SPEAKER_18

All right, everyone, directors.

We are going to get started here shortly.

Good afternoon.

We will be calling the board meeting to order in a moment and SPS-TV will begin broadcasting.

For those joining by phone please remain muted until we reach the testimony period and your name is called.

This is President Hersey I am now calling the February 8th 2023 board meeting to order at 416 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands and traditional territories of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.

Ms. Wilson-Jones the roll call please.

SPEAKER_11

Director Hampson.

Here.

Director Harris.

Looks like not here yet.

Director Vice President Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

Director Stardew is unable to attend.

Director Song-Moretz.

Present.

President Hersey.

SPEAKER_18

Present.

SPEAKER_11

Student member Hassan.

And student member Yuen.

SPEAKER_18

Okay.

And it is my understanding that director Harris is on her way.

Superintendent Jones I don't believe is going to be able to join us today due to still recovering from some sickness.

So we will just continue on.

Is there somebody who's going to be offering comments in his stead or should I continue on.

Okay.

Just let me know.

We can always double back.

Okay I will now turn it over to Director Yuen for student member comments.

Take it away.

SPEAKER_10

Hi I'm student board member Jenna Yuen.

I'm kind of late to saying this but I would like to congratulate seniors for making it through the stressful college application season.

Regardless of where our path is directed toward after high school we should be proud of ourselves.

Today is the last day of the semester and many students have been taking finals this week including myself.

I am certainly feeling burnt out and I have noticed that my peers generally seem more fatigued at school these past few days.

However, something that we can look forward to is mid-inter break in less than two weeks.

It will give us some much needed time to recharge and prepare for March Madness.

I want to end by welcoming again black history month as we collectively honor the contributions of African-Americans and celebrate black excellence.

That is it for my student comment.

Thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you very much.

We will now move on to the board comment section of tonight's agenda.

There is a lot to get through here so please just bear with me.

We did it.

Last meeting I gave an overview of work before us, including launching ad hoc committees on community engagement and review of our board policy manual.

We also have an ambitious set of objectives beyond these committees.

We will hold our next budget work session on February the 8th, a change in schedule that will allow for additional analysis as we work through a challenging budget year.

And we are continuing.

8th.

February the 8th.

28 sorry excuse me.

Had a small note here.

Good catch because that would be today.

So let me just repeat that.

We also have an ambitious set of objectives beyond these committees.

We will hold our next budget work session on February the 28th, a change in schedule that will allow for additional analysis as we work through a challenging budget year.

And we are continuing collaboration with students to refine the school board student member program.

Last week we had the opportunity to reflect on feedback from our student members and our own experience of implementing policy 1250. In that conversation we identified areas for growth in our program and tonight we will have the opportunity to have a conversation with students including our own student members about our next steps to build meaningful and inclusive school board student member opportunities.

This is our second in a two meeting cycle and so our business will be relatively light before moving into this work session with the Kings.

Looking ahead to our March 1st meeting we will again see a robust slate of board action reports.

One will be an introduction item sponsored by Director Sarju that Director Rankin and I have also collaborated on.

Directors may recall last March we set one-year terms for our appointees on the discipline advisory committee and the committee hears secondary appeals on exclusionary discipline decisions and their terms are now expiring.

The board action report you will receive next month would extend those terms to run with the current school year providing continuity for the committee and better aligning with logical start and end dates.

Soon after you will see an additional board action report to amend the underlying board policy and procedure for this committee.

We have expressed equity concerns with how we are appointing individuals to this committee and we are going to dig into that policy work before undertaking another recruitment and full appointment cycle.

Director Sargi was leading this work assisted by staff.

If you have questions please contact Ellie so that she can support us on this work within the Open Public Meetings Act requirements.

We also have a full plate with student outcomes focused governance implementation and we are working with staff to make our progress in this work more visible with an updated implementation timeline charting our past work and next steps.

We'll now move into our other reports for tonight.

Do we have a BEX and BTA capital programs oversight committee report.

We do not because they meet on Friday.

Do we have a report from our legislative liaison?

By all means take it away.

SPEAKER_17

Yes and there's a lot but I'm going to try to just hit the highlights.

There's a lot of bills moving quickly some that I think we have yet to see drop that impact students and that are within our board adopted priorities.

In the last couple of weeks I have testified on behalf of Seattle Public Schools in favor of two bills that support diverse curriculum and ensure that all students have access to curriculum where different identities are represented, students can see themselves, their neighbors, their community members.

and that's something I know this board has made a top priority and I'm really glad to see the legislature bring that forward as well, so I spoke on that.

There are bills on isolation and restraint in the House and the Senate that we're actually ahead of in SPS, the policies that President Hersey and I brought forward to this board in 2020-2021 that was approved by the board in September of that year.

Banning isolation in all instances in Seattle Public Schools and limiting restraint is now being heard, similar constraints are now being heard at the state level to that if adopted would ban isolation as a practice statewide and seriously limit restraint.

This is a super, super critical issue.

Instances of restraint are used most often across the state.

on students who are in elementary school, students who are black, students who are multiracial, students with disabilities and students who are homeless or in foster care.

These are the students who are the most often physically restrained at school, it's used far too often as a disciplinary tactic and should only be used in emergency intervention.

That is the policy that we have in Seattle Public Schools and would really love to see our whole state adopt that.

And so I spoke in favor of that bill this week in the Senate on behalf of Seattle Public Schools.

transportation, some recess bills, things are moving.

A big moment for special education is this week on Thursday in the House Appropriations Committee.

They will be having their public hearing on House Bill 1439, which since I'm a resident of the 46, I have to give a special shout out and thank you to Representative Jerry Paulette for being the lead sponsor on that bill.

The bill would Remove the cap that exists, right now the state provides funding for students with disabilities as long as that is under 13.5% of the student population.

The statewide average for students who qualify for IEPs is 15% of students who attend public schools.

Some districts are even above that, we are right now I believe slightly below that but we have been above it in the past and what that means is that the amount of money that is provided by the state to meet the needs of these students that they have qualified for under federal and state law.

is only provided for the first 13.5% of the student population.

If there are more students that qualify that funding has to come from other sources when it is in fact basic education.

So this bill that's being heard would remove that cap and increase the multiplier and the multiplier is the funding that is allocated for each student who qualifies So, even school districts that have under that 13.5% cap still, that cost still does not, it still exceeds the amount that is allocated based upon that multiplier.

And the multiplier is the percentage of the basic education allocation that is increased for a student receiving services.

So I believe our superintendent will be testifying in support of that with a panel of other superintendents from across the state.

I will also be testifying as a member of WASDA which is the Washington State School District Association.

So representing us as Seattle and the school board association as a whole in supporting this bill.

I think those are the big the big hits.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you Director Rankin.

Any additional liaison reports at this time?

Go for it.

SPEAKER_02

On January 26 the FEPP oversight committee, the families education preschool promise oversight committee met and Director Chappelle reviewed the 2023 priorities.

Two of them which touched Seattle Public Schools are one of the preschool continuous improvement and expansion and this is something that our board just recently took action on.

We will be adding three classrooms to a total of 39 classrooms.

SPP plus classrooms in the 23-24 school year and another priority that touches Seattle Public Schools is the education pathways alignment, their work in trying to get alignment across their work in early learning K-12 and post-secondary.

Something that we also discussed at this meeting was the $4 million that was allocated by the city for mental health supports so DEEL is tasked with working on a report that identifies the current sources of funding for mental health and our expectation is that Director Chappelle will be reporting out to the committee at the March meeting and so I hope that a future update I will be able to share that.

Thank you.

Oh and our next meeting is March 2. Thank you.

SPEAKER_28

Just a brief reminder we haven't had an audit meeting since I last gave a report but the next meeting will be on March 7 from 4 to 6 and an update for directors and community on a temporary addition to the special attention items under for internal audit with support from Superintendent Jones and Director Andrew Medina.

we will be bringing forward to start with the task force recommendations from the Title IX sexual harassment and assault recommendations to utilize a similar process as we do under internal audit response.

It's not an audit but because we don't have another forum we're going to bring that through so that staff have an opportunity to talk to us about where we are in either responding affirmatively to the recommendations and implementing them or explaining why recommendations will not be carried forward.

And also if anybody is wondering just as a connection to that the procedure on that particular sexual harassment and assault policy is still due and staff has told me we will get that sometime in May I believe and at the same time there will also be new guidance coming out.

This actually flows into another liaison assignment which is the title nine task force.

Liaison the new rulemaking final let me step back in September some proposed new rules under the Biden administration at the federal level around Title IX implementation in school systems were rewritten to undo some of the things that were kind of rolled back under the Trump administration.

And so the comment period for that went through the end of September, approximately, and then we're due to get the final rules in May, which will trigger additional updates to our policies.

and so that will then start an opportunity to go back and take another look at our policy.

Director Rankin and I actually had a first and Director Cron-Baron actually the three of us had a community session around middle school assault and harassment at Eckstein but it was also broadcast live and recorded so if anybody is interested in that.

We've talked a lot with high school students around getting critical student voice into the development of that policy and procedure with staff but we hadn't yet included middle school families and so this was the first Attempted that, we're grateful to Eckstein PTA for coordinating that, and Lisa Love, manager of health services and curriculum, health education, I'm sorry, was also there to present with us.

Oh, and she's here, look at that.

So we're excited to start doing some of that work again.

It was great to have our student director out there doing policy work with us as well.

So more to come on that.

And then if you want to hear a response from staff about where we are with respect to the recommendations in the task force that task force by the way was formed in 2019. And it was the second of its kind.

So it's pretty critical that we keep moving expediently on this work and do it in collaboration with families and students.

So March 7th 4 to 6 p.m.

is the time when we'll have a little opportunity to talk talk about that under special attention.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you.

Any other committee reports before we move on to public testimony.

OK.

We will be taking public testimony by phone and in person as stated on the agenda.

Board procedure 1430 BP provides the rules for testimony and I ask that speakers are respectful of these rules.

I will summarize some important parts of this procedure.

First testimony will be taken today from those individuals called from our public testimony list and if applicable the waiting list which are included on today's agenda posting on the school board website.

Only those who are called by name should unmute their phones or step forward to the podium, and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called.

The total amount of time allowed will not exceed two minutes for the combined number of speakers.

Time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins, and the new speaker will not be called again later if they are on the testimony list or waiting list.

Those who do not wish to have their time ceded to them may decline and retain their place on the testimony or waitlist.

The majority of the speaker's time should be spent on the topic they have indicated they wish to speak about.

Finally the board expects the same standard of civility for those participating in public comment as the board expects of itself.

Ms. Koo will read the testimony speakers.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you President Hersey.

A quick logistical note.

Speakers joining us via phone please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on the device you are calling from and also press star six to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a two minute speaking time.

You will hear a beep when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will be called.

The first speaker on the list is our student testimony from Alonzo Moreno from interagency.

SPEAKER_13

Hello my name is Alonzo Moreno.

Hello my name is Alonzo Moreno.

Overall my experience, I go to Interagency Academy in Columbia City.

Overall so far my experience has been pretty good.

