Seattle Schools Board Meeting Sept 17, 2025

Good afternoon.

We will call the meeting to order momentarily and SPS TV will begin broadcasting.

Check, check, check.

Do you hear that?

Nothing?

It should be mic level.

One, two, three, four, or check, check, check.

All right.

I'm still talking.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Did I sound good to you guys?

Okay.

All right, this is Director Topp.

We're still waiting on a quorum, but we will start momentarily.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Brendan is online.

Just heads up.

All right, the September 2025 regular board meeting is now called to order at 4.18 p.m.

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

We have staff, please call the roll.

Vice President Briggs.

Director Clark.

I do not see her online.

Director Hersey?

Here.

Director Mizrahi?

Here.

Director Rankin?

Here.

Director Sarju?

Present.

President Top?

Here.

Director Mangelson?

Here.

Director Masudi?

Here.

Director Yoon?

Here.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a lot going on.

There are a lot of moving pieces to tonight's meeting, so we're going to keep things rolling.

But I appreciate that we have our student board directors joining us for their their first meeting, except for Director Yoon is back for another year.

So we're so excited to have them be part of our board meeting this evening.

As I mentioned, a lot going on just for board directors Some things that are coming up, just a reminder, we have we are in the middle of a superintendent search process.

Our media, we have a meeting on September 26th from two thirty to seven thirty p.m.

with H.Y.A. and Mr. Ali.

This is when we will have the presentation of the slate of candidates.

Yes.

That is a Friday.

And then related to that, we have our superintendent search community engagement session.

So just a reminder to board directors, one of the things that we heard before we started even the soliciting feedback on our profile for our next superintendent was that folks wanted us to come back to them with what we had learned and share with them our our leadership profile report those meetings have been scheduled i think that there's about 10 of them it's on us as board directors to be present at them and i know many of you have already responded with your availability you'll see both the meetings the times and the dates online along with who will be present i am the only one at some of the meetings so please board directors take a look specifically if you haven't provided responses yet and see if you're able to join i know director rankin has graciously offered to also join some additional meetings with me WE, AFTER TONIGHT, OUR NEXT BOARD MEETING WILL BE ON SEPTEMBER 24TH.

IT WILL BE OUR SECOND BOARD MEETING OF THE MONTH WHERE WE WILL HAVE OUR WORK SESSION.

WE WILL HAVE OUR PRESENTATION FROM ERS.

WE WILL ALSO HAVE AN UPDATE ON ENROLLMENT SLASH OCTOBER SHUFFLE.

I THINK THAT JUST SO WE ARE AWARE, WE WILL HAVE A PRESENTATION ON LUNCHES BEFORE PUBLIC TESTIMONY TODAY, BUT WE WILL START PUBLIC TESTIMONY AT 5. AND IF WE DON'T GET TO STUDENT COMMENTS BEFORE THEN, WE WILL DO IT DIRECTLY AFTER PUBLIC TESTIMONY.

WITH THAT, I AM GOING TO HAND IT OVER TO THE SUPERINTENDENT FOR SUPERINTENDENT COMMENTS, SUPERINTENDENT PODESTA.

Thank you, President Topp.

This is just such a great time of year.

I've had the privilege over the last couple of weeks to make more than 16 school visits, and it's just so great what you see in each of those buildings.

My usual routine in talking to school leaders as to ask some of why it was apparent considering enrolling a student in your school, what would you want to show me?

answers and the information I get is always so compelling and optimistic and inspiring really.

So it's a great experience.

I really want to thank directors who joined me on some of those visits.

Some of the time in buildings have also been ribbon cuttings where we opened three new buildings and they are just remarkable.

Seattle Public Schools builds superb school buildings and I hope people I hope our students, I hope our community see those beyond the brick and mortar.

It's just a testament to the respect and love we wanna show students.

We are gonna have a briefing about school lunch, which has obviously been a big subject.

Speaking of visits, we were visited on Monday by probably 400 students who came and talked about, and nicely done, folks that are organizing on this issue.

I think people are safe, people respectful.

