Mack here Director Pinkham Director Harris here.

If everyone would stand please for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Today students from Salmon Bay K-8 will be performing scenes from As You Like It by William Shakespeare.

I'd like to invite directors to take a seat with me in the audience for this performance and I welcome our guests.

Thank you so much.

We're honored to be here today.

My name is Glide Hartking.

I am the one woman theater department at Salmon Bay School.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am thrilled to feel the support of the arts in Seattle Public Schools.

Gail Sellhorst in particular driving force behind it.

I know that visual art and music are large in the elementary and middle school curriculum and theater not so much but theater is a place where those two things come together that integrates language arts and visual arts and music and All different kinds of life skills, 20th century skills, 21st century skills that are very, very useful.

Not to mention the fact that we continue to do Shakespeare 400 years later.

It amazes me that the words of that bard are still so relevant today.

And you will hear some words that really are very good for what we're going through here in the US.

So without further ado, the students will introduce themselves, and you will enjoy.

Thank you.

Oh, my name is Griffin Martin, and I am in eighth grade, and I'm going to do Marsutio's monologue from Romeo and Juliet.

Oh, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

She's the fairy's midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone on the forefinger of an alderman, drawn by a team of little Adamies over men's noses as they lie asleep.

Her wagon spokes made a long spinner's legs, her cover of the wings of grasshoppers, her traces of the smallest spider web, her collars of the moonshine's watery beams, her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film.

Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat, not half so big as a round little worm, pricked from the lazy finger of a maid.

Line?

Her chariot is an empty hazelnut made by the joiner's squirrel or old grub.

Time out, oh, mind the fairy's coachmakers.

And in this day she gallops, night by night, through lover's brains, and they dream of love.

Oh, her courtier's knees, and they dream on curtsy street.

Oh, her lawyer's fingers, and they stray on kiss's dream, which off the angry mab with blisters, plagues, because the rest was sweetmeats tainted are.

Sometimes she driveth, over Cortina's nose and then dreams of he smelling out a suit and sometimes comes she with a tights pigtail tickling a person's nose as it lies asleep and sometimes she drives over soldiers neck and then dreams he of cutting foreign throats of breeches and biscottos Spanish blades of health's five fathom deep at which Anon drums in his ear at which he starts and wakes and and thus being frightened, swears a prayer or two, and sleeps again.

This is that very map that plants the manes of horses in the night, and bakes elflocks in foul, sluttish hairs, at once entangled, much-misfortuned bods.

This is the hag that when maids lie on their backs, impresses them and learns them first to bear, making them women of good character.

This is she.

I'm Chloe Bilstad, I'm in 8th grade and I will be playing the role of Celia.

I'm Anna Ashman, I'm in 8th grade and I will be playing the role of Rosalind.

I'm Mira Slotkin, I'm in 7th grade and I'll be playing the part of Touchstone.

And we are doing a scene from As You Like It by Shakespeare.

I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my cuz, be merry.

Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of, and were you yet our marrier, unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me to remember an extraordinary pleasure.

You know my father hath no child but I, nor none is left to have, and truly, when he dies, thou shalt be his heir.

For what he hath taken away from my father preforce, I will render thee again.

In affection, by my honor, I will.

And when I break that oath, let me turn mobster.

Therefore, my sweet rose, my dear rose, be merry.

What shall be our sport then?

Let us sit and mock good fortunes, that her gifts may henceforth bestowed equally.

I would we could do so, for her benefits are mightfully misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her gifts to a woman.

Tis true, for those she makes fair, she scarce makes honest, and those she makes honest, she makes very ill-favoredly.

Nay, now thou go'st from fortunes' office to nature's.

Fortunes reigns in the gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature.

For always the dullness of the fool is the sharpener of the wits.

How now, wit, whither wandered you?

Mistress, you must come away to your father.

Were you made the messenger?

No, but by my honour I was bid to come for you.

Where are you that oath, fool?

Of a certain knight that swore by his honor that they were good pancakes, and swore by his honor that the mustard was not.

But I'll stand to it, that the pancakes were not, and the mustard was good, and yet the knight was not forsworn.

How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge?

Ay, Mary, now unmuscle your wisdom.

Stand both forth you now?

Stroke your beards, and swear to me that I am an ave.

Yes, sir, thou art an ave.

By our beards, if we had them, thou art.

By my knavery, if I had it, then it were.

But if you swear by that, that is not.

You are not forsworn no more than a knight swearing by his honor, for he never had any.

Or if he did, he'd sworn it away before he ever saw those pancakes or that mustard.

Pray thee, who is that thou meanest?

One that old Frederick, your father, loves.

My father's love is enough to honor him, enough.

Speak no more of him, you'll be whipped for taxation one of these days.

More pity that this fools do speak wisely than wise men do speak foolishly.

By my troth thou say'st true, for since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.

Hi, I am Luna Crumbrone and I play the role of Rosalind.

I'm Corinne Iacobucci and I play the role of Orlando.