I transferred there in May of 2022 to get my credits up after coming from Rainier Beach.

I enjoy the school has a different class with me my teacher Mr. Emery he is the teacher for the Kingmakers class and then in that class it gives students of color a chance to learn more about their history more than just what the usual curriculum is.

It's changed me because it's given me a different perspective.

I'm sorry.

I'm not.

Yeah, it's given me a different perspective on manhood and what it is to be responsible and to be in service of other people.

And just giving me a better background on my history and how far people of color have come in just the last century.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Gita Wolford.

SPEAKER_29

Hi I'm Gita Wolford and I'm a sophomore at middle college high school.

I'm a queer neurodivergent person of color living with a single mom and middle college has been a huge support for us.

Growing up I watched all my wealthy white friends excel in school while I remained barely scraping by with undiagnosed ADHD and a feeling of alienation and inadequacy in this world.

In the large public schools I was unable to follow the cut and dry curriculum with no extra support and the support I did get was overwhelmed with other students and I wasn't getting what I needed to reach my potential.

I saw the school counselor every other day and I was constantly in a state of trying to just survive and cope through the school day.

When I first joined Middle College, I was expecting a program that would be too difficult for me.

My expectations were to fail miserably in the honors courses.

But the support it gave me surprised me.

For the past two years, I've been learning what works for me and which ways I can operate successfully in this world.

I've never grown so much academically and as a person in such a small amount of time.

For the first time in years I'm proud of what I have to bring to the table and I realize that I have an important voice.

My teachers have helped me understand the world through a critical lens of what it means to be alive.

They've taught me to think and advocate for myself and that I can do difficult things, something I once assumed I'd fail to do.

I felt safer in this community and I've learned how to handle hard situations maturely, not avoidantly, and how to make the most of my experiences in life.

I've had some of the best connections and learning experiences in my life at this school, both teachers and students, and the classrooms are some of the best, most human environments I've ever been in.

It's a reality that there are a lot more people who have been struggling as much as I had and people who struggle even more due to systemic disadvantage and it breaks my heart to know that they aren't as lucky as I am to learn about this program.

I do still struggle but I highly prefer this supportive program to struggle in than elsewhere.

Middle college is overall a path towards progress and equitable education and I wish there were more programs like it across the US.

Programs like these are fundamental to the well-being of our education system and students and it would be a mistake to defund the school and take away this option for students like me because there are a lot of us.

Thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Emory Raines.

Emory Reins.

Emory if you are on the line please press star 6 to unmute.

The next speaker on the list is Noah Malloy.

SPEAKER_08

Hello.

My name is Nomoy, and I'm speaking on behalf of Middle College.

I'm sorry, I make eye contact with you.

All right.

Well.

One of the main things about Middle College is the fact that it helps people like me in a way.

I had crippling social anxiety growing up.

I couldn't leave my house.

I felt like everything was my fault.

Thanks to a lot of the teachers and my peers at Middle College, I've been able to gain the ability to speak, to have a voice in life.

Middle College, it brings a sort of opportunity to people, both people who are not economically well and people who are not off mentally.

I honestly don't think I would still be in SBS if it weren't for this program and I'm not sure if I would be alive without it.

It has given me hope, it has given me meaning, and it's given me a future in this life.

And I can't think of how many other people like me it can help.

And I hate the thought of these same people not getting the same opportunity that I did.

Because they haven't.

And unfortunately, I don't think a lot of them are here today.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Miles Hagopian.

SPEAKER_32

Hello my name is Miles Hagopian I'm a member of Seattle student union and I'm a student at Mercer middle school in the south end.

I'm here today to advocate for the black lives matter at school demands which are end zero tolerance discipline, mandate black studies and ethnic studies, hire more black teachers and fund counselors not cops.

In 2020, during the biggest uprising in American history, students in SPS won the demand to keep cops out of school and schools in SPS.

But what we did not win was the counselors part of the demand.

In an ACLU study, it found that only three states in the United States met the recommended counselor-to-student ratio, which is one counselor for every 250 students.

Washington is not one of them.

Washington's ratio is almost two times worse than the recommended ratio, which is 448 students for every counselor.

To add on to this, there have been talks to bring cops back into schools after the tragic shooting at Ingram, but we know that cops did not prevent school shootings as we saw in Uvalde shooting, where cops stood outside while kids were killed.

More guns in schools do not make schools safer and what I'm asking is for a permanent ban, not just a moratorium on cops in schools because at the end of the day that is what really will keep black and brown students safe.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is David Snoke.

David Snook.

SPEAKER_30

Members of the Seattle School Board, I'm David Snook the father of Jacob Snook who is attending Middle College High School at the North Seattle College site.

Thank you for including me on the agenda today.

I appear before you today as a concerned parent.

I understand that Seattle public school has significant budget shortfalls and discussions are ongoing about school closures and potential consolidation of schools and programs.

Jacob is a ninth grader and has been thriving since beginning attending middle college high school this fall.

We were advised that Jacob would be at risk in a large high school setting and a smaller school would help him to reach his full potential and follow his dream of becoming a college graduate.

He is motivated to get an education and advocated to attend this school.

We are a multilingual family and Jacob speaks German and Hungarian.

We chose the North Seattle College campus due to proximity to our home.

He is a student athlete, which we remind him that it is student first, and this allows him to play sports for Nathan Hale.

He was on the varsity team for Ultimate Frisbee as a freshman and is the team captain of the JV co-ed team this winter season.

He is beginning to blossom as a leader.

His confidence is growing due to support from staff and teachers at Middle College High School.

Jacob has had an EIP with Seattle Public Schools since fourth grade.

It has been a constant challenge for us as parents to get Jacob's needs met.

This of course was exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the smaller class size at Middle College High School one of his teachers recognized some learning challenges and she had the opportunity to reach out to us.

She was available to meet with us immediately and work with Jacob in a one on one setting.

He will need additional support and it was great that his teacher could have the time to help Jacob.

He is a very bright kid with some challenges.

Parents that have been rallying to make sure that Middle College campuses stay open and thriving are most are those that most need services from Seattle Public School.

Consolidation will further burden these parents and students if they are to continue at Middle College High School.

On the subject of consolidation, let's consider some of the numbers.

Middle college high school enrollment has continued to grow year after year while many schools in the district have seen large declines in enrollment.

This fact speaks volumes to the great work that is being achieved at middle college high school.

As I understand MCHS campuses at Seattle University and North Seattle College enjoy the benefit of not having to pay rent for the space they occupy.

The memo of understanding at the schools believe the students will help feed their colleges and have invested in the students and the staff at Middle College High School.

If asked to consolidate, additional burden will be placed potentially on those schools to find additional space.

Middle College High School staff is already shared between the two campuses.

Sarah DeSalva Jackson represented Middle College at the SPS school board meeting in December.

Sarah's eloquent testimony on the importance of small school education was met with great enthusiasm and standing ovation by this board.

As you applauded her and the other students that spoke today you are applauding the teachers and staff at Middle College High School.

They are most deserving of this enthusiasm and your continued support.

SPEAKER_18

Can we wrap your remarks up.

We're a little over time and I want to make sure that we get to the rest of the speakers on the list.

SPEAKER_30

Would you indulge me for another minute.

SPEAKER_18

Please make it as quick as possible.

Yes sir.

SPEAKER_30

Thank you.

The mission of Middle College High School is to increase the college success rates of students that are the first in their families to attend college.

Those who may also be impacted by systemic racism and our students that experience poverty.

but we serve students for all backgrounds that need smaller learning environment." As I have met other families in Middle College High School, their stories are all unique. If Middle College High School is consolidated or closed, how will Middle College High School families be served? Please do not further burden our families by consolidating Middle College High School and forcing us to pick up the pieces or send our children to other schools that cannot meet their needs. I implore you to put our children first and allow Middle College High School to continue at their current locations with existing staff levels. Give families that chose to attend Middle College High School the support they deserve. Thank you for your time and consideration, sir.

SPEAKER_18

Before we move on we have a full house tonight so I really do not want to have to interrupt anybody so please if we could just stick as close to that two minutes as possible.

Obviously we are so excited that you're here but we want to make sure that we get everybody in in the time that they were allotted.

So please continue.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Chris Jackins.

SPEAKER_23

My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4. It's great to have everybody here tonight.

Thank you very much.

You're doing a great job.

On the school closures proposed by the district four points.

Number one please do not close schools.

It harms education.

The supposed savings are an illusion.

Number two the district is still worse off from the closure of the African-American Academy Indian Heritage High School Cooper Elementary and other schools.

Number three I went to court with Rose Sanders an African-American great grandmother who fought to keep Rainier View Elementary open for her great grandson.

Number four I invite opponents of school closures to run for school board this year.

There's four seats up.

On district budget issues, six points.

Number one, this year's budget used $10 million of capital funds to reimburse the general fund for maintenance spending, thereby freeing up $10 million for other general fund uses.

Number two, please amend the current 2022-2023 budget to add at least another $20 million for similar uses.

Number three, doing this now would lower future budget gaps.

Number four, capital funds can be made available by dialing back oversized projects at schools like Montlake, Alki and Rogers.

The board is hiding public discussion of these projects.

Number five please drop the district's private business formula approach namely weighted staffing standards.

Number six instead allocate funds based on what is needed on an individual level.

Some tough to teach class situations should be smaller and classes that are going well can be larger.

Money can be saved.

Thank you very much.

Thank everybody here.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Arthur Doros.

SPEAKER_12

Hello, I'm Arthur Doros, long time Seattle resident.

I was encouraged by the board conversation at the last meeting to try to address the gap in reading and literacy outcomes, having worked in Seattle schools for many decades with those concerns.

The district has inherited assumptions and programs that you are working hard to overcome by looking at specifics to seek new remedies and approaches.

The attention to students and families, not just quantified as numbers or percentages, but as individuals affected by the district's and board's actions, inspires hope for beneficial change, as do a lot of people here tonight.

To recognize and address underlying assumptions and predictions that have proven incorrect or detrimental, to turn the ship when necessary, take courage that you all show.

Please bring those approaches to board decisions about school building projects and how those profoundly affect students and families.

With now-acknowledged shrinking enrollments, it may be tempting to believe that consolidating schools, closing some, will be a panacea.

There is no magic in the inherited 500 number.

Great schools can be either big or small.

Even with full enrollments, historically, SPS has not been able to regularly fund schools of 400 to 500 with promised resources.

We need to also include multiple costs of having students transported to schools at greater distances.

Being transported takes personal tolls.

Students often lose an hour to two hours a day leaving their neighborhoods, breaks community bonds for both students and parents who have a harder time engaging.

Please carefully consider your key actions on the proposed Montlake project and others.

Neighborhoods have studied the Montlake proposal with its massive and exceptional impacts at the smallest SPS school site in practice.

Just a slight project reduction to a school for 350, doubling current enrollment will greatly alleviate problems, allow for future growth if needed, and enable use of excess levy funds that can be shared with other schools that have pressing needs.

Thank you for your work and attentions.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Darren Hoop.

SPEAKER_00

Hi I'm Darren Hoop I'm ceding my time to Lena Jones.