I met with Dr. Torres Morales and I, and Eric Gersey met with several of the students for more than an hour and had a really great discussion and talked through the issues.

It was great to have that conversation.

Again, we're gonna talk about school lunches a little bit later, so I won't belabor the point.

I do think for this group, one thing I'm struck by in this conversation is we've talked a lot about student outcomes and what students, can know and do, and we should be, that's our core business, sometimes maybe we need to talk about more what students experience, which may be an input into our thinking, but it's an input that really matters.

And so I think that's one of the things we need to think more about.

We have other consequential things on the agenda tonight.

I'll give the directors an update on our strategic planning effort and where we are in advance of a deliverable that we're going to present to you next week.

And then we've had a few discussions and some community outreach on our safety policy, and that's on the agenda as well.

So plenty to do.

And we squeezed in a briefing, so I will shut up and turn it back to you.

Yeah.

All right.

So for the briefing, we're going to head to the tables.

Please bring your microphones.

We're going to move to the next item, which is the high school lunch briefing.

All right.

I feel like this U-shape has gotten smaller for some reason.

But it's next to be closer to folks.

All right, so this is a briefing on our high school lunch program.

This is obviously something that has gotten a lot of attention.

We had students come out and protest.

And I think that there have been many directors talking with student leaders at schools.

Director Yoon organized a good office hours with Director Clark, Director Mizrahi and myself with students as well.

She was an amazing facilitator as we heard from students on this specific topic.

I think that it will be helpful for all of us just to have a common understanding of the facts and what's going on and also sort of next steps.

So with that I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Podesta.

Thanks again, President Topp.

I just want to make a few points and we'll ask Associate Superintendent Dr. Torres Morales to describe the complexity of this issue.

And really, it is complex.

There are four interests we're really trying to balance around instructional time.

making sure that everyone gets a break, teachers and staff included, making sure that we can keep campuses safe and supervise and monitor activities across the high school campus, and then make sure everybody has access to food and meals, wherever they get it, whether they get it from us or someone else.

And you'll see that list that we were trying to balance, staff were trying to balance in establishing schedules and really a return to multiple lunches at comprehensive high schools, which has been the norm for many years.

We drifted away from that because of the constraints around COVID.

So we may have not really foreseen how big a change this was because for the current cohort of high school students, they haven't experienced this before.

And the fifth thing on that list, which everyone is making us very aware of now, is the non-class time for students to meet with each other, to participate in other non-class activities.

You know, I said we were balancing four things.

There's obviously a fifth.

I will apologize again and as many times as people would like.

The way this happened is completely on us.

It was a decision we made as we were planning for this year in the spring and clearly it didn't land it right in buildings.

there's perhaps a slight bit of silver lining in that is that will make us really focus on this issue because we had underlying pre-existing issues with the high school school day and achieving all these goals that matter we've talked a little bit about this as a compliance issue it isn't really so we have to decide what it is we really want I think I think our goals are already in alignment with contracts and board policy and state law.

So I think we're going to have to prioritize.

I'll borrow a line from myself that we talked about when we talked about wait lists is, compared to all the problems we could have, this is all in our control.

This is something we made.

This is something we can change.

What we can't do is change how many minutes there are in a day.

So we're going to have to prioritize.

But this can be figured out like everything.

Not everyone's gonna get everything they want, but it's a matter of establishing priorities, and if we make a change, we can unmake a change, we can refine a change.

So I think what we're trying to accomplish today is just explain how we got here, or what our goals and constraints are, talk about how we might be able to make it better, and then get your feedback.

So I will turn it over to Dr. Torres Morales.

Good evening, board director.

So we're going to start with one of the issues that came up in this is why did the high schools have to go to 30-minute lunches?

So that was one of the first things that arose.

And so when we think about the number of instruction hours required for our high schools and for high school students, it's 1,080 instruction hours per year.

So that's a best practice that we believe in and also something that aligns with the state requirement.

If you look at a lot of other states around the country, that is a pretty standard requirement.