And just to mention in this scene, in some parts of the play, Rosalind disguises herself as a man and goes off into the forest confronting the man she is in love with.

I will speak to him like a saucy lackey and under the guise, play the knave with him.

Do you hear, Forester?

I hear very well, thank you.

I pray you, what is it o'clock?

You should ask me what time o' day.

There is no clock in the forest.

Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons.

I'll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who he gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.

I pray thee, who doth he trot withal?

He trots hard with a young maid between the contract of her marriage and the date is sultanized.

Who ambles time withal?

With the priest that lacks Latin, and a rich man that hath not the gout.

For one sleeps easily because he cannot study, and the other lives merrily because he feels no pain.

Who doth he gallop withal?

With a thief to the gallows.

For though he go as softly as foot can fall, He still thinks himself too soon there.

Whose day is time still withal?

With lawyers on vacation, for they sleep between term and term, and then they do not perceive how time moves.

Where dwell you, pretty youth?

Here in the skirts of the forest, with a shepherdess, my sister.

Are you native of this place?

Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.

I've been told so of many, but indeed an old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, and I thank God I am not a woman to be touched with so many giddy offenses as tax their whole sex withal.

You look poorly.

I am one that is so love-shaped.

I pray you, do you have the remedy?

You have not his marks.

I know what it is to be a man in love, but you have not his marks.

What are his marks?

A lean cheek, which you have not.

A blue eye and sunken, which you have not.

An unquestionable spirit, which you have not.

A beard neglected, which you have not.

But I pardon you for that.

Then your hose should be unguarded, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeves uncuffed, your shoes untied, and everything about you demonstrating a careless desolation.

But you are no such man.

You claim to be in love, but truly you are not.

Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love.

Me believe it?

But in good sooth, are you he who writes the verses on the trees, wherein Rosalind is much admired?

I swear to the youth, by the white hand of Rosalind, I am he, that unfortunate he.

But are you truly as much in love as your rhymes speak?

Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.

Love is merely madness, yet I can cure it by counsel.

Did you ever cure any so?

Yes, one, and in this manner.

He was to imagine me his love, his mistress, and I set him every day to woo me, and thus I cured him.

And in this fashion I will take upon me to clean your, to wash your liver as clean as there will not be one spot of love within it.

I would not be cured, youth.

You would, if you would but call me Rosalind, and come to this wood every day at this hour, and woo me.

I, by the faith of my love, I will, with all my heart, good youth.

Nay, you must call me your Rosalind.

Well, until tomorrow, then.

Hello, I'm Ved Joshi, and I'm going to do the Jake's monologue, All the World's a Stage, from As You Like It.

All the world's stage, all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances.

One man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

At first, the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining schoolboy with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school.

And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress's eyebrow.

And then the soldier, full of strange oaths and bearded like the party, jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation, even in the cannon's mouth.

And then the justice, with fair round belly and good cape in line, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances, and so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts into the lean and slippered pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side, his youthful hose well-saved a world too wide, for his shrunk shank and his big manly voice, turning again towards childish treble, pipes, and whistles, and a sound.

The last scene of all that ends this strange, eventful history is second childishness and mere oblivion.

Sense teeth, sense eyes, sense taste, sense everything.

Before you leave we have we have a tradition and you've shared your names and some of your grades and it sounds like there's quite a few eighth graders.

So if we could just I'll hand you the microphone if you could just do first name and what high school is going to benefit from your amazing talents either next year or in the years following.

I'm Anna and I'm either going to Ballard High School or Center School.

I'm Chloe and I'm going to Ingram High School.

I'm Griffin and I'm either going to go to Ballard High School or Lincoln.

I'm Mira I'm going to go to Ballard High.

I'm Corinne.

I'm Luna.

I'm Ved.

Thank you again.

for sharing with us, entertaining us at the beginning of our meeting.

At this point in our meeting I will turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments.

Floor is yours.

Thank you.

Happy New Year to everybody.

2019 is unbelievable.

Tonight's comments will be a slight change from how I regularly do them with all the slideshow and stuff because I've there's a few things anyway.

But first I would just like to introduce Diane DeBacker.

She is our new chief academic officer and she has just the introduction statement for all of you.

So Dr. DeBacker.

Perfect.

Thank you Superintendent Juneau for allowing me part of your time to visit with the with the board and with the community tonight.

It is my absolute pleasure to be in Seattle Public Schools.

This is my third full day and I can't tell you how excited I am to be here.

And most importantly how impressed I am with Seattle Public Schools with the staff that I've met here with the team and with the enthusiasm that I have sensed from everybody about what's happening in Seattle Public Schools.

You have such a rich history.

of what's happened and you have a great plan forward and I am so excited to be part of it.

Just a little bit about who I am.

I'm a native Kansan.

I drove from Kansas beginning last Wednesday.

It was a three and a half day drive with my husband who had a horrible cold gave me that cold but I'm finally over it.

Beautiful country that we traveled through and we made the decision to make the final trek into Seattle on Saturday morning because I wanted to see the beautiful scenery as we came over the Sconolme Pass.

