for those of you that stayed and those out there in Channel 26 TV land.
Thanks for watching.
We do appreciate your feedback and comments.
C 1 tribal history and cultural extended core instructional materials adoption.
This came before C&I May 21 for consideration approval of this item will waive board policy 2015 while maintaining compliance with state law and approve the instructional material committee's recommendation to adopt tribal history and culture culture instructional materials for all K-12 Seattle Public Schools classrooms.
May I have the motion please.
Happily I move that the Seattle school board waive board policy number 2 0 1 5 which was designed to adopt instructional materials from commercial sources for the sole instance of expediting the adoption of the since time immemorial curriculum thus fulfilling the intent of the legal mandate of R C W 28 A dot 320 dot 170 tribal history and culture and.
I further move that the school board approve the Seattle Public Schools Instructional Materials Committee's recommendation to adopt since time immemorial as extended core instructional materials for all K-12 public schools classrooms.
Absolutely second.
Mr. Acting Chief Counsel do we take the amendment now or do we debate the underlying motion.
Please give me some guidance here sir.
At this point you could have the presentation if there is any questions as far as the motion and then see if then go to the amendment after that.
If there is no discussion go to the amendment amendment vote on it and then.
And then back it out after we vote on the amendment and then we go back to the main motion is that correct.
Correct.
And if the amendment were to pass you would want to add on the amended language to the.
the main motion.
Thank you.
Chief Academic Officer Diane DeBacker the floor is yours madam.
Well you you heard tonight in the comments by Superintendent Juneau about the importance of getting this.
getting this approved.
We appreciate the board for having for thinking outside the box knowing that policy 2015 did not allow for since time immemorial to be approved.
So thank you for doing that with me tonight.
The people who deserve all the credit.
Gail Morris.
So if you have questions about that about the since time immemorial curriculum and what we are doing and what we plan to do.
Gail stands to answer any questions for you.
Questions comments concerns from my colleagues.
This is on the C1 not amendment.
No we are not at the amendment at the main motion presently.
Thank you and thank you for all of your work on this incredibly meaningful curriculum.
I'm hoping that you can give us a brief overview or a little bit of a landscape of what it took to get here and what kind of collaboration and.
Just working together that it took from our tribes in our area but just kind of give a little bit of history so we understand the impact and the importance of really the profound importance of this curriculum.
Thank you.
My name is Gail Morris.
I'm Nachal North First Nations from the west coast of Vancouver Island.
I am the Native American education program manager and I brought with me and I'll let her introduce herself.
I'm Shanna Brown.
I am the chief curriculum writer for Since Time Immemorial and they just can't like kick me out.
I'm still there.
I'm doing a training on Friday the day after we get out of school.
And I'm completely honored that that we're taking this step.
So your question was about about the history.
Well it started in 2005 with the passage of House Bill 1495. At that particular time the the bill sponsor John McCoy and then director of Office of Native Education at OSPI Danny Hurtado were negotiating.
Originally we wanted or they wanted the curriculum to be required.
And they had to compromise and say that they would accept strongly encouraged and and so throughout that that's where that's where the writing came in.
And so we wrote and wrote and wrote and determined that we didn't want a one and done as Director Burke was talking about.
And and so it is a curriculum that follows teachers September through June.
It.
It meets teachers where they are.
And I'll just.
I'll just do this.
And.
And it allows for and insists on the partnership with the nearest federally recognized tribes.
So we went through the process of training.
Voluntarily until 2015 when.
When Senate bill substitute Senate Bill 5 4 3 3 came about and actually required and so overjoyed.
We thought.
This means it's all going to happen.
And you know we were.
We were naive.
And so now we are kind of like in the second phase taking a look at how do we make.
and hold school districts and teachers and principals accountable for not only including the curriculum but to what degree and and also with what tribes are they partnering.
Thank you.
Well I would like to add that in when the.
When it passed Senate Bill 5 4 3 3 passed in May of 2015. Then executive director Shawna Heath was in curriculum assessment and instruction and determined that it would be a K-12.
adoption for Seattle Public Schools and then a year later Dr. Kinoshita came in and really helped finesse that and worked hard with me to make sure that we adopted in Seattle Public Schools.
And here we are.
I mean we spent a lot of time and looking at funding how are we going to fund teachers and.
Substitutes to get the teachers to the training because it's really important and we must always remember that this curriculum was written for non-Native.
Students to learn about our current history and what a government to government relationship looks like.
So this is what we've been working on to this day.
At this moment at the mic to get this to the teachers so that the students can understand the true histories of our twenty nine federally recognized tribes and also to understand what those tribes contribute today in our economy as well as the surrounding cities and towns that they contribute to.
So for me that's the landscape of where we're at.
And when we adopt this.
We can then work.
Diligently.
With our middle schools this upcoming year and then also to create a website that we can put all of our curriculum.
On as well as the curriculum that we're working with with.
Next year.
And looking at changing the verbiage on you know like for instance third grade.
CBAs around learning about the different tribes from all over.
We're going to incorporate STI into the CCC so that they understand what that looks like.
So it's extremely important and we're so glad to be here.
Yes.
I guess the last the last two things that I would like to add is teaching and being a teacher for almost 30 years.
I.