So there's a reason why we go in that direction as well.

We're not an outlier in that.

High school school day starts at 8.50 and ends at 3.40.

Passing time does count as instructional minutes, so when you put the five minutes passing on each side, those do get to count as instructional minutes.

If there are lunch and clubs, or clubs during lunch, those don't count.

So your lunch time doesn't count towards the instructional minutes, neither do clubs.

And so when you start to put the whole puzzle together, what you see is that at a 30-minute lunch, that ensures that as a school district, we're giving each of our high school students 1,093 hours in a school year, which is ahead of the requirement of 1,080.

So that begs the question, why are we 13 hours ahead?

Part of that is because we have to account for inclement weather days, et cetera.

If we do not, and then we have an inclement weather day, we have to extend the school year at the end in June.

And so the extra hours in there account for if we have to do a late start some days, if we have to call a snow day, those sort of things.

If we were to extend the lunch to 35 minutes, it actually puts us short of the 1,080 hours that we would need to stay in compliance with the law and what we think is best practice for instructional contact time for students.

If you're running the schedules, what you're going to look at is say like, well, 30 minutes of lunch in five days.

Remember, there's certain things like Wednesdays.

All of our schools are in a different schedule in an early release.

And so that is a little bit different.

So I just wanted to make sure that we were aware of that.

And there's also early release days that happen in December and in June.

So one of the things to think about is the 30 minute lunch is supposed to be to allow us to hit the 1,080 hours of instructional time.

And the way it's supposed to work is students need time to get lunch, 20 minutes to sit and eat their lunch, and time for personal care and hygiene.

So what we have to guarantee as a school district that we're giving every single kid time to get their lunch, sit and eat for 20 minutes, and also take care of personal hygiene, which is why it is a challenge at our larger comprehensive high schools if we don't go to multiple lunches, because we have to be able that we're guaranteeing that for every single kid and within 30 minutes.

Some of the stuff that we've been hearing, so key interests.

that the concern with splitting up the lunches in a lot of ways has to do with the time to be with friends and socialize.

A lot of our schools started using the lunch time for their clubs, so clubs and activities have been impacted by this because not all kids could be in clubs at the same time.

Some students were accessing academic supports during that time.

And there's also been some safety concerns about the number of students that would be together if we did one big lunch.

And so we wanted to call that out as well.

I will say that Superintendent Podesta and I, we spent time with students who were down here earlier this week.

We spent over an hour with them.

Yesterday, me and Superintendent Podesta were with the ASB leadership from our high schools, and we had a listening session with them for an hour.

to talk through all of the issues.

One of the things this clearly, clearly raises for us is that we have issues that we need to deal with with the high school schedule in general.

If these are all things that are priorities for us, which they are, we want students to have clubs, we understand clearly, especially from students, the importance of the extracurriculars for the college application, that this is something we need to figure out how to provide in the school day while we're also providing the time for lunch.

So the question there becomes, how are we gonna continue to work with students?

to make sure that we're actually meeting the needs that they have while we're complying with laws and what we think are best practices.

So we've made a commitment that we will continue those meetings with ASB leadership.

We're gonna meet with them again in two weeks and then we're gonna have a standing weekly or monthly meeting with them to talk through some of these issues.

So encourage the students who are listening, please reach out to your ASB leadership.

They're having time with me specifically, sometime with Superintendent Podesta to talk through these issues so we can land at a more solid solution as to what we're gonna do for next steps as a school district.

And I would add that construct of us, it was a remote space, but with school leaders and their ASB leadership, we haven't done that recently.

I don't know if it's ever been a practice.

So perhaps that's another innovation that will come out of this, just to try something new.

So I don't think that standing meeting is just about lunch.

This is a new way for us to interact with school leaders and their student leaders at the same time.

So I'm hoping that pans out.

Yeah.

So in the short term, we're reviewing current schedules and having conversations with school principals.

We are getting our next update tomorrow from the school leaders as to what's going on with the schedules, how the conversations are going with students, what their next steps are.