I didn't pronounce it right.

I apologize for that.

But I'm so glad that we made the decision to come in during the daylight.

My background is I'm a lifelong educator.

I've been in education for 36 plus years and I jokingly say that I have done nearly everything in education except drive the bus and be the cafeteria lady and I would be happy to do either of those if given the opportunity here in Seattle.

I am here in Seattle for three reasons.

The very first reason is because of your superintendent.

I had the privilege of serving with Denise with Superintendent Juneau as commissioner of education when I was commissioner in Kansas and she was commissioner or secretary in Montana.

And in a room full of 50 commissioners or secretaries of education from across the United States as you can imagine there are always some egos in the room of those individuals.

But Denise was always the voice of reason.

She was always the voice that as we were discussing issues that would happen across the United States in terms of education she was the one who would bring us back to reality and ask us why and ask us why we were making those decisions.

So the opportunity to work with you Superintendent Juneau as a very strong leader and in a system that has a very very bright future and a wonderful history.

I'm so happy to be here.

My second reason for here is because of Seattle Public Schools.

I've watched you from afar for many years for many years and I am excited about the progress that you've made and I want to be part of the progress that you will make from this point on.

And the third reason is very personal.

Third reason is all about my dad and I'll tell this story and a few of you have heard it before.

But my dad was in the Navy.

He was a Seabee and after he had spent his time in the Navy he ended up here in Seattle for a little bit of time where he was working as a welder in the shipyard.

My dad was a very tiny man and so he could shimmy down into the holes and he could get into the tight places and do the welding.

And he talked about his time here in Seattle and how he rented a house from a woman who was very strict.

She allowed no smoking.

and no drinking and there was a curfew for him even as an adult to be in the house.

And so for me Seattle is a way of bringing me home.

It's a way of me connecting with my father who passed away about a year ago.

And so those are my three reasons for being here.

They're all very very genuine.

Little bit about me personally I've been married for thirty six and a half years.

I have a wonderful husband who has supported me through many different crazy opportunities that I've had from being in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to being in Kansas and doing some fantastic jobs in education.

So my husband I put him on the plane this morning.

I know it sounds like it's a two year old and I put him on the plane but I escorted him to the airport this morning for him to travel back to Kansas to get our cat out of the kennel who's been there since last Wednesday.

I just received a note from him.

He successfully retrieved the cat and she has not clawed him to death so that's good.

I think that's enough about myself to get started.

I am excited to be here as a chief academic officer.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Superintendent Juneau thank you to the board for the opportunity and I look forward to working with each of you in the coming months and years.

Thank you.

Next I just want to update everyone on where we are with the strategic plan.

We start our second round of engagement this month.

There is one more board work session and one more steering committee meeting as well.

We still.

Hope to have a draft plan at the end of February with intro and then action in March.

And so it's on an aggressive timeline but I think it's coming together really well.

I just had a meeting with all the principals at the LLD and there were some really good comments that came out of that.

And so I'm excited to start rolling that out into community and and see some of the comments that come out from that.

This is this is our current engagement date.

So this is a draft.

I think there one got finalized another one got finalized today and there's one that is pending.

So this will be our community engagement dates for round two before which will be really about strengthening and refining the priorities and the goals.

of the plan.

We hold our first meeting this week like I said with our with our principals and they really did love the theory of action and I know all of you have seen a draft of that as well.

They love the intentionality of the plan and the idea that the plan was actually strategic.

that we were honing in and really putting down on paper what we've been talking about so long as a district.

They'll the principals will share the draft plan with their staff.

And so I'm like I said excited to share the plan with the community.

I'm thankful for all the people who have contributed so far the steering committees come up with a great the great priority is a great theory of action.

So just really excited about that.

And then the final thing that we have for superintendent comments is JoLynn Berge to share her board report this evening.

Thank you Director or Chief Berge.

Good evening JoLynn Berge Chief Financial Officer.

Got no clicker.

You're going to click.

Okay.

So we are going to talk about this is a required report by board policy that we come and do so Audit and Finance Committee members have already seen this in the last A&F meeting.

So it will be new for the other two board directors and for the public.

We will talk about 17 18 very quickly.

We have four funds.

So we have a general fund where the majority of our dollars flow through capital fund that we're familiar with as far as for building and construction a very tiny debt service fund and then associated student body fund.

So we do report monthly with our monthly financials to the Audit and Finance Committee and the district's required F 196 reporting to OSPI has been completed on time certified.

All of our documents of course are submitted on time and correctly.

And so this presentation will meet our board requirements.

So as we start we'll talk about this slide that we'll spend a little bit of time on just a couple of slides that will go into more detail.

This slide shows 17 18 the adopted budget.

That's the first column.

And then the actual year-end amounts.

And the three numbers that we have circled in red, I'm just going to call out the differences between budget and actual, right?

So we had revenues estimated at $808 million.

Our revenues came in slightly higher at $820 million.

So there was $11.8 million of revenue above what we'd budgeted.