SPEAKER_03

Hi y'all I'm Lena Jones and I am one of the black studies teachers in SPS who teaches a virtual class and I also teach at Lincoln High School.

I wanted to speak today in favor of the ethnic studies programs and urge the board to protect our funding and continue it for next school year and for the future.

As educators, we speak often of wanting our students to be lifelong learners.

We want them to seek out the boundaries of what they understand, to have the support and the courage to step into moments of uncertainty with humility and curiosity rather than defensiveness and fear.

It's our charge to educate and nurture, to prepare our students for the complexity of the world they will inherit.

That complexity includes an infinite number of histories and within each lay unique opportunities for growth and for connection.

It is an incomprehensible disservice to our youths, to future generations, and to our country to teach only one story, only one correct perspective, only some people have talents to lead.

Ethnic studies programs from their inception have sought to reflect the true complexity and beautiful diversity of life in the world.

Teachers of ethnic studies and similar programs seek to repair division and reintroduce ourselves to each other so that we can collaborate.

Defunding, banning, under-resourcing, and otherwise crippling these programs dooms our youth to be ignorant and unprepared.

It dooms educators to fail in our critical work of nurturing young people's growth as they step out into a complicated and unfamiliar world.

The backlash against equipping our students with a broad understanding of our histories with the empathy and critical thinking and perspective to understand people, places, and ideas which may be unfamiliar to them is not only anti-Black, it is anti-human.

My students have also asked me to share a few of their words.

They've spoken that black history is important to all people because it is the past, and it is something that everyone needs to learn and understand, that we should not be banning certain people's history, that we should be promoting education, not ignorance and hate.

I have two more student statements that they would love for you all to hear.

Some students have said that it makes them very angry to hear the claims that black history, and specifically black queer history, are not useful for students.

It's scary to realize what is happening in states like Florida, and worrisome to hear that things like that might be happening even in our own backyard.

It makes me worried about my experience.

I want to stay in my community, but I don't want to feel unsafe.

Finally, the final student wanted me to share that they feel that it is not fair to black students that they can't learn about their history in classes and we have to take special classes and that a lot of students are learning a whitewashed version of history.

Students in all states and in all schools should be allowed to learn about all the different people we have in this beautiful city and should not be shut out.

We need to start learning about the history of all people, not just people in power.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Mercedes Jones.

Mercedes Jones.

Mercedes if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

The next speaker on the list is Max Crowther.

SPEAKER_21

My name is Max I wanted to play basketball in high school and then there are no players playing unified basketball in many high schools, South high schools.

When I scored a basket, I feel happy.

When I miss the basket, my teammates will be supporting me.

I like playing basketball with my team.

We pass each of the ball and see kids and piano and choir and I also see kids in unified back row.

I want to play other high school in Seattle.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Sage Taylor.

SPEAKER_05

So my name is Sage Taylor I am a junior at Roseville high school and Roseville is a great school and we have like the best unified basketball team ever but we need to reuse like old basketball jerseys and we need like new jerseys and unified basketball isn't considered a sport it needs to be a sport.

And last year I was at Nathan Hale and we did not have any unified sports and that made me feel sad because I could not do any sports.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Maxford Brown.

Maxford Brown.

SPEAKER_24

Hi.

SPEAKER_15

Oh go ahead Maxford.

SPEAKER_24

Hello my name is Maxford Brown and I'm from Boothville.

I'm a senior at Boothville High School.

I am an athlete.

I play in the play basketball and play soccer.

I am a serious athlete.

I have a disability.

Please consider making Blue Vipers a sport, not just a club.

I love everything that's not a sport.

It's a sport with a purpose.

But we need more, more, more money for our program and support from you.

We are committed.

We are vulnerable.

Make it official.

Please make Blue Vipers from a club to a popular sport.

You will not regret your decision.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_22

I wanted to just jump in and just reread what Maxford worked so hard to write, just in case you missed any of it.

Hello, my name is Maxford Brown.

I am a senior at Roosevelt High School.

I am an athlete.

I play unified basketball and unified soccer.

I am a serious athlete.

I have a disability.

Please consider making Unified Sports a sport, not just a club.

I love everything that a sport represents, but we need money for our program and support from you.

We are committed.

We are valuable.

Make us official.

Change Unified Sports from a club to an official school sport.

You will not regret your decision.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Faith Dunn.

SPEAKER_34

My name is Faith Dunn.

I am a senior at Roosevelt High School.

I play unified basketball for my school.

When I play unified I get to play basketball with my friends plus I have lots of new friends.

These are friends who are not in my special education classes not all sports in my school.

and are inclusive, but if it is inclusive, our games are competitive, but we cheer for everyone.

We encourage everyone, even the other teams, but we need more teams to play.

Some schools have unified and some schools don't.

Why not?

Why doesn't school districts please unify to more schools?

Why now?

It doesn't cost so we don't get money from bursaries.

We don't give bursaries to games or money for uniforms.

We had to use our uniforms from the basketball team.

In South Africa, I love unified basketball.

When I score a basket, I feel happy even when I miss a basket.

My team will support me.

I love being a team.

Playing with my friends, playing on unified sports helps me to be a good sport even if our team loses.

I feel better after running up and down at the basketball court.

I look forward to game days because I get to see my friends and new schools.

I love hearing people talk about our team at school.

If you come to a game, you will understand what I will talk about.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker on the list is Dr. John German.

SPEAKER_01

Good evening, I'm John German, 32 year principal, teacher of Seattle Public Schools and 40 years in education.

I had the opportunity to be asked in 1998 I think it was to take over middle college high school.

and I learned something, I learned a lot.

I had always been in a traditional school.

I would ask the board as you're deliberating funds and where funds go in schools, I understand what your job is, but if you have institutional history, Middle College was started in 1990. and in my 11 years or 12, I can't remember now, that we had two teachers that became national teachers of the year, other administrators.

We've hosted student conferences out here that they're still using the models about how you put the student conference.

I cannot speak any more eloquent about middle college than the students who preceded me.

I would ask you if you are looking for areas to Consolidate, that's one thing.

If you're thinking about removing, that's something else.

Please save this school district.

It's a very, very strong program of Middle College High School.

and as a retired principal and trying to stay retired, I'm being called out.

I got I think about six calls last night about this board meeting and could I come and support.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_15

The next speaker is Gabby Smith.

SPEAKER_33

Hello my name is Gabby Smith and I'm a senior at Roosevelt High School.

This is my second year playing unified sports.

I play unified basketball and unified soccer.

I also play varsity volleyball.

I'm here today to ask you to recognize unified as a sport.

Special Olympics created unified based off of a principle that quote training together and playing together is a path to friendship and understanding.

Students with disabilities are often discriminated against and isolated at our schools.

Having programs such as unified is a way for us to work towards inclusion in our community.

Along with inclusion it is a way to stay physically active and healthy and simply a way to have fun.

Designating unified as a sport will raise the recognition of unified to the same level as any other sport at our school.

We would never sit here and ask if football is a sport, if volleyball is a sport, if varsity basketball or varsity soccer are sports.

So why do we even need to ask if unified is a sport?

A sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Unified certainly has all of these elements.

Not only do sports increase our physical activity and health but it can also increase our self-confidence, collaboration, leadership skills and connection among peers.

Without labeling Unified as a sport it diminishes the accomplishments and effort of all these athletes such as myself and everyone speaking here today.

Additionally keeping unified as just a club limits our resources for uniforms, facilities and transportation, things that other SPS sports enjoy.

With more funding we could finally afford matching jerseys which will help us look and feel more like a team.

Also limiting funding limits our access to students.

If recognized as a sport unified could have buses to transport all students to and from games making it more equitable and accessible.

All students regardless of whether they are disabled or not deserve equal opportunity in our schools and communities and making unified a sport would allow those equal opportunities and increased inclusion in our schools.

I know I'm here today to ask you or I know I'm here today to answer your question of why should unified be considered a sport but the question I have for all of you is why not?

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

Shek The next speaker is Carol Terrell.

SPEAKER_31

This is a hard group to follow.

My name is Carol Torow I'm a 30 year resident of Alki I'm here to talk about the Alki elementary rebuild.

I took the time in the past couple of weeks to read through your SEPA checklist and if I was completely 100 percent unbiased and I read this checklist and I made pros and cons I wouldn't build the school because the checklist itself contradicts itself on every other page just about.

The traffic study was done on two days.

I spent the last five days counting cars and I contradicted the traffic study that was done just on my own experience.

Counted over 100 cars each day, found two two-door cars each time.

They said the parking would be alleviated because there's more smaller cars which we know isn't true.

I'm worried about the environmental impact and I wish you would do an environmental impact study.

The geothermal heating system itself will be detrimental to the area and make an impact on the environment that will have ripples way beyond the school itself.

I'm hoping that you'll see that this overblown project is too big for a 1.4 acre site that you'll decide to scale it down to the size it can be so it fits the area that it's in.

Smaller schools seem to be the theme today.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

Before we conclude today's testimony, I want to go back and check on those who may have missed their turn.

The first is Emery Raines.

Emery?

Emery, if you're on the line, please press star six to unmute.

The next is Mercedes Jones.

Mercedes?

Mercedes, if you're on the line, please press star six to unmute.

That concludes today's testimony.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you Miss Koo.

We appreciate it.

Directors we're going to take a five minute recess to give folks an opportunity to do what they need to do before we move on into the next portion of our agenda.

So the board meeting is officially recessed at 5 11. I'm going to give you an extra minute please be back in your seats at 5 17. Thank you.

If you can hear my voice, it is 517. All right.

We'll let it quiet down just a little bit so folks can make sure that they hear us.

Can we get that back door closed just so we can you know make sure that we're not interrupting any conversations out in the hall.

Thank you so much.

I certainly do appreciate it.

All right.

That concludes our public testimony for the meeting.

Thank you for your comments everyone.

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

May I have a motion for the consent agenda.

SPEAKER_17

Director Hanson's trying to take my job.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

SPEAKER_18

Second.

How's it feel?

Did you miss it?

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Rankin and seconded by Director Rivera-Smith.

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

Going once going twice.

All right.

Seeing none.

All those in favor of the consent agenda please signify by saying aye.

SPEAKER_28

Aye.

SPEAKER_18

Aye.

All those opposed.

Any abstentions.

Seeing none.

The consent agenda passes unanimously.

OK.

We will now move into a work session on building relationships with youth, which is a continuation of the work session that we had last week.

We will now move into this session with students from the office of AAMA on building relationships with youth.

As I said earlier, this is an opportunity for us to engage with students on how to move forward in making the student member opportunity meaningful and inclusive.

We will have time for two-way conversation and thank you all for being here this evening and we are very excited to learn from you.

Directors if you will go ahead and make your way to your seats as soon as everybody is settled we will immediately hand it over to Dr. Williams and begin the session.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_11

Test.

SPEAKER_18

OK.

Dr. Williams by all means.

SPEAKER_25

Good evening.

First of all I just wanted to thank you all for continuing your work to uplift student voices on the board and honoring your commitment to making this an inclusive opportunity reflective of the district's diversity.