Superintendent Podesta and I have a meeting with the comprehensive high school principals Friday morning to review some more of that information and see where we're at in next steps.

And then we're going to have the ongoing meetings with student leadership.

Some of the long-term considerations are what we mentioned, that we need to figure out how we're working through this, because this is a bigger issue for all of us, especially for our high school students.

We understand the clubs.

We understand the extracurriculars.

And we need to figure out how we're going to do this, and we can solve this together.

But we also have to stay within parameters and constraints that we have.

And so what we're going to do about that is something we need to all get in space and work out.

and one last point we do have some ambitious goals goal three in the way we're thinking about our strategic plan about high school graduation rates completing high school and beyond plans we really need to think this our schedule whether it's advisory or other supports doesn't really offer that in a way of something we're gonna have to talk about and then Maybe this is a spoiler alert.

Sometime in the next few months, we're gonna be having our second favorite conversation after school lunches about bell schedules.

We've talked about this for the last few years as part of thinking about transportation optimization and our financial challenges so we need to look at the school day because of this issue and other really important issues so you know it again the way it came up it was unfortunate and I'm sorry about that but we really need to have a focus on it anyway

all right so i know that there are a lot a lot of directors who have comments or feedback and i want this i want to make sure we know we are stopping at five so just be respectful of other folks time just so i'm going to go first i think i can be really quick pre-covid all our comprehensive high schools had multiple lunches except for except for lincoln and at the time they were enrolled i only believe ninth and tenth grade Okay, during COVID, we moved to one lunch, essentially at home, an hour long lunch.

Yes.

Well, not everywhere.

Some schools did.

OK.

And we had a variety of constraints post-COVID.

And certainly the first year back, all bets were off on how we were serving lunch in all our buildings.

OK.

And now, yeah, so post-COVID, we came back.

Some schools had an hour-long lunch, one lunch.

Some schools came back with multiple lunches.

And some schools came back with one 30-minute lunch.

And then we dictated a change for 30 minutes to hit our instructional time.

And then what I'm hearing is from an operational perspective, both to make sure we're serving all the kids who need lunch, and also, I think, for a safety concern of splitting up lunches from one lunch to two lunches.

a little bit and it would be that for kids to get lunch period not just the kids we're serving so even if you have for example your seniors going off campus we still have to make sure that we're giving them enough time to go wherever they're going be able to get a meal sit for 20 minutes use a restroom get back and get into class so it's not just about the kids who are getting lunch at school but yes And then the other part I would say is that in general, a lot of the schools that went to one lunch all were at one hour.

There were very few that were at 30 minutes.

And then when we brought up the instructional hours issue was when many schools switched to 30 minutes and then they scheduled one lunch for 30 minutes, which created the, which compounded the problem.

Ideally, obviously, Superintendent Podesta, you said this directive was given last spring, and the goal was to have this rolled out smoothly.

That didn't happen.

You've apologized for that.

What are we doing to make sure things like that don't happen again?

We talked about this a little bit actually at the audit committee yesterday.

There is a priority we've identified in our strategic planning about a new structure for unified leadership and looking at our organization.

That's a really significant concern because we'll be talking to you a lot about educational strategies, other things we're trying to implement and if we're having trouble having a plan and design in the central office that's about lunch and having trouble making sure that's landing in our buildings, how are we going to support MTSS?

How are we going to support some of the other things that are important to us?

So that, we have to step back and lessons learned on this, all the analysis you would do, root cause analysis, where is it within the central office, within buildings, this wasn't clear, because it was clear to some of us, but it clearly wasn't clear to all of us, and I'm happy to take personal responsibility for that, and for making sure that we understand how to fix this.

All right, we're just going to go around the U-shape the opposite way and through the screen.

So Director Mizrahi.

So just a few clarifying questions and then I think a point to make.

So a lot of the question we've gotten is just a lack of clarity about the why.

So at a school like Lincoln, which I only know about because it's in my district, so I get a lot of the feedback from Lincoln, where they were already doing one 30-minute lunch.

It's not about instructional hours.

Why do they have to change?