And then our expenditures were less than we'd budgeted.

So that's exactly the right direction that you want to be.

You want to budget your revenues and your expenditures low and you want both of those actual numbers to come in.

You want revenues to come in higher than you budgeted and you want expenditures to come in slightly less than you budgeted.

That resulted in an ending fund balance of about one hundred and fourteen million dollars.

Which tracks with how we ended the prior year.

So we can look at, this is going to show us revenues, and I'll actually go on to the next slide.

This is the numbers, but this is a picture, I think, which does better justice to the information.

So you can see that our state apportionment dollars in 17-18, there was quite a significant jump up from 16-17, and that had to do with the increased funding that was provided by the legislature for McCleary.

So you can see that state revenue is about 46 percent in 17-18 of our total dollars.

The next biggest component of our revenue is local levy and that is 26.5 percent.

Now that number will be dropping because of the levy switch that they have done.

So they've lifted up state apportionment and they've lowered levy authority.

So we're going to be seeing that state number increase and that local levy number go down as far as percentage wise.

will still have a whole pie with 100 percent.

After that is state grants and you can see oftentimes people ask us a lot of questions about.

Federal grants well for Seattle Public Schools federal grants is only 5 percent of our total revenue but it entails probably 30 percent of our effort and our work as far as meeting compliance requirements for those things.

And then you can see local non-tax or fees that we collect like child nutrition fees and other non-tax or other revenues are like city levy dollars and other grant dollars that we would receive.

So the expenditures by object again you can see that we tracked really steadily as far as 16 17 to 17 18. Our personnel expenditures remained at 84 percent of our total expenditures and that's right in line with what other districts are experiencing.

So typically a district has somewhere between 80 and 87 percent of their total expenditures are related to personnel.

So that salaries and benefits for staffing.

And then after that, the next largest category is purchase services, i.e. contracts.

So our transportation contract would be the largest contract that we have sitting in that category.

Supplies are things that are purchase orders, things of that nature.

You can see travel.

We're at .1 percent for travel expenditures in our district.

And then capital outlay are those items that are $5,000 or more.

So there's a difference in the accounting world.

You categorize things as capital outlay if they cost you $5,000 more per item.

So we have very few of those expenditures.

Two things that come to mind for capital expenditures in 17-18 were refrigerator trucks.

We had to buy two new refrigerator trucks.

So you can see that our total expenditures were $816 million.

Prior year were $752 million.

Again, tracking well as far as our Expenditures increase when we get additional revenues.

A lot of that increase percentage wise really goes to staffing.

Moving on.

This is that picture.

We won't talk about that in detail.

Then another category that we often look at that we often get questions about.

is ending fund balance.

So ending fund balance in 16 17. That's how much money did you end with during the year.

It's not available dollars necessarily.

That's why we break out these categories to explain one hundred and fourteen million dollars.

Gosh do you have a financial issue in this district with an ending fund balance of one hundred and fourteen million dollars.

Well most of that almost all of it is assigned to some other purpose.

So there is non-spendable inventory.

So our food commodities that we're required to book are our inventory items and then we have grants.

So if we have grants that we have received prepayment for that we haven't spent all the money those dollars are held aside just for those grants.

It's the only thing we can spend that on.

You're familiar during our budget work sessions we have a lot of discussion about the economic stabilization fund.

We ended the year with that 3% or so.

It's $24.5 million.

The assigned fund balance we'll talk about in more detail in just a moment.

That's the largest category.

And then unassigned is really unrestricted unassigned fund balance dollars of $3.7 million.

And the prior year we'd ended with about 4.2.

So if we move on to the next slide we're going to see really what makes up a signed fund balance.

So a signed fund balance is things that we're putting money aside for earmarked for a certain purpose or school carry forwards.

So schools have both self-help accounts.

They have grant dollars or PTA donation dollars that they get to carry over.

in their own school account.

So that's what those items are.

Central carry forward has the same kind of thing.

So it's items in central office budgets that people carry forward that belong to a certain department.

So for example we have surplus sales of assets and those dollars are held in a in a carry forward account for central office.

That's one example.

And then as you're aware when we work through our budget work sessions we have had a lot of money that we have been dedicating and saving up for a rainy day that we knew that we were dedicating to either the 18 19 or the 19 20 budget.

And those are outlined for you there.

And then the last item that we have to hold money for that I'll speak to are legal settlements.

So that's a required component of fund balance where if we have legal settlements that we think that there is a likely outcome that we have to pay out money for we hold money for that.

It's not a guarantee that we'll pay those out but it's simply a placeholder for any lawsuits that are currently in progress.

Next slide.

That would conclude the general fund information that I'm sharing with you tonight.

We'll move on there.

I would like to note that on slide 4 and on slide 7 there is a typo total expenditures on slide 4 is accurate.

So I think maybe you'll hear about that in public comment.

So that's been noted and we'll make that correction.

So the capital fund.

This shows beginning fund balance as adopted by the budget and then how we actually came in year to date for the close of the 17 18 school year.