You're all putting in the work and deprivatizing your learning which you should be commended for.

I just want to say I don't know what boards actually are deprivatizing their efforts in public with the whole community so thank you for making this a priority and creating the space for our babies.

The policy in bringing the first cohort of students on the board was the first phase, now you all are working to build on and grow the program to meet your goals.

Your conversation with our brilliant youth, y'all clap for that, our brilliant youth, right?

Thank you, thank you.

This evening will build on the conversation you had last week with Queen Nichelle.

The learning outcomes for this evening from our youth is to unpack and frame healthy student center engagement, aid the development of the action plans to make student board members opportunities more inclusive and getting black students voices heard but moreover implementing the strategies that it takes from what we hear from them when they can see that you've delivered on what their voices have to say.

And then it is just my complete overjoyed honor to introduce our brilliant youth tonight.

And I'm going to let them introduce themselves but I just want to thank them and I want to thank the student board members as well and all of you.

But I'm going to pass it over for Treyvon to take over first.

SPEAKER_14

Let the queen go first.

SPEAKER_06

Hello my name is Fartun Jim Ali Abdullahi I am a senior at Roosevelt High School.

I am the first ever director of equity and inclusion for Roosevelt for our leadership association.

I am also the vice president of our black student union as well as being the founder of a literature club and the black women's association.

SPEAKER_07

Hi my name is Tejar Manuel I am a sophomore at Roosevelt High School my pronouns are he him and I am here on the behalf of African-American Male Achievement Student Leadership Council.

SPEAKER_09

Hello my name is Brandon I'm a senior at Roosevelt High School and I'm also here on behalf of the African-American Student Leadership Council.

SPEAKER_14

What's up y'all?

Good to see y'all again.

My name is Trayvon Mitchell.

I go to Cleveland High School.

I'm a senior.

I represent African American male achievement.

I am the vice president of my school at Cleveland High School.

What else?

Keymakers.

I do a lot of stuff, so that's me.

SPEAKER_25

So President Hersey gave some questions to aid tonight and we've asked the youth to share their thoughts and brilliance around that.

And so we're going to start with the first question and if you guys maybe we can share that mic down there and then we can have Trayvon and Brandon share this one.

T.J.

can you slide that one over here?

Thank you.

So the first question that was brought up was what would you change to make the student member opportunity more inclusive of diverse needs and perspective?

So who would like to start sharing your thoughts first?

Go ahead, grab your microphone.

SPEAKER_06

Okay.

There we go.

I would say.

maybe like I feel like there's definitely a poor advertisement.

I feel like there's we need to like branch out to like many different kind of group of people whether that's POC and I feel like that's like what we're going for here.

So I feel like that that genre of people are focused on but I feel like income levels is a big thing like focus on high income levels low income levels medium house families and maybe like I feel like when it comes to adult and youth relationships it is a very serious kind of relationship because with the adults that I have in my life I like to joke around with them you know I like to have fun with them I like to you know have like jokey conversations and those are like the very real like well-built relationships that I have so like Build those kinds of conversations, get to know your students, get to know your student representatives, your student voices that you've heard and think about it in that lens of all the different experiences that students face the same way you guys have all faced different experiences.

And I feel like that's definitely one way, think about all not just race-based perspectives but income level perspectives, people with disability perspectives and like all of these different genres that build the society that we live in.

And I feel like that's one way that we, that you guys as directors can focus on with needs and perspectives.

SPEAKER_14

Well, I remember I was here for the meeting that Ms. Nichelle did, the training that she did.

It seemed like when I was there, y'all had big trouble with finding the simple as the foundation of it.

like what's the role or like what's that and I just feel like there is like like what she said like there's no communication like it took me a while to even hear about this like I remember when I heard about it you guys already selected a person and like like she said with the with the benefits like what are the benefits of even getting here are we building relationships and like if I was a student coming here or like y'all gave me this opportunity, I'm like, who are these members?

Who are you guys?

That would be my mindset because I feel like I haven't seen any of you guys in the community at least.

So I was like, who are these people I'm working with?

Because there's no communication between students and the members up here.

So that's what I have to say.

SPEAKER_25

Or do you have anything to add.

OK we'll move to question number two.

If you were a student member in roll.

What is your ideal vision for the role.

What would make it meaningful experience.

SPEAKER_07

Wait okay so if I was in the student member role definitely I would say mentorship.

I would feel like maybe if I was to be I don't know I guess mentored or like if somebody were to help me with the ropes.

I guess like will help me navigate through everything I feel like that would be a great help.

Also a sense of belonging like I want to know that I'm actually there to be heard and that my ideas will actually cause change and that if I was to say something that you guys would write it down and you guys would actually think about it.

Yeah I also just want to be included.

Yeah and also more importantly in order for all of these things to be done I feel like trust.

I feel like if I should have trust in you guys and just trust more than just work I'm talking about trust outside life as well just you know.

and to like help connect with me I guess and like with better relationships I would definitely want to see that it would make it I would definitely say would make it like a better experience and yeah also communication like I guess if I was like talking and And I guess I just want to like be heard and be able to talk to you guys and feel like I'm not talking to like a brick wall or something that's just going through one ear and out the other.

SPEAKER_25

Brandon did you want to add something to that?

SPEAKER_09

I would say my ideal vision is to not really just kind of be there to be like a showpiece to be like look we have these people and they're all people of color let's put them in all the papers and all the newsletters but to also like be able to have a say and not be like I want this to happen I want that to happen as well but all the board members are like oh well that's what he wants but we decided last Tuesday that this is what's going to happen.

We just wanted to hear what he would say so we could seem like we were taking his opinion into account.

And I think that also would make it a meaningful experience to make the student members feel like that they are being listened to and heard and that they're not just there as like a showpiece.

SPEAKER_14

My answer, I would say decision-making, of course, and also is to actually be heard.

It takes a lot to actually be heard.

So my ideal ideology of this is like, I'll have decision-making, I'll meet the people who's actually doing this and actually building relationship with you guys to make the decision-making and to have more communication with the community because that's who you guys are making decisions on.

I think that's pretty obvious with that.

So I would say something like that.

SPEAKER_17

Can I ask a question?

Director Rankin.

Well TJ I saw your brother today and I decided not to embarrass him so I'm going to embarrass you right now instead.

I'm confused about the two wayness of this conversation when it's we're not.

SPEAKER_18

So we're going to get through and then we can go back and talk about each one a little bit more in depth.

But I wanted to make sure that we give full platform to the students to share all of their experiences before we bring in like whatever questions that we may have.

I was just confused about this versus I didn't know what was going on.

Don't stress about it.

Apologies for the interruption.

Thank you.

All good.

Please continue.

SPEAKER_25

All right.

Question number three.

What are barriers to participation in the student member opportunity?

What are the barriers for participation in the student member opportunity?

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_06

I would definitely say communication within like youth adult relationships I feel like when it tends to be whether that's like with teachers with administration with board members there tends to be this superiority complex as you guys being adults and I feel like that's one way that it kind of doesn't draw our attention it kind of tends to be like a we're kind of scared of you to talk to you you know and there's no comfortability when it comes to like of course we respect you guys because you're older than us but it's also you need to respect us and I feel like that's one big factor of with the adults that I've associated with that tend to be like Well we are older, we know more, you just sit there, you are the youth, you will get your time.

How about share the platform and get the youth talk because we are the future.

You know we are going to be the next board members and we are going to be the next principals and we are going to be the next administration and we are going to be the next teachers.

So giving us the platform of we are really taking your advice to heart and we are using that as a way to improve ourselves.

is definitely a big thing.

So starting off on the same level when it comes to youth and adults and letting that be a big factor of building those relationships as a student member and building those opportunities to connect more and then breaking down those boundaries are holding students down.

So you know how we have respect for you and I hope we do and at least I do.

But have respect for us the same way that we show it to you guys, because it goes both ways, not one way.

And if we're going to have it one way, then the boundaries are just going to keep increasing and increasing.

And doing these kind of stuff is just going to become pointless.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, I mean, definitely, definitely more awareness.

I really wanted more awareness because, I don't know, I mean, it's like more awareness on social media, on any platform in general.

But to be honest, I would have loved it if I had like a teacher or like a teacher tell me about it.

or even if there was a lesson about it or if someone came in to teach us about this opportunity, because I would have loved to jump at it.

I would have loved to take it.

And I feel like that was a big barrier to the participation in it.

SPEAKER_14

like they said, with communication.

It could be Instagram, posting more, or like what he said, make it more like, make it mandatory.

Every advisory needs to tell them about this student board opportunity, something of that nature.

And also reinsurance, like you are brilliant, you are bright, because when I asked, How about you sign up for this?

I'm not smart enough for that.

What?

I feel like it's really important for teachers and adults and then board members and the superintendent to really like try to boost up your students, try to boost up the people that you're making decisions on as well.

And yeah.

SPEAKER_25

So the last question from President Hersey was, well actually there's two more, sorry.

What activities do you get a lot of joy from and why?

And what about those activities make them joyful?

SPEAKER_07

Um, so for me, um, in my personal experience, if I'm ever dealing with something tough, or if I'm ever just not in the right place, um, I draw a lot.

I just, I get out a piece of paper, um, I get out a pencil, and I just, I, I don't even know what I'm drawing.

I just draw whatever, and I kind of just have my own image of it in my own head, but like, I can't identify it, so it can be anything.

And I listen to music.

I feel like, I would say two years ago, or even a year ago, I would definitely tell you I would never listen to music.

However, more increasingly, I've started to, I guess, deal with things, I guess.

And music has been a great way to help me out, just block everything out and just think about it in simpler terms.

I overthink a lot, so music just helps me relax and puts it into hindsight, I guess, for me, and just simplifies everything.

SPEAKER_06

Well at my school at Roosevelt there was me and my friends we led a community potluck thing and it was really fun because it really helps like building relationships between so many people that you have not met within your community.

And it's a really cool thing because it was completely free.

It was you come there, we bring food, clubs in our school, we bring food, and there were suggested donations within like the people who showed up from our outside community.

And there was food, there was board games, there was tables that you could just sit and talk.

It's those kind of moments where you meet so many new faces and then you get to go talk to them and be like, hey, what's up?

What's your name?

And you get to talk to these people you don't know and build such good relationships.

And those are the memories that you make with those people and the connections that you end up making.

and I feel like definitely just like community events and I feel like a big I go to a very privileged predominantly white school and there are still many people in low-income levels and my family being one of them and I feel like When it comes to events that is within that is held by the school it tends to cost a whole lot of money for people to show up and be there and low income family members especially big part of that is POC communities are left out of that and it becomes a predominantly white event and that's just kind of like if you really want if you care about the community invite the entire community.

Let it be a free event that is just held just for the fun of it.

And that's what we did on our potluck day.

And it was just you come, you eat, you get to know people, you get to play Uno, you get to play all these board games, you get to just talk and chill and vibe and just be there and get to know these people.

And it's such going to a rich school.

money restrictions is always a big thing and that decreases the opportunities of POC population at that school that can't afford to pay $75 per family member to go to an event.