I want as much clarity for people who are asking as possible.

So we've seen that people are interested in a lot of things.

We also want to make sure teachers get a 30-minute duty-free lunch.

And so all the academic supports and other things that students have brought up, when are those happening?

We want to make sure that we have supervisory plans in place that doesn't make sense to have a school, as many students as attend Lincoln High School all in motion at the same time for 30 minutes.

Is it feasible?

Again, we want to make sure everyone has access to meals, whether they're getting them from our lunchroom or the surrounding neighborhood.

It's hard to understand how this long list of interests everyone have can be accomplished for 1,700 students all in 30 minutes at the same time.

We've had some really serious safety concerns and deaths near our campuses during lunch or lunch adjacent.

And part of it is how many adults can supervise how many students at the same time.

If half of them are in class, we know how they're being supervised.

So that was a concern for comprehensive high schools.

Is it practical to have everybody in motion at once, and can we manage that well?

And it's more than just lunch.

Okay, and the second clarifying question that I have a point to make is the 20-minute seated lunch that you mentioned, Dr. Torres-Morales, what is that based on?

Because I may have been looking at the wrong WAC, because that seemed like it was about K-5, So maybe there's a different law.

What is that based on?

So the WAC is, there's two parts to the WAC, and the WAC is inclusive for all students.

And so when you look at it, all of our elementary schools need to comply with part one and part two, and all of our schools need to comply with part one.

The 20-minute part comes in, one, it's a best practice, but two, it's also in our board policy, around 20 minutes to have a seated lunch, time for 20 minutes of a seated lunch.

So it's a board policy, okay.

Okay, and then I guess the bigger question I have, you know, the point that I want to make is this question about why the rush.

I mean, I appreciate you taking responsibility for it, but it does seem to me like we are putting the cart before the horse because we're saying, no, we're going to do this, and then we're going to sort of do all this engagement afterwards to try and figure out how to work out the club situation, all the problems that are created from it.

And if it was something that...

you're taking personal responsibility for, the district office is taking responsibility for, it seems like we are making our students suffer for that mistake when we just haven't had time to work out all the different ways to solve these problems.

I actually am very confident that there are ways to solve all the problems of making sure that there is club time and that we can supervise a number of students.

I believe in the, I have confidence in the intelligence and ingenuity of people at central office and our students and our building leadership team that we can figure it out, but we need time to figure it out.

So it does feel like this rushed imposition of the plan when just something got lost in translation, why we can't just take a step back and say, you know what, let's take the time to actually do this right rather than doing it quickly.

I think we feel a sense of urgency because we think safety in particular, access to meals are important each day that We're not sure we're doing this.

We're accepting a certain amount of risk and made the call that We knew this would have impacts, and we considered those, and we think they matter.

And so continuing to operate this way just isn't our recommendation.

But just to be clear, we are going into it without a clear solution for the problems, like when clubs are going to occur.

Again, we've operated comprehensive high schools like this for many years.

So I don't know that we need to invent new ways.

We had clubs.

We had sports.

In 2019, our big schools had these kinds of schedules, so I think that to some degree, we can dust off strategies that we had in the past.

Director Sarju.

We all make mistakes.

Students make mistakes.

Parents make mistakes.

School board directors make mistakes.

Principals make mistakes.

Superintendents make mistakes.

We all make mistakes.

What's important is how we recover from that.

We're gonna have spectacular wipeouts in our lifetime.

It's not the wipeout, it's how we recover.

If you think about athletes, downhill skiing, the agony of defeat, that slalom skier having a spectacular wipeout and getting back up on those skis.

That's thing number one.

So I'm not here to chastise or blame anybody.

We're talking about students in the third person.

I'm looking at any number of students in here.

We've got student board directors, but we didn't engage them.

They were not engaged before this was sent out.

I think every one of the students in here can understand when we say there are laws that we have to comply by, non-negotiable.

They know if they're speeding, if they're driving, if you're speeding and you run a red light, you're going to get a ticket and you're going to have to pay it.

Consequences.