So we had a beginning fund balance that came in higher.

We started with a better fund balance than we'd anticipated.

Again generally speaking as you budget you anticipate lower revenue than you may receive and you anticipate spending every dollar that you're budgeting and that doesn't generally happen especially in the capital projects fund.

So we have ended the fund balance in the capital projects fund with 46 million dollars.

Again a healthy fund balance.

We had been accelerating some projects and so the fund balance was a number that we had been watching closely in the capital projects fund.

But we don't have any cash flow issues at this point in time.

All of those accelerated projects like Arbor Heights we've worked through that timeline and we're into a position where we know that we're going to have a positive fund balance and have enough cash flow.

Moving on debt service fund.

This is a transfer from the capital projects fund.

The only debt that we have are the outstanding bonds on the John Stanford Center.

So we make those total payments.

This last year was about two and a half million dollars.

Next slide is our ASB fund.

So these are student directed.

These are for classes, clubs, sports and other activities at schools.

The school set those budgets themselves and they the students have to approve those expenditures at the school level before they roll up to the district level.

So they estimate their own revenues.

They do their own fundraising and they're in control of a lot of their own their own expenditures.

So this is their activity.

They again have a healthy fund balance.

So we're on track with them as well.

That would conclude my presentation and I would be happy to take comments.

Director Mack.

I apologize that I don't know this number or this the answer to this question off the top I probably should.

But on slide 6 the 14 percent of state grants We have state apportionment and then state grants separated out and just for clarification can you clarify why we have state apportionment and then what those grants are that are separate.

Yeah.

So there's certain grant items that come they don't come on the state apportionment schedule they're considered state grants.

The biggest one that I could highlight is probably is LAP.

So the learning assistance program comes to us as a state grant.

The transitional bilingual program also comes to us as a grant.

So there are certain funds that the state has identified for certain programs that we're required to categorize as state grants.

Thank you very much.

OK.

Well we're moving through the agenda at a blistering pace here.

And this brings us to where.

Really.

Wow.

Yeah.

Board committee reports I'd like to invite directors to share any work that they've been doing or are doing or in preparation or with their committees.

I'm looking for someone who'd like to open.

Preview of the future.

Director Mack.

Good evening.

I didn't actually take notes so I'm going to wing it.

But I do have the agenda.

Operations met prior to the previous board meeting in December.

So I won't recap that.

Our next meeting is actually tomorrow.

The agenda I believe has been posted and we're going to be working on the committee work plan for the year.

As well as getting our financial budget report talking about community engagement for the levies.

By the way there's a bunch of great community presentation and for me meetings going on.

They're posted on our website and on social media and I encourage if you'd like to learn about the levies to attend one of those.

There was one last night.

We are also going to be talking further about capacity management policy age 13. And getting a verbal report on the capital projects.

There's a semiannual report process that we have as well as hearing about what's going on with our playground redevelopment fund and touching base on whether or not we should consider becoming a certified body for the GCCM process in the construction process.

So welcome to come to our meeting tomorrow.

It's 430 to 630 right next door.

And I also wanted to say I'm grateful to be appointed the chair again this year and we've shifted who's actually on the committee so I'm saying goodbye to Director Pinkham.

I really enjoyed working with you on the committee and welcoming Director DeWolf and Director Patu is going to be continuing forward.

So I think that's all.

Director Pinkham.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ Thank you.

A&F there wasn't much new to report since the last board regular board meeting but I did get the feedback from our internal auditor and Julian Berge and her assistant forwarded me the minutes our draft agenda for our next meeting.

Andrew Medina didn't have anything new to share with me since our last meeting so I'll just go right now to our planned meeting for Monday January 14th.

We don't have any bars coming to be introduced at our meeting that's more informational things coming forward to the A&F committee and So we'll just go through our regular agenda with monthly budget updates and our committee annual work plan and our new members include myself Jill Geary and Eden you're still with us.

Yes.

And I know Jill expressed some interest to add to the A&F agenda then I shared it with Jill and I haven't checked to see if Jill responded but it might come under a committee annual work plan the comments that she has.

So those little updates I have for A&F since we're starting out the new year.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back.

I'll tee this off for curriculum instruction and just looking back a little bit in the past three years as chair of C&I I feel like a huge amount of work has been done and I won't go through it in detail but you know there's been work around instructional philosophy policy.

There's been work around the.

assessment policies and some very bedrock things that have I think helped the district move forward in our educational system.

I'm super excited to be handing the chair position to Jill Geary and she's kindly allowing me to stay on the committee so I can heckle.

Would you like to highlight what's coming up next Tuesday at your first C&I meeting.

Yes so honored to have the opportunity to chair curriculum instruction and with our new chief instructional officer who had a chance to meet today.

That was I'm excited to work with her and it'll be fresh.

We have new faces we can.

think about how we want to do it and that is an exciting opportunity.

But we do have a pretty full agenda keyed up a lot of the same things that we've been working on for a while but really important a board action report will be coming on the approval of courses with new content as defined by superintendent procedure.