And it's just like I've always wanted to go to like you know the big cookouts with like all these people, build those connections, build those relationships but my family was like we can't afford to go.

And it really sucks, you know?

So I feel like just have community get-togethers, community talks, community healing circles, community just everything where you get to, and I did that, we did that at our school with our black student union led by the amazing, amazing Ms. Page, and it was amazing.

And you just went there and you talked.

So it was it was really just it was just so much fun to like do those type of things where you just get to be your unapologetic authentic self.

And I feel like money a whole lot of money events that have to do with you got to pay a whole lot of money to come here is a restriction.

And if you want to have those and if you want people to just people with that come from low income family member family houses to come and have those type of events until those type of like fun get togethers and memories and communications.

I feel like making it at least like you know like 5 to 7 to 10 bucks to be there you know because that's what my family can afford and that's what a whole lot of people and especially the POC community that I live in can afford and if it's so much money we just kind of feel left out and it's like but yeah I'm going to stop there before I repeat myself all over again.

But yeah.

SPEAKER_07

I kind of like to add back to that.

I kind of just like want to highlight what Fartoon said especially about how much money it is.

I remember when I was younger and around my elementary like fourth fifth or I mean even seventh too.

It would be a lot of money to go to and as Fartoon said you know even though my mom you know we didn't really have a lot she was still always try to like find a way to make it just so that I can have those opportunities which I will forever be grateful for.

But and definitely for activities I would say more like social activities.

I feel like I can I feel like for me personally I would love talk.

I would love to talk to other people get to know other people and I would love to hear you know other people's thoughts on things.

And more importantly it will add more like I guess like it will be more engaging.

And yeah.

SPEAKER_14

What activities do I enjoy?

I'm an old school kid, so I do the R&B in the background with a conversation with Adam.

But building relationships.

me just you know talking to older folks or me just you know playing basketball I like certain stuff like that but like I really do love sitting and talking to people really to know what they are about and because I feel like For me to work with you, I need to know a little bit about you or something of that nature to actually work with y'all.

And like they said about the events, I didn't know that they were that expensive.

That's probably why I didn't know about it, because I was not going to go.

But yeah, just make it better.

Just to piggyback what they said as well.

SPEAKER_09

Yeah I'm going to agree with what Trey said just kind of I need to be able to know you we can't like I mean we don't have to be best friends but I feel like it should go further than just a colleague relationship.

I mean that's kind of when you get your best work done when you know how they're going to think they kind of know how you're going to think.

Yeah I feel like just getting to know you and again just make connections with the students is really kind of the key point of what's going to help everything that we're kind of talking about here.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Sorry I forgot one more thing.

At our school we do these like student versus teacher or like student versus staff like games whether it's like basketball games, volleyball games, like football games which we haven't really done but like basketball and volleyball are like a big thing and we just we just go Go play and just like have fun with it you know and that really helps build specifically educator and student relationships and it's such a fun thing because a whole lot of people I know and a whole lot of staff members that I know are very competitive you know like we just love to just like go out and be like you're going to lose, the teachers are going to win, you're going to lose, the students are going to win you know like it's a really fun like thing to do.

And I definitely which we do it like annually like maybe like once every month once every two months and it's a really fun thing that a lot of students at least for me and my friend group we look up like we want that to happen more often and it's so fun because we just go out there and play against faculty that we don't really talk to we just say hi in the halls don't really know them.

Respect them but don't really know them.

And it's just like.

once that comes around, it's so fun.

It's so fun to just hoop around, especially me, I'm a very competitive person, I'm going to go at it in the court, but it's really fun to just do those kind of events where it brings so many people together and then after the game, you go up to a faculty member that you don't really speak to and be like, hey, good game.

And then you build that relationship around that.

So I feel like having those student versus staff, student versus faculty games are really really fun and I feel like a large percent of the student body definitely looks up to those.

SPEAKER_25

And I just wanted to remind the youth that they understand that there are parameters of how many of you can engage in certain things together without it being a public meeting so we did talk a little bit about that.

There were some things that they wanted to make sure that they got to share that were just to add on to the questions.

And I'm going to have the manager from African American Male Achievement come over to do that part and then definitely I think this is time when there can be more engagement leading into that.

But again I thank you all for just listening and really planning ahead of how we can make this experience better.

SPEAKER_19

Thank you Dr. Williams.

She's whispering to me, Adam, please don't break the quorum, because I'm about to come give y'all a dab.

What's up, board?

How y'all doing?

Y'all are humans.

Let's give y'all some love.

Director Hanson, good to see you.

Director Rivera-Smith, Director Hersey, Director Song.

That's engagement.

That's engagement.

This is what these children are saying they want.

But Dr. Williams don't want me to talk to y'all.

Oh, I didn't even give y'all no love.

As-salamu alaykum, Akhti.

How are you doing, sister?

So, a quick question.

Before we had your questions, Director Hersey, the students and I, we came up with some questions of our own.

And from that is where a lot of their original thought just came that they share with you right now.

So my first question for y'all, and matter of fact, I'm going to give this list to you, because I know y'all want to interface and engage with him.

Trey, you want your paperwork back?

All right.

Trey's going to want you to give him the paper and pass it back to him.

But if you look at these questions up top, the ones that aren't yours, there you go.

SPEAKER_18

I don't want to take a picture of his notes to have on my phone so I'm going to just read it here.

So the first question here is what do adults need to do to engage and build healthy relationships with students?

SPEAKER_07

So I guess what adults need, more or less, it's kind of like what I would like to receive.

Because if I'm giving a certain amount of energy to an adult, I'd want them to reciprocate it back.

And I want to talk to an adult but don't feel less than, kind of like what Fartoon said.

And I want to talk to an adult and feel like he's treating me fairly, he's treating me right, but more importantly he's listening to what I have to say.

I want to listen to an adult and kind of like what I said earlier just not feel like I'm talking to like a brick wall of just oh yeah uh-huh uh-huh for sure oh yeah and rather you know just actually help them out because I feel like adults that relate their experiences as a child to me and how I'm feeling are the adults that will help me out through a lot I mean Um, and like, I'm gonna give an example for y'all, I'm gonna give an example of like my, of an educator I had, like in the, um, so I had a history teacher and he like, He would do everything to make sure he was engaging the class with everything.

He would try to relate it with personal experiences.

It wasn't like where adults would try to relate to the children's trends or fashion.

It would just be all cringy and stuff.

He was actually related to real stuff.

He was just like holding it down.

He would reach out to me and try to talk with me.

I would love it, because he was giving me a certain type of energy, which I liked.

And he would make sure if I was OK.

He would check up on me.

He would help me out with my assignments.

And he's the reason why I have an A in that class, because I was on the verge of having a D.

But he sat with me and got a lot of my work done.

And he told me to aim for the highest, so yeah.

but also like I guess just relating through personal experiences of like I guess not like as your experiences as an adult but you know it's like take it down a level you know like as a child what did you feel and and as you are feeling right now in that certain situation imagine now oh how is that child feeling then you know maybe I can like relate with that and that is what would help build like a healthy relationship that's like the type of adults that I love.

SPEAKER_14

Yo, mic check.

So, I feel like this is an interesting question.

It could be self-answered as well.

As kids, what did you guys want?

You know what I'm saying?

Like, what do adults need to do to engage and build healthy relationships?

I feel like what you're doing is actually what you wanted as a kid.

I always feel like this could be self-answered, but treat others how you want to be treated.

I remember I got educated on not to say that, but treat others how they want to be treated.

And I just feel as if she is like a human being.

I really hate using the term, I want you guys to be heard, oh this and that.

I actually want you to do what we say.

Like I've been here, believe it or not, I've been doing this since my freshman year and I said the same thing over and over again and look, I'm still up here.

not it's not been implemented so i would say do what we say and it's like when you guys build healthy relationships like there's one person actually you know that works here i said oh yeah i'm gonna get you lunch i'm gonna buy it oh that has yet to happen so it's like What you say, actually kids or young adults, or anybody, we hear what you say.

And if you don't follow up or do what you're going to say, there's no way I'm going to believe you.

If you keep lying to me, there's no way I'm going to come right back to you.

So just do what you're going to say or say what you're going to do.

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_19

Well.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

I love that.

Are there any board directors who would like to follow up?

SPEAKER_18

Just real quick, just to do some level setting for board directors.

So take, as we continue these questions, what I'm hoping is after we work through these things, and obviously follow up immediately if you haven't.

But what I'm hoping is that you'll reflect on the first 20 minutes as well, as well as the part that we're about to do, and see if you're identifying any themes right.

because we want to make sure that as we're having that two-way conversation that we're like working with what they actually say and not like you know what we might be interpreting or what we might find useful so that's why I wanted us to get as much of their you know perspective as possible before we start talking so that we can really take some time to mull over like how do we want to show up in terms of this conversation so that's all I wanted if any board director had the follow-up to that specific question we can dive into that now or feel free to save it.

SPEAKER_26

I would love to buy you lunch and have time with you to just hear more and learn from you.

So how do we set that up?

I don't know somebody give me the way to do that because I know that we got to have these professional relationships and don't want to you know I don't know if I can just take you take you with me but we'll figure it out um so but I really appreciate though really hearing this because because this is this is real and this is what we needed and I feel bad that we never had this with our student board members a real conversation where we got to hear from each other and talk to each other And I love hearing all your experiences with your activities at school and the inclusion you like and the feeling that it's a place where everyone can access that and be part of it.

So just, I don't know if I'm skipping questions here, but just thank you guys for everything you're sharing right now.

SPEAKER_19

Would any of you all like to answer any of the questions that we collaborated on?

So there's a question for them that's tricky, and I'm going to throw it at them.

Like, let's just get into the mud.

So what do you all see as age-appropriate engagement for, like, a board member to have with the elementary-level child versus a – I know I see you scratching your head – versus a middle school child – watch this, because they disaggregated high school – versus a First year high school student versus a rising upperclassman versus a senior, right?

So like, and my question for y'all, forgive me for breaking decorum, what is your target age of a board representative, a student board representative?

Because as they share with me, there's levels to that engagement where you're trying to engage with a high school freshman versus a high school senior.

So for you all, what does that engagement need to look like?

I'm going to pass the mic to Brandon because he told me if you want to engage with a high school senior.

SPEAKER_09

Um, the only thing I can really think of just, like being a senior myself, I'm really just kind of focused on graduating, just going to the place after.

I think the one thing that would kind of pull me into something like this would be teaching me a skill that I could use in college or maybe even getting them a college credit for it or just kind of giving them a skill that they can use after high school, whether just for college or just for the rest of their life that's going to be useful.

Something that does like help them with their future because a lot of us are really just like, let's just graduate at this point because we're almost done.

That's all we're really focused on right now.

SPEAKER_14

Engagement, I'll give you an example of what my teachers do.

I remember, it happened this week, I actually lost my playoff game, it was my last year playing basketball, you know, had some family issues and somehow my teacher caught on.

And so my teacher was like, Trayvon, sit down.

What's going on?

How can I help you?

How can I support you?

Just as simple as that.

Oh, man.