This situation didn't have to happen like this.

And we keep having these situations.

So Superintendent Podesta, I hear you say, this isn't about lunch.

I'm not sure the students are convinced that anything's going to be different.

We have to demonstrate to them that we're committed to including them in the decisions that impact them the most.

So now as a reaction, we're engaging with ASBs.

And maybe in the future, that's going to be the way, but trust has been broken.

We've had too many of these instances.

When trust is broken, there has to be repair.

And so it isn't just about school lunch.

To the parents who've sent the hundreds of emails, If you don't get a response, it's because we can't respond.

We're not, you know, we're having this conversation.

I mean, we can respond, but it would be performative.

I'm not going to send you a response that says, oh, I'm so sorry.

I didn't have anything to do with this.

I found out the same way you did in an email.

I'm in LA at a school board conference and we get a phone call.

So I didn't know about this ahead of time.

And this situation represents our deep, deep need to be proactive.

We are always behind the eight ball.

Seattle Storm doesn't win that game last night without being proactive about the whooping that they took on Sunday.

They came out and they played differently and they won a game.

They don't win that game without actually stepping back and saying, that whooping was so bad, do we want to have that again in front of our hometown fans?

No.

They went back to the drawing board and they won the game.

We have student board directors.

Did I already say that?

They're here for us to utilize them.

This is not performance for them.

Director Yoon doesn't do this twice because she likes the game that we're playing.

She's trying to build her leadership schools.

Let's start utilizing our students unless we're actually not preparing our students in our comprehensive high schools to do critical thinking, to understand how the legal system and our school board and our school district work, If that's not what we're doing, then we don't need to engage them.

But I believe it's what we are doing, it's what we should be doing, and I believe they can actually be part of the solution.

We just need to give them that opportunity.

Director Masoudi, do you have any comments?

No.

All right, we'll go to Director Clark.

Thanks.

So I guess first I just want to say that I appreciate just the acknowledgement of where we are and what happened.

And I hope that this situation has highlighted the importance that we listen to our students.

I really appreciate them speaking up and, you know, on Monday to speak out against the split lunch.

And I had some great conversations with students that day as well as the listening session or office hours that we held later in the day.

You know, I was an SPS student too.

I know what it's like to hear district leaders say they care about students, they center students, that they center equity and justice, and then turn around and ignore it all just to make a decision they wanted to make the entire time.

It's been happening for decades, at least since I was a student, if not longer.

And I vowed when I was appointed to this office that I would do everything in my power to disrupt and break the cycle, that I would not let this district keep saying they center students and then disregard them in actual decision making and implementation.

So, you know, from what I understand in talking to the students, There are different issues that have come up at every single high school, and I don't see how you all can create a one-size-fits-all solution in less than three weeks to fix this problem.

Students are saying that The split lunch harms their education.

I've heard from teachers that there are intersecting policies, whether it's the retake policy or instructional hours or the fact that clubs don't count for instructional hours.

This is just a mess.

And I also feel that this proposal violated one of our guardrails, that the superintendent won't make major decisions or bring major recommendations to the board without first implementing an engagement strategy with students, parents, teachers, and community members.

So I just, I don't see how we can do all of that before October 6th.

WAASA has a model policy that major operational changes must come before the board for approval.

And I know that we are trying to move away from being involved in operational decisions, but Given the circumstances and the fact that we have so many additional changes in our high schools coming to meet goal three, I just I feel like we might want to consider a one year a policy that would require this to happen to help us work out the bumps with community engagement result, you know, and just kind of build the muscle that we don't have that keeps leading us back to this place over and over again.

I really do expect the superintendent and staff to solve these problems.

roll back the splits for now and start over, do the engagement with each school community, address the policies that intersect and cause issues for students and staff, and bring that proposal back to the board and share your plan with us.

If that doesn't happen, then I think we need to come back and consider this WASDA model policy.

As you guys said, to meet goal three, we have to get this right.

And I think that getting it right means including student voice in all of it.

So no questions.

Thanks.

Director Yoon.