And so we have spent a lot of time discussing about how we're going to define the coursework that is being presented in our schools.

I know it's of great interest to a lot of people that which we are going to define our own curriculum and that which we will leave to the principals to supplement as they see appropriate for their schools.

That will be the one action item we're talking about.

We have our standing agenda items around our SMART goals our standing SMART goals 24 credit secondary school revisioning and instructional materials.

And then we do have a number of policies that we've been working on for quite a while.

And so anybody who has been following, we continue to move those forward.

And that's equitable access to programs and services, performance management, selection of instructional materials, and electronic resources and use of the internet.

And I know different communities find those particular policies very important.

And so that's an opportunity to stay abreast of that special attention items continue to be advanced learning CTE and curriculum and instruction policy committee work plan.

So I look forward to chairing the committee this year and coming up with a new plan and you know moving forward on all this great work.

Thank you.

On behalf of my my colleague President Leslie Harris I will tee up a couple of things about executive committee there.

There was not an executive committee meeting since our last board meeting.

So I'll just restate a little bit some of the things that are going on and then give Director Harris an opportunity to share out if she wants to from her esteemed spot behind the microphone there.

Couple of things that I want to bring to folks attention.

The we're going to be working on the adoption of 2019 board goals and objectives and that's something that's actively being worked by the board and by the executive committee.

We'll be looking at retreat agendas in March and June upcoming agendas and for those board retreats so we can spend more time together and also finalizing what are our oversight work sessions for the upcoming year.

So those are some of the three really important things.

And then I'll open it up Director Harris did you want to add anything to that.

Thank you.

Thank you Vice President Burke.

Can you hear me.

OK.

Terrific.

So the next executive session is next Thursday not tomorrow but a week from Thursday at 3 o'clock.

And one of the things that we'll need to do is to change the timing of those executive committee meetings and we're still talking about when that will happen.

Because at least two of the three of us have other work commitment conflicts.

So stay tuned for that.

The rich conversation we had in the last executive committee meeting that Director Mack was so kind to sit in on was about getting the community engagement standing committee set up.

And because of the reorganization That's moved around a bit and we're looking forward to that rich discussion.

The other is back again to that very very difficult topic about additional funding for schools.

We've started collecting data and the additional funding not PTA not levy dollars but PTSA booster clubs and foundation dollars is quite shocking and to be continued and part of a race and equity conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

President Harris.

So this brings us to student comments.

Unfortunately we don't have a student speaker joining us.

Oh sorry.

Wait there's more.

Legislative.

Thank you.

And City.

Right City.

So very briefly reporting out about our legislative activities.

Not a lot to share the legislative session hasn't started yet it will start in a couple of weeks but I attended the WSSDA legislative committee meeting and on Friday and Saturday two full days where we talk about how we're going to be engaging on the day on the Hill.

All three school board.

I'm sorry not school board all three school associations the superintendent's association.

the business association and the school board association WSSDA WSSBO and WSSSA alphabet soup get together early next month.

I'm sorry I don't have the date on top of me where we have a conference and we all visit with our legislators.

So we work on kind of coordinating that and WSSDA's legislative priorities now are Posted online.

Very pretty.

They align very much with Seattle Public Schools legislative priorities.

I also dropped a copy of this in everybody's box so you have the pretty copy.

And I just want to kind of point out that WSSDA's legislative priority one of them along with many of the other associations includes restoring access to local funding for local needs and holding districts harmless that there is a complete recognition that the McCleary fix.

in quotes did not actually fix things and that we still need increased access to local levy dollars.

So I look forward to talking further with our legislators in the legislative session beginning and encourage my colleagues to touch base with me and with Director Geary on how to get engaged.

Yep I don't have anything to report from city liaison role.

Folks are on break so hopefully within next month we'll have our regular meetings back on schedule and be able to report back.

OK.

Thank you.

So now no other committees or special topics looking around.

OK we're good.

We don't have a student speaker joining us but we will have a student from interagency academy speaking during public testimony tonight.

So we were looking forward to that.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

Yes.

Are we going to request for anything to remove for sure.

That would be after we move and second.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

I second the motion.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved and seconded.

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

Director Pinkham.

I'm requesting to remove item 3 since it's been updated since introduction so we can have hope with some transparency there's some questions I had on it as well.

OK.

Item 3 has been removed from the consent agenda.

I am looking for a new motion for an amended consent agenda.

I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

I second the motion.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

Consent agenda passes as amended.

So now for items removed for the from the consent agenda we're going to defer until after public testimony so that that particular item can be voted on again or could be voted on individually.

Which sorry I'm trying to keep it together here.

This brings us to board comments.

So we've reached the public testimony component but the time doesn't start officially until 530. So we have approximately 20 minutes.

And if directors would like to share some comments I'm going to take chairs prerogative and also open it up to people if they although resolutions from a board have a very special and formal meeting.

If there are some New Year's wishes or hopes and dreams that you'd like to put out you're welcome to weave those into your comments or or not.

Anyone like to go first.

Director DeWolf you're holding the mic.