Just as simple as, OK, you noticed something.

How can I help?

I think as a senior, that really helped me out.

Or if you go to a, like, I guess I'm really mature for my age.

So I was like, I guess that that just really resonated with me.

Or I think any student would resonate with that.

It's not weird, because even adults go through stuff like that.

And I ask my teachers when they're down, I can tell what's going on, how are you doing, and they be very blunt, they be very honest.

And so just something like that, or simple, how are you doing, not how are you doing good, you know?

So stuff like that.

SPEAKER_07

um now this is kind of a tough question um i think it's challenging but i'm gonna take the challenge um so um i'm just gonna talk like i guess for elementary like how i was um so i guess engagement for me like so when i was in elementary school i mean i probably wasn't even old enough to you know know about like biasness towards me or you know like racism against me but or actually no scratch that because when i was when i was that age i could i could obviously note if somebody was treating me different than someone else and i would obviously comment on it but i guess i but in that like time period um i would definitely say i would want to be talked to like like uh on equals as everybody else i i don't want to have to like walk around eggshells knowing that people are just you know just like not treating me the same and so um i guess like uh appropriate engagement would be um i guess relate with the i guess just relate with me just if you were to relate with me make it fun for me because i mean like yeah because you know i wasn't really dealing with any of the problems i am now than i was back in elementary school so i mean just relate with me and more importantly make everything fun just like just like you know have like the most fun make it you know activities or whatever because I would have definitely appreciated that because that's all I wanted to do and for now as like a sophomore I guess I guess keeping it real like like just keep it a stack with me if there's anything you need to talk to me about or tell me about like yeah I mean, can I say another one then?

Like, keep it a book then?

like you know just like to like like just be honest with me just be honest you know um being honest with me would honestly about like um being honest um engaging um also also like just helping me out because you know i'm i'm not gonna sit here and be like i don't need help like i definitely do with some things i feel like i'm oblivious so yeah

SPEAKER_04

Okay, well, are we allowed to ask these questions?

Okay, okay.

I just, I just, I just wanted to, you know, make, make sure.

Um, I don't know.

Is this mic working?

Okay.

So, I want to talk on two levels.

So, I'm a senior.

Um, I know that So for me, I think that with teachers and everything, the best way to engage with my age is really just being there for them and their last steps.

We're getting older, we're about to graduate.

Some of us are going to college, some of us not.

College is not for everybody.

But we're about to go into adulthood and that step of helping them.

I know for me, I go to Chief Sealth International High School.

We're a predominantly POC school.

So having those resources out for students, like they're getting called in, you need to do your FAFSA, that needs to be done.

Like your personal statement, you need to be done helping them with things like that, scholarships, funding.

I know that a lot of kids in my school are first generation.

you know going into college and I am as well.

So going into the college application process I had no idea what I was doing.

No idea.

So if it wasn't for programs like UW STEM sub or my school college possible things like that and programs we have implemented with Seattle Public Schools that I'd be lost.

So things like that resources and making sure those resources are being provided and that students are aware that these resources are there like we can have these resources but I feel like a lot of times they aren't taken advantage of and then that's that.

And then for elementary school I feel like it's always really overlooked that relationship with elementary school students.

I feel like one of the main things though is that like I feel like a lot of behavior that is taught and like we see keep like kids like From a young age, it's really important to implement behavior.

You see how a student acting, I feel like a lot of times because they're young, they're like, oh, kids are going to act how they're going to act, and we can ignore it and whatever.

But if you don't address those behaviors at a younger age, it continues on.

And I feel like just a lot of the things that we ignore, like children, because we're like, they're just kids.

but I feel like we need to really work on having a stronger relationship with students and younger students and understanding how they are and their behavior and things like that and providing resources for younger kids as well because again we see it like there's not enough resources for them.

And I feel like they shouldn't be overlooked just because they're young, especially knowing that because they're young, they don't have as many people to sit up here and, you know, like we don't have kids up on this board.

We have us.

And so that relationship between us and the younger students and trying to understand their needs and whatnot and not overlooking them just because they are younger.

I feel like their voice matters just as much as mine.

SPEAKER_14

Ageism.

Ageism.

I'm learning that right now.

SPEAKER_18

Can I ask a follow-up question real quick?

So there have been a number of things that have stood out to me over this conversation.

And one that is specifically related to this question is the importance of building relationships.

So I had the opportunity to be a teacher.

I was with my students for 6 and 1⁄2 hours a day.

I taught second grade.

And so what I'm struggling to figure out and what I would love to hear some feedback on is that, you know there's a difference in the amount of time that we get to spend with our student board members versus like teachers right like with a teacher if you're in high school you spend at least an hour with them every day five days a week or even in elementary longer for us we spend maybe two to three to four hours a week together and it's not like one-on-one time so that's not an issue but what it does require is a more expedited process for that relationship and trust building because the reality is is like we want to be able to do those things y'all are also very busy and we want to make sure that we're meeting you where you're at with the time limits that we have but we also don't want to rush that process of building trust and relationships so what advice could you give us as we go on to potentially the next group, how can we position ourselves to build those relationships, not necessarily faster, but be more intentional and efficient about trying to get there, given the nature of how we operate?

And if you don't have an answer for that, that's cool, but we'd just love to hear y'all freestyle, too, about any of that.

SPEAKER_14

I would say first, try it.

Give it a try.

And how would that work?

I don't know.

When I was in class for them, it was just, my teachers, it's just like, We would have one-on-one check-ins.

My teacher would walk around and go to each student.

And it always started with, how are you doing?

How's life?

Now let me get to the assignment.

How am I doing in a day?

What's going on?

And then the assignment.

Because I don't feel like not enough teachers do that.

So that's how I feel like you would approach that situation.

Hopefully I answered the question.

But it's something around there.

Because people go through stuff.

And so it's like education is not 100% your life.

I would say it's about like, what, 50, 40?

So stuff like that.

SPEAKER_06

I would say listening.

I feel like genuinely not like hearing.

I mean listening.

I mean like actually listening genuinely listening to what students have to say because with the relationships that I built not only with teachers I'm just simply talking to adults.

When they sit down and they put their they close their computers they put their phones aside they put all the distractions aside and when you need to speak to them they listen.

Those are what that is what matters.

And I feel like if you can just genuinely genuinely just listen to what I have to say digest that.

listen to it digest it and use it as a way to build that communication.

I feel like that's a good thing because we all like being listened to.

That's not a lie.

We all like being listened to.

And once you're listened to.

Not heard.

We all like being listened to when you want to speak and I and I feel like I'm a very closed off person.

Like I don't talk about my emotions I don't talk about my struggles.

I just kind of talk and the rare moments that I talk to adults in my life about my struggles and my emotions.

I want them to put down all the distractions and just listen to what I have to say.

Sometimes I just want to rant and I just want to vent.

And I just want you to sit there and listen to me and don't even say nothing after.

You know like sometimes I just want to let everything out and then let it be.

You know.

And once you show that you can genuinely listen to a student or a youth of any kind and you know kids too they like being listened to.

They want to share their emotions.

That is when you build those healthy relationships.

Those kind of people who are willing to put away all the distractions, look you in the eyes and listen to you, that is a healthy relationship.

When you grow up and when I go off to college and university or whatever I'm going to do, get a job, get a house, get a car, I'm going to remember those people.

I'm a remember those people that took their time even as busy as you board members have to be when you listen to your student representatives.

Genuinely listen.

They are going to remember you.

They're genuinely going to remember you when they leave that position they go do their own thing.

They're going to remember you.

They're going to communicate.

Find your email somewhere.

Find your phone number.

Be like, oh my god, I need to talk to them again.

They were so good to me.

Having those kind of things is genuinely what matters to me.

And that is why I build those relationships with those people.

So just listen.

Sometimes put your book down.

Put your pencil down.

Put your laptop away.

Put your phone aside.

And just listen to a person because you don't know how much that might impact that person genuinely.

SPEAKER_07

OK so I want to say that it's just as simple as just saying hi.

How are you doing.

However I feel like in order to build a relationship especially with our busy students are and as you said like you know how engaging an adult would be.

I feel like it's more difficult than just that.

But for me, I would say definitely relating to me through your own experiences and understanding where I'm coming from.

Because if I do something unintentionally or if I don't know something, I feel like if I was talking to you, I would really want you to let me know.

I would want you guys to let me know.

You know, just like keep it real with me.

Also, I feel like building a relationship with a student can also be through deep talks as well.

Like kind of what Fartoon said, if I'm like just, if I'm like venting to you, you just sit there and like don't say nothing.

However, I would kind of like want you guys to say something.

I kind of like want you guys to reassure me or like I guess like every day if I was to see an educator and if they were to say hi, hello, but I also know that if I was to build a relationship between them it would be like if I was talking with them, they were checking up on me.

And sometimes I might even check up on them but I feel like if an adult could just take the steps or like just like take time out of their day to just make sure that I'm doing okay and to ask me for any questions because like I'm in the 10th grade and nobody said it was going to be this hard.

I mean, I just kind of find it hard because at first I was kind of struggling a little bit to fit into the 10th grade.

It was a little bit hard for me.

And even now, it still is.

And as I'm navigating, I really wish that I could just have somebody to be there for me to help me out.

And I feel like that is what will build a relationship and make it deeper.

SPEAKER_25

I know that our time is coming so we want to make sure that we open it up for the board directors to get to him with the youth to ask questions.

So President Director Hampson.

SPEAKER_28

I know right.

So is this on?

Yes.

I'm going to take a note from Trayvon about doing what you say you're going to do.

I don't and I do want you to answer the question about what it is that you mentioned earlier.

But I want to bring up a couple of other things before we circle back to that.

The one thing that I heard that I think is really really important that you brought up T.Jar.

I don't know if you remember me.

We've known each other for a long time.

I know what it's like to say hi to you in the hallway and try to get your attention.

But training like offering a training for prospective student board members I think is absolutely critical.

And it touches on something that we want as well that we've been begging for because we don't have training for ourselves.

Washington state has some of the lowest levels of board member training in the country.

So you touched on something really important if we're putting it out there and we're offering like hey learn about this learn about what it means.

What do board directors do and what is this role.

Then you might have had the opportunity to do that.

So I want to make sure we put.

a really big pin in that to include that in our upcoming policy about board member training which is something we're actively working on to include that that includes making sure that there's perspective board member training right and that we're including perspective student board members.

So thank you for bringing that up.

I also wanted to make a note about somehow we got to get a message back to somebody at the administrative level.

It's about I believe we have strength in our policies to not have it be the case that there's there should never be a limitation on you going to any event at any Seattle Public Schools function based on money.

If we don't have that sufficiently in policy then that needs to change.

It's not maybe as clear as it needs to be but I don't want to let that go unrecognized because it's one of something that I also care deeply about for the exact reasons that you've stated and there's too much it's too ubiquitous in Seattle Public Schools.

So we need to get some clarity on that and get back to you on it so that you know what the rule is so you can take it back to the adults in your environment and say, hey, this is not what I understand to be the situation that if you don't can't afford this, you shouldn't you shouldn't really even have to make a big stink about it.