There has been a shift in Seattle schools in my classroom over the past five or six years and that shift has been I do not have to introduce the entire idea of tribes existing in Washington state that that my seventh graders and my eighth graders are coming into middle school with prior knowledge.
And so we see it working in fits and starts and.
And then lastly Gail said it was written for non-natives.
I don't want us to think that it wasn't written for native students as well because because when.
Well you know what happens when you see yourself when you see yourself in the curriculum when you see yourself reflected and when you see yourself reflected positively and not as a victim it creates an immense power in the classroom and then beyond.
Director Harris.
I want to just add in along with my gratitude for the work that allowed us to adopt this because there's a this to adopt.
It's been asked kind of why have we not done this sooner.
You know what's been the hold up.
And I think that's a really important thing to drill down to into a little bit because there's been a desire But yet the implementation hasn't been there.
It's the law.
Why are we not doing it.
And I think the first consideration is well there's lots of things that are the law.
If we followed every law to the letter we're not funded for many of the things that are law.
Fact.
So what it does it creates this system where people we have to make judgments and say OK well we're going to we're going to do this to the letter.
We're going to kind of do this and we're going to not do that.
even though we should be doing all of them.
And I think that there was a level of gradual implementation that was sort of happening through osmosis and the energy of our amazing team that was deemed acceptable.
And I say that in a non-judgmental way, but it was like, oh, this is the law, and it is being rolled out, and training is happening.
Yeah, it's not happening quite fast enough.
Yeah, we'd like more.
But our policy around adoption covers course level material.
You can adopt material for an entire course.
You can't really adopt part of material.
And there wasn't a way to adopt material that wasn't from a publisher or reviewed by a committee.
So there were there were just mismatches in the policy language which were sort of creating a barrier and it's like oh this is hard this is hard well we're just going to keep doing kind of a slow rollout.
So that's where I'm excited that the conversations among the board the staff came up with this method to say let's let's not just adopt it but let's adopt it and fund professional development.
And I think the the other aspect that I've learned from your team is that Seattle is a role model district for the state and so by us finding a way.
which is in compliance with state law and adapting our policy or waiving the components of our policy and formally adopting it and funding it.
We are acting as a role model and we're showing the rest of the districts in the state this is important.
This is something that our kids value and our community values.
And so I'm hugely in support.
Other comments questions concerns from my colleagues Director Pinkham.
Thank you for the work that we're doing at this and Gail for and when I first came on the board yes we had this and but then where was the training where our teachers do need this we can't just you know put it up there and let their unfortunate stereotypes and perspectives kind of guide the material because unfortunately that's what my daughter experienced where they took it and OK but I'll add my own.
Beliefs and perspectives.
So I'm glad that we were able to get the training going and hopefully we can get.
Everyone because it sounds like there are some.
The middle school or elementary good turnout but once we go to higher grades the turnout kind of dropped off and.
Hopefully we can get more.
To turn out and.
Learn that.
Yes this may have been written for as.
To help the non-Indians learn the tribal histories here.
But also to have someone that's familiar with the tribal history to.
OK this is what it means this is what it explains because we can't just necessarily read by books we need.
Other people to help explain as well.
So I thank you for that.
Director Harris.
Any other comments questions concerns.
I'll go.
It's my personal belief.
based on my training and over three decades of working in the legal field that state law is not trumped by policy and I'm sorry that it took us this long to get here.
It's also my personal belief that we follow the money and we have not funded professional development and I'm distressed by that even ashamed by that.
And I am pleased.
It's my understanding that our STAR mentor teachers have now taken the STI training.
Thank you for all the good folks that made that happen.
Our actions speak very loudly.
I one of the first things we did on this board when I came aboard four years ago is we changed your darn forms.
And it was not that big a deal but they were stuck for years in terms of identification and again identification means money and that matters.
All those disagreements aside I could not be more thrilled to see this institutionalized in our culture as a priority.
It's about darn time.
I believe there is an amendment.
Mr. Pinkham did you wish to read that amendment and then we will debate that.
If it gets a second.
I move the school board amend the motion on the tribal history and cultural extended core instructional materials adoption to include the following sentence as a final paragraph.
I further move that resolution 2016 17 dash 1 memorialize support of treaty rights and benefits of the Duwamish Nation be distributed with included as part of the proposed instructional materials adoption.
Director Harris — Is there a second to the amendment.
Director Burke — I will second that.
Director Harris — Okay.
Mr. Acting Chief Counsel can you come to the podium please.
Can you create a record.
Based on your personal.
Legal advice to us that was distributed to the board yesterday.
As to how this would affect what we are doing.
Please.
I think that it might be best to go into executive session and I could discuss that as it could pertain to to legal matters and pending litigation.
Let's be really clear here because we are creating a record.
Are you telling me that there is pending litigation that would be affected by this.
Amendment.
For the Seattle School District.
Not for federal recognition not for federal recognition of tribes and how it relates to state law.
I believe that it could potentially create a legal situation for the district and I would like to discuss that under attorney compliant privilege.
Well then this board will adjourn.
to the boardroom for a quick five minute executive session for legal advice by our council.
Thank you.
And if it takes longer than five minutes we'll come back out and tell you how much longer it may take.
Thank you.