Thank.

Thank you Director Burke.

First as a citizen of the Chippewa Cree Nation of Rocky Mountain Montana I also want to recognize that we are on stolen indigenous land.

I'm honored to live work and serve here in the Coast Salish territories in the city of Chief Sealth who is a descendant of the Suquamish the Muckleshoot and the Duwamish.

Thank you to directors Burke Richard Best and Stephen Goldblatt of the BEX oversight committee for a really great meeting we had over holiday winter break.

Continuing to have really great discussions around community workforce agreements and talks a lot about centering student voice and racial equity and so those conversations will be continuing and we'll look to Director Mack and Burke.

As well as President Harris in kind of planning our next steps for those conversations so there will be more information coming soon.

Also did want to mention each year actually every other year in odd years the federal government via the by a HUD requires that continuum of cares across the country do an observational count of the people experiencing homelessness.

I'm.

I'm here today to ask if there are any volunteers for our annual point in time count of people experiencing homelessness.

Please visit allhomekc.org.

We still need a lot of volunteers.

This is really critical work in understanding the issue here in our city and gives us some really great data.

The other thing I want to mention was that tomorrow in at least on the hill that I live on in tomorrow at 7 p.m.

at Monlake Elementary we'll be having another levies information night and I really encourage folks to come out and learn more about the importance of those levies in our work here in Seattle Public Schools because as we know the state has not fully funded public education.

I also want to mention that on Saturday at 3 p.m.

at El Centro de la Raza we're gonna have a really great event around ethnic studies here at Seattle Public Schools and encourage folks to come out learn more about it give feedback and ensure that our curriculum reflects communities needs and concerns.

That's all I have to say.

Yeah.

It was kind of a quiet winter break.

Thanks.

Would anyone else like to follow that.

Director Pinkham.

Thank you.

Is my mic live.

It doesn't sound like it.

OK.

All right.

Yeah.

Good evening and thank you.

Just want to again welcome everyone back with the new year 2019 that just prime odd number year just seems strange but we'll make it a fantastic year.

All right.

Given that for some of us this is going to be are we going to get back on the campaign trail or what are we going to do.

Those decisions will have to be made.

I don't have much to share but I just want to welcome everyone back.

Thank you to the Salmon Bay and their presentation.

I just remember reading those Shakespeare books and when I was back in high school and a little bit in college and it's good to see that even in middle school we're getting our students exposed to to his writings and welcome to Diane DeBacker am I saying that correctly.

Thank you and welcome to the Seattle School District.

Hope that trip from Kansas wasn't too bad for three days.

But again welcome.

Also want to announce that the University of Washington will be having its winter powwow Saturday January 26th in the hub grand entries at 1 p.m.

and 7 p.m.

So please come out and join the students at the University of Washington and this is the way their primer to prepare for their spring powwow.

Also I'd like to announce again the Urban Native Education Alliance does meet Tuesdays and Thursdays at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and Licton Springs K through 8. If you want to come out there and 6 to 8 30 generally and you'll see signs out there as far as which building they'll be in.

So just please follow the signs and come and enjoy some good food as well as some cultural activities and also some tutoring and stuff to support our students.

That is all I have for today and still got 15 minutes to go.

Thank you.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

Director Geary.

It's all yours.

Happy New Year.

Yes I've spent a lot of time over the break.

I really stepped back from everything but spent a lot of time thinking about how I want to spend this my final year on the school board and.

Just reflecting on so many of the exciting things that have happened in the three years that I've been here.

And I just want to make sure that whatever I contribute now is going to continue on along with that work.

So I'm excited to be on audit and finance and to hopefully work with the Seattle Council PTSA in terms of creating transparency around all the public funding sources that go into our buildings.

And I think that that is an issue that has become urgent and we hear a lot about it not only here from people testifying but out in the greater world and in our buildings.

And so I just think that it's an exciting opportunity to look for ways to identify what those funding sources are and also look for ways that we can make it more equitable because I know our population is looking for opportunities to have the money be available more equitably and we need to help them create that structure.

I would really like to.

So at the end of the year we heard from several families that the programs that promote racial segregation within our schools causes a great amount of dissonance and discord amongst students within the schools themselves.

And it is harmful and it is negative.

And I think that we the board have to.

Recognize that it is it is atrocious to hear mothers come and testify that their children come home saying that they are stupid because they have been put in what is clearly to them been defined as the stupid class.

Now that may not.

be true from the building's perspective but if that is the message that those students are getting based upon the racial segregation that they see within the school and the labels on the classes that are being allowed to them then that is unacceptable.

So I'm going to work on some way to create a policy from the board and I'm only one person so it will require that we as a board come around this but I'm going to attempt to work on something that will prohibit the maintenance or creation of programs that.

result in that type of racial segregation without any demonstration that is eliminating the opportunity and or the achievement gap.

So that is an exciting thing for me to think about working on.

And I know that's a big deal.

But I think it's it's super important.

Another thing that is important to me is looking into the issue of our least restrictive environment statistics.