You should just be able to come.

So we owe you some answers about that as a as the board and administration.

And then yeah I want to get back to if if you want to elaborate Trayvon on what it is that you feel hasn't happened.

And if in that you could possibly think about it in terms because this is the big question I have for you all is.

Our primary job is to hold the super as a board.

This includes our student boards and their input on this is how we hold the superintendent accountable to doing the necessary things.

We don't decide what the things are but we hold the superintendent accountable to making sure that you all have the conditions that you need to succeed.

And so I would love to hear for you, given that context, what is that it that you think we still need to deliver on?

SPEAKER_14

that it.

What I was going with that I just feel like there is a lot of so I remember I was here with the board.

It was with Lamia.

What did we do?

We did something with the board.

tri-day training on how we can, how African-Americans can succeed right?

In Seattle Public Schools about that whole thing and I remember saying everything that I needed to say with anti-bias all that stuff and I remember saying that In the back of my head I was like are they going to do it?

And then when the school year came up it was just the same system if that makes sense.

So it's like sometimes I can't blame it on the members or the board because like is a system in place?

But when I say certain stuff like that it's just like I I say it right or it I guess I'm saying Picking up what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_28

It's really important

SPEAKER_14

And so when that happens, it's like, okay, Trayvon, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to start implementing this lesson to what we got going.

I'm going to implement more black history, but it's still the same thing.

You know what I'm saying?

Just like how what she said, Smith.

Right?

Miss Smith.

Okay, yeah, when she said, okay, I'm going to, we're going to set up lunch, right?

And so, and she was very, you know, like, how can we do this?

How can we do that?

It's like, and I hear a lot of like, when those say that to me, it don't follow through.

So just like how y'all saying that we're going to listen to you, I expect you to listen to me.

So hopefully that answers your question.

SPEAKER_28

I would love to be able to have more time to talk more about it and for sure this guy's giving me the side eye so I'm not gonna but I just want to reflect back that what I'm hearing is what that it is is enough systemic evidence of the goals that we've set out to achieve such that you as a student are actually experiencing it.

that you you're it's palpable as you're walking through the halls or in your classroom that you can recognize it as connected to that thing that you were promised.

Is that a good summary?

SPEAKER_14

OK.

SPEAKER_28

OK.

I'll stop.

Thank you.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_27

All of you.

Thanks so much for your candor and for y'all being here and bringing it on here.

Really appreciate it.

Try day.

I'll bet you a whole hell of a lot of money I have, don't have, that these fine people and many many more in this bureaucracy have tried to have tri-day focused on what you asked for.

I'll bet you some of the folks sitting at this table have made suggestions as well.

But this board doesn't have the capacity nor the responsibility or the right other than making suggestions and some of us are more persistent and obnoxious than others, that would be me, to make that happen.

I can think of a whole bunch of issues.

where folks have come and testified and their testimony is extremely important to me as a board member and it adds to my decision making.

But as one person can't make it happen.

Oftentimes as a board of directors can't make it happen because of the whole concept of the superintendent and the bureaucracy being responsible for it.

But for instance now After oh so freaking many years we do have an African-American studies class.

And there are really good people who came before us on the board.

Good people sitting at this table that raised a whole lot of heck very consistently to make that happen and had had enough and could no longer be ignored.

But change in this district or any other bureaucracy or this city or school district nationwide I've got to tell you it sucks.

It's like washing paint dry.

It doesn't happen easy.

It doesn't happen quickly.

We don't have enough time.

I could go on forever.

I will say however that if you all want to sit and talk March 4th Saturday.

two to five Delridge library community meeting.

I'll be there.

Community members will be there.

Hopefully a couple of my colleagues will be joining me and they'll be really good lasagna.

And you're more than welcome.

And it's bus line number 20. Thank you.

SPEAKER_14

I just wanted to respond.

Yeah I see I did notice African studies and what I'm hearing is that you say you And what I'm hearing is you said a lot of suggestions, you're trying, and it says that, you know, one person can't do a lot of stuff.

And then, you know, well, thank you for the African studies, but we're not satisfied.

There's still a lot of stuff that's going on.

SPEAKER_27

And I'm not suggesting you should be.

SPEAKER_14

Not by any stretch.

SPEAKER_27

For sure.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah for sure.

And then he said like you know other cities the same but we're focused here and I really just want to laser focus on this work and we do appreciate all that but it's like there's still more work to be done and I like and that's why we have the board members here so we can all work as collective to get this done so.

SPEAKER_17

Thank you.

SPEAKER_19

OK, so.

SPEAKER_17

OK, so I did, I guess as quickly as I can, because as you may have noticed from their response, I tend to talk a lot.

But what I would like to do is reflect back to you what I heard.

And then if I could please ask you to confirm with me if my understanding being reflected to you is Did I pick up what you picked up basically.

I love the idea of the training or introduction in every school.

I think part of the experience that our board members are having is that.

It hasn't been clearly defined about what the role means.

And I think also a lot of adults don't know what the school board even does or is for.

So I love the idea of just that kind of introduction or training or video or mandatory something that says, hey, here's what the school board does.

Here's why it matters who's on the school board.

Here's what the school board you know, versus the superintendent are responsible for.

I think that's good information for all students to have regardless of whether or not they want to be on the student, be a student member.

But especially for students who might be interested in being a student member, knowing what what the point of that is.

So I heard, and frankly, a lot of adults and a lot of people in the buildings, and even in this building, could benefit from that message also.

So I think that's great, just kind of that foundational information about what is this for?

Why should we care?

So I heard that come through really strongly.

And then what I heard a lot was about more broad adult to student engagement which I think is super important for everybody in our system.

Where I wanted to ask about and bring it back to specifically being a student on the school board is.

Can I ask this.

I don't think, and this is my question actually, I don't think that those of you who applied for the position and came here, came here because you really needed one of us to be your friend or mentor because you don't have them other places.

Maybe I'm wrong about that.

I do think that you wanted to come here because you want access to the decision making process.

Do you think that's, I mean not that I don't want to be friends with you or you don't want more friends, but like you have tons of adult mentors all around you.

What we have in our position that maybe some of those adults don't have is decision making power and authority to governance over the school board.

And so I would imagine, I guess this is what I'm asking, your relationships with us and why you might have applied here were not because you were looking for mentors but because you wanted to have student voice and you wanted to be part of this process.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah I think that I understand what you're saying but I think that we're like they were coming from and y'all can correct me if I'm wrong was more of like as a board and as us together how can our relationships together between student board members and like the students and then y'all adults how our relationship together if we have a strong relationship how can that make us work together and have a better impact.

So like more communication between us two and stuff, you know.

Yeah, because I think that.

SPEAKER_17

So I also you guys come to like the legislative board meetings where we're approving and adopting and doing a lot of legal stuff.

Maybe it would be more opportunity for engagement, also more opportunity for input if student board members came to work sessions where this I mean this is a work session but there will be work sessions where you know a month ahead of a policy being adopted we will talk as a full board about what considerations we need to be making with that would give us more opportunity to talk to each other instead of like up here I can't even see your faces because we're all looking the same direction.

But also to really get student input to ask questions and and bring up things before we get to the end point where we're saying yes or no.

So I don't know if anyone wants to reflect on how that would support both stronger relationships but also

SPEAKER_10

I would say that I agree with what they said about having a mentor on the board I came into the position knowing that I would need support so having a mentor would definitely like give me that support and I would say I came into this position knowing that I wanted a mentor that would help me with what like the other stuff that I wanted to do on the board like with the decision making stuff.

So yes mentor and also the power of this role like the decision making aspect of this role.

SPEAKER_07

Um, yeah, um, and kind of like to just add on to that, that is, um, so when you guys asked me, like, like, um, how can we, like, make the student member role, like, more of a meaningful experience, I would say, I mean, because just for me, okay, like, if I was to get that role, I would kind of feel nervous and, like, around the first days and just feel like, you know, like, what am I supposed to be doing?

So that's why I'm like, like I would love it to have a mentor or like somebody there to guide me and to just help me and show me the ropes.

SPEAKER_06

We're like running out of time.

But I feel like enjoyment goes hand in hand with engagement.

And I feel like that's such a big thing because of course they're in that position as being student representatives.

And what that means is they represent all the students.

Every single student in the Seattle Public School District whether young old senior junior middle doesn't matter.

You know they're representing all those students.

And for me if I was in that position I'd also be representing my younger siblings and my older siblings that.

So I feel like you building those relationships matters because if you build that relationship with her.

as a board member and her as a student that is going to change how she voices to you her concerns.

And that goes for both student representatives and that goes for all board members.

So once and I feel like one thing while I say about like adult relationships with other adult relationships that is where it starts because once you guys build respect for other adults then you will be building respect for youth.

And if you guys don't respect each other no way in hell are you going to respect someone younger than you.

So start building those relationships with other adult members and other board members.

First respect each other.

Let each other speak their truth.

Let each other voice their opinion.

And once y'all do that and once y'all connect on that then you can work with your students because right now I feel like it's not really working in that sense and that's the vibe and the aura that I've gotten from this meeting.

So let your board.

partners I guess speak their truths and respect that let their voice their opinions and let it be a mutual respect and then in that way you will be respecting your student representatives.

So and then it will be a whole enjoyment thing that y'all can enjoy together and have a community And that's what this is all about.

Like if you ain't going to build relationships in the first place, what's the point of being here?

You know?

Because it's just my waste of time and y'all's waste of time.

Because I could be home right now taking care of my siblings, but I'm here.

I'm here for a reason.

And they are here as student representatives for a reason.

I had to find my siblings babysitters today so I can be here.

I have a lot of younger siblings that I could be taking care of and I'm here for a reason.

So if it's going to be a talk and a talk I'm going to go walk away because y'all ain't doing no walking.

So sometimes we just need to lean on each other And that can't happen if we're not even building no relationships with each other.

Because I'm not going to lean on someone I don't trust or don't know.

And how am I going to know you if I don't trust you?

SPEAKER_25

President Hersey-Diaz, do you want to close us out?

SPEAKER_18

Yeah.

So first off, just thank you all.

I think the big thing is just taking a moment and letting all that sink in.

As we have listened to you all tonight, one of the big things that I'm thinking through is like, the enjoyment in this experience is very rarely us sitting up there, right?

This is the least fun part of what it is to be a school board director.

The most fun part is when I do get to be out in community with students, with parents, all that.

And what I'm thinking is, if this, I know for myself, is the least fun part, why is this the only part that we are engaging with our student board members, right?

I think it's also like we could clap our hands and all that, but I think also on top of that, we are trying to insert students into a process that is not designed for them in any way.

So my thought is the students want to be closer to the work.

We've clearly heard that.

They want to be in the decision making seat.

We are not the ones doing that work that they are interested in to see like how something goes from ideation to we are really the end point.

We are the upper down.

So when I'm thinking about it people like Dr. Williams Dr. Scarlett so many others within our system are the ones that are actually doing real work with like families students on a regular basis that might give better vision into what those real very important issues that students care about are.

And what we potentially could be serving is not as a mentor, but as a thought partner and a navigator, right?