I know at one point Washington State was the worst in one of the worst in the nation with regard to inclusive inclusion around special education.

And Seattle Public Schools wasn't doing well.

Now I haven't looked at those statistics for several years but I do want to look into that and then to the extent that we can find other urban districts that are doing better around inclusion that we look to see if one those statistics are indeed truthful and if they are doing something that we would see as being relevant to our population and our schools and see if we can learn from who may be doing it better.

So those are some of the things that I hope to work on.

And then of course as we're trying to determine the future of our high schools I think that's always exciting and I'm going to continue to do what I can to.

Look for ways that our high schools will meet the needs of all of our learners and create a variety of settings that will be exciting and relevant and allow our city to participate and share their resources and their opportunities with our kids.

So I'm really looking forward to this year.

Director Mack followed by Director Harris as a heads up.

I don't tend to do the intentions or New Year's resolutions because I'm so practical.

I just I'm like well I don't want to make a promise that I can't keep.

But what I like to hold with me at all times is coming to challenges and problems with the resolution that we can come together and find solutions.

And in this case in my role as the school board director and chair of operations we face a lot of challenging issues around our buildings enrollment and I think there are positive non divisive solutions that we can find together.

And so I resolve to do my best to make sure that in every situation we are.

Completely engage in community listening to all sides and finding the win win win solution for our students and for our community and for Seattle.

So I guess that is an aspirational statement.

But so I have my community meeting coming up this Saturday at the Magnolia library at 11 o'clock.

Everyone is welcome.

You don't have to be in District 4. You don't have to be in my district to come and talk to me.

I also want to give a shout out to my fellow school board directors because it's school board recognition month this month.

Yay.

Next.

OK.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And welcome everyone back to school.

For me it was so lovely to have such a long time with my Husband and children and got some time in the snow and I turned off the computer for days on end and it was revitalizing and it was also lovely that when everybody went off to work and school and had a little time to myself again.

So thank you to Salmon Bay and theater theater really is important.

I think being able to speak in front of others.

is such a critical skill to learn and theater does that.

I also want to welcome Mr. Fred Podesta.

He's not here yet but he has been hired he's coming I think on the 21st.

I'm super excited to have our chief operation a new chief operations officer.

Am I got the title right.

I do.

And you know my colleague in the operations work so.

Super excited about that and I'll hold any other comments until after public comments.

President Harris would you like to share anything today.

OK.

I guess I'm up.

My New Year's resolution.

Can you hear me.

OK terrific.

My New Year's resolution will be to continue the good teamwork we have on this board of directors and with our staff.

and to be even more proactive than we are, more accountable, and more transparent.

And a big welcome to Dr. DeBecker and to Mr. Podesta.

Can't wait till he joins us.

We are assembling a heck of a team.

Now we need to figure out how to communicate with each other with the transparency and the elegance and hopefully with the sense of joie de ver because we're doing such important work.

every day all day and we need to remember that and we need to remember that the kids come first.

My next community meeting is January 19th.

50 50 chance for lasagna.

Delridge Library 3 to 5. Welcome you all.

Thank you.

I'll withhold my comments until after public testimony.

OK.

Thank you.

I will put a couple of things on there.

Also welcome Dr. DeDekker.

It was nice DeDekker get the name right it'll take me two or three times but it was great to meet you today.

And I'm super excited to hear about your personal passion and experience around CTE programs which I think weaves in really well with a lot of the work that we've been doing in our systems also.

Thanks to everyone who's joining us in the audience or from home today and I hope your New Year's off to a good start as well.

My last couple of weeks since our last board meeting has been pretty quiet in terms of school board and it's been really blissful.

To take a little bit of a break.

The pretty much the only real little bit of email work and the meeting that Director DeWolf mentioned around our community workforce agreements and trying to understand how to create those partnerships.

Working with our staff.

Richard Best Inside Capital and Stephen Goldblatt of the University of Washington.

And I have no community meeting set yet for January.

I have a couple of work activities that I'm trying to weave in so that I can really lock down my calendar for January and we'll get all of that set shortly in in thinking about kind of where what I would aspire to and what I hope that we will aspire to in 2019. It's really to proceed it's sort of like the way Director DeMack Director DeMack.

Director Mack we're going to merge everybody together here but to proceed with with empathy and resolve and really the empathy is something that the more I do this work on the school board.

The more I realized that you can aspire to walk in somebody else's shoes, but you really have to talk with them, engage with them, connect with them to understand what their shoes even look like before you can even try.

And when I think of trying to make decisions with empathy, that's really to try to do that, to try to understand the position people are coming from.

The other one is the resolve to have that resolve to do the hard work to ask the hard questions to take on those challenges be really critical of ourselves and to do right by our students because I think we can continue to push continue to be better.

So I'm excited to do that this year also.

And it looks like we have about five or six minutes.

Before public testimony starts formally and because we're rule followers here we won't start until 530. So I'm going to take a brief recess.

Please stay close.

We'll reconvene promptly at 530 for board for public testimony.