Because ideally, if I were to sit down with a student board member, Given that this is not fun, the first question is, what do you care about?

What's important to you?

And then we think through those responses, and we figure out, OK, it's almost like a witch way book or a choose your own story adventure.

And how do we just support them in crafting whatever that experience might be?

that does not mean that we don't also need to figure out a way to not only incorporate them in the decision-making process authentically, because having them just like share their opinions is not that, right?

And we all can agree that that is not what we are trying to get toward.

However, I do think there is value, and especially going back to the skill point, This is a huge organization, and being able to learn how to navigate that and understand what different parts move to create a policy from idea to end is a skill, right?

It might not be one that you want, but it is one that might serve regardless of where you go, whether it be college, career, workforce, military.

Systems navigation is super important.

So what I'm seeing is an opportunity here is to just zoom all the way out of our experience as board directors up on the dais and just having real conversations, not just with the students that we select, but the students that are interested in applying from the pool.

How do we start building relationships with those students early so that even if they might not necessarily be selected on this round, they will likely come back and engage with us in some way if they are interested in this, right?

And I could be way off base.

But some of the key things that I heard are communication, mentorship, and like authentic, what was the word?

I want to make sure that I get it right.

Relatability, that is a huge one.

We haven't had enough conversations to know how we relate.

Also on a board, I think all of us are in a different decade.

You know what I'm saying?

We are struggling to learn how to relate to one another half the time.

Sometimes I say stuff that y'all don't understand.

I know I learned some stuff tonight.

And y'all, man, I got to really think about some of it, right?

And that's a good thing.

It's an opportunity.

It's an opportunity for us to build that understanding.

The biggest concern that I have is where are we going to find the time to do it?

I don't know.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know if I need to come meet y'all at school or whatever.

I don't want to embarrass you, but I'm also like, yeah, if we can figure that out.

I really just want to figure out how do we get that time because there's no replacement for that.

There's no replacement for that.

Also, I don't want to eat all your time because I know that I'm boring and y'all got so much other stuff that you could do, which is why I'm really interested.

To me, the steps that we need to take are setting up the environment for y'all to move and navigate however you want, and I don't think we did a good enough job at that in the ideation because we were so focused on how do we put them into the decision-making power that is most familiar to us, whereas their voices might be much more useful at the beginning of the process, the middle of the process, we just don't know.

So those are just things that I've heard and I really again just want to say thank y'all and like we need to find more opportunities to have these types of conversations.

It wasn't as two way as we all would have liked but we're getting better at it and I think that like the fact that we've had two work sessions back to back in weeks where we've been able to at least hear feedback and engage with students is progress.

should not be satisfied with that by any means and I want to really figure out a commitment that I want to make to y'all is that we're not going to be perfect but what I can commit to is really trying to find ways to like just be in community and conversation more often and however we need to arrive at that to meet y'all so that y'all can participate in a way that feels good and does not require you to find babysitters for your siblings like let us know and we will do whatever we need to do to move mountains to do that because I just want to communicate how important this is to us and how much I've gotten from this, you know, short conversation we've had with y'all.

Yes, please.

Oh, let you know how.

Oh oh yes absolutely so I've got an email I'm pretty good at it we're trying to really figure out because it's like here's another thing right like I'm a Scoutmaster I'm a teacher I've got second graders that are hitting me up on Facebook that are now like in the seventh grade say Mr. Hersey I want to be your friend on Facebook please no right so like as a black man I also have to hold that like we have three female student board members and like I have to really be careful with how I communicate and I really just want to make sure that like I'm being vulnerable and laying that out I've got a lot of fear in the uncertainty about what is appropriate and what is not because the second something gets misconstrued for me as the only man on this board that is a real issue for my livelihood in my family so I we really need to figure out a way that like not only I want to do the I want the students to feel safe.

I need to feel safe as a man because I want to make sure that we are all above board with this.

Because having gone through YPT training or youth protection training, you could There's a lot of stuff that goes on that folks don't know about until harm has been done for months and years.

So I really just want to make sure that we are super clear on what those parameters are.

So that's a really good question.

I don't know how to answer that.

I don't know what the how is.

But what I do know is that we can at least start with what are the parameters and what are the laws that we are operating in.

And we can be creative in making sure that everybody feels comfortable.

That is a really good question.

But email is all public disclosure, which is all above board.

So you can feel free to email me and let me know those types of things.

But I think also just this, finding more opportunity to have face-to-face communication is always going to be better.

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_25

Again thank you to the board because this is a makeup session it was supposed to happen in June and so you guys stayed committed to putting this time in.

But I wonder if there could be opportunities for some two by twos opportunity in spaces.

There are some more work sessions I think I talked to Julie about it just opportunity to talk to youth.

These brilliant board members here I mean just getting to spend a little bit of time with them was great.

And I just want to just thank the youth tonight for coming and spending this time.

Queen Fartoon heard about this as you know Brandon's the student leadership council and she wanted to be here.

And last night when we got to spend time with them on Zoom I mean on teams together.

So there's other opportunities I know that there's again rules but think about other ways that we were on what you guys were on for like an hour and a half with all of us last night.

It just so there's we have to just think differently about how we can make that happen in different times.

But let's let's build an action plan together.

I know these guys are all committed to having this time and for everybody else that's coming behind them.

So let's think about those two by twos and again getting on teams together.

it went within the rules, right?

So again, those that are still here, if you guys can give a round of applause to these youth.

Thank you so much.

And again, thank you for making this space.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you.

All right, directors, we have some additional business that we need to take care of.

Well, I mean, we just need to close the meeting out, and I think we have some final announcements and things.

But that could also be untrue.

I'll see when we get to my talking points.

So if you would just join me back up at the dais for a few moments, we will wrap it up.

Yeah, they're just very, yeah.

Directors, this is super light for us.

So if we could just like come, I will release you again.

I promise.

But if we could wrap this up.

Y'all can go right back to talking to the kids, I swear.

No, you shouldn't.

Okay, so we have reached the next portion of today's agenda.

Okay, so we have some small things.

Ellie, can you help me really quickly?

I'll wait for Director Hampson to get back.

You got it.

OK we will now move into our time use evaluation and thank you for Director Rivera-Smith for evaluating last month's meeting and providing the detailed evaluation with this month's materials.

Are there any takeaways that you'd like to discuss at this time.

SPEAKER_26

Thank you.

Yes I submitted it.

I actually I realized I didn't put the time stamps in there but I do have them in case anyone's really interested in the exact minute usage but I rounded up like if it was seconds.

My point is it wasn't bad actually.

It was actually a good portion.

I don't have it in front of me but it was almost 50 percent I think right?

Yeah honestly.

Because I didn't count.

OK.

I didn't count student.

Sorry.

I didn't count public testimony as a chunk of our meeting since we.

So we take that away.

It's actually we've spent a good majority on the items that are in there.

I'm sorry.

So I think we're in a good position to keep that going.

SPEAKER_18

Awesome.

Good.

SPEAKER_28

So you have that in an Excel version so that I could take it.

Because I'm responsible for coding this meeting.

SPEAKER_18

You're just asking her to share it.

SPEAKER_28

OK.

And then I could share out a spreadsheet that then we could just follow on.

SPEAKER_18

That makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_26

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was a 47 percent.

Ninety one minutes spent on student outcomes focus covering student outcomes focus time usage.

So that was pretty good.

And that's really accurate.

I was really accurate.

So I'll send you.

It's a it's like Excel.

Yes.

I'll send it to you.

SPEAKER_18

Fantastic.

And Director Hampson I just have a spot here if you have any reflections don't feel needed to take it.

But if you have any reflections about how we use our time tonight.

SPEAKER_28

We didn't do any progress monitoring so it's not going to be this meeting will be a big.

SPEAKER_26

Yeah it would be different yes.

SPEAKER_28

And then I'll have to see with respect to how we count that.

Maybe I'll check with the work session I'll check with A.J.

does that qualify as two way conversation.

Yeah.

So I'll try to check in with him about that before I finalize it.

SPEAKER_30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_28

And then so that'll bring it all down to like more like 25 percent.

That's great.

Total.

And we need to look at it as cumulative.

Right.

SPEAKER_18

Right.

SPEAKER_28

That's what we're working towards.

Right.

And the amount of for how much time we're spending focusing on outcomes for students versus everything else.

SPEAKER_17

Oh I was just going to ask about the the cumulative time.

Do we again.

I can't remember.

Do we again review time use monthly.

SPEAKER_18

I believe it's my intent that we review time use in some way at every legislative meeting.

SPEAKER_17

But I mean then like for like so like it was 47 percent.

Sure.

So let's say for today let's say it's 23 percent.

SPEAKER_18

Yeah.

Oh I mean we'll keep like a running tab.

Yeah.

That's what I'm asking.

Oh got it.

Got it.

Sorry.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah.

We also.

review that together?

SPEAKER_18

Yeah.

Yeah, as soon as we're standing at the process and we actually have something to review, I really thank you for putting the Excel together, and also thank you for the suggestion of using it as a running tab.

I don't see why we couldn't project it and just look through it and review it.

SPEAKER_16

I guess it would be in the annual evaluation.

We would look at the monthly timings.

SPEAKER_18

Maybe.

We can also have this conversation offline.

Yeah, for sure.

So the uh, man, I had a I had a question.

I forgot what it was Your inbox OK.

Oh, I remember what it is.

Right.

So what jogged my memory about this is that the explanation for the running tab, I think, is really, really good.

Because if we really want to be in compliance and try to get to 50% of our time used on student outcomes focused interactions, that means that, especially since we're not doing progress monitoring every session, that we really need to be careful about how we're using our time during questioning and making sure that we're concise.

Because every second that we take out of that is going to throw us further and further out of balance.

And so that might just be something that we think of as we're trying to make sure that we're hitting that 50% mark, that it's not necessarily putting in more opportunity.

It's about how we're using our time efficiently so that it is in balance.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_28

I'm so glad you said that because it actually follows on what we just discussed with our student board members and our Kings and Queen that the units of time and energy that we spend Not focused on student outcomes and instead focused on all of the other stuff detracts from as you were speaking to during the session a very limited set of units of time and energy that we have to actually be in community.

I mean, that's something we didn't necessarily explain in that moment, but there's a very finite set of of time and energy that we can spend, even if we.

didn't have a job weren't you know and we're at it full time but that's not the case people do have jobs and other obligations and we don't get paid and we still want to have the ability to develop those kinds of relationships and be effective and so using that time really wisely is a huge component of why this is done is to be focused on actual outcomes for students and accountability around that and get out into our communities.

And that includes with students.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you President Hampson.

SPEAKER_28

OK.

I just got a promotion.

SPEAKER_18

I'm exhausted y'all.

It has been a it has been a month.

Yeah.

OK.

There are several informational items posted to tonight's agenda.

These include our regular items as well as two annual items the annual financial report and the annual ethics disclosure forms from the board directors and senior staff.

There being no further business on the agenda to come before the board the regular board meeting is now adjourned at six fifty four p.m.

Thank you very much.

Be safe getting home.

We'll see you next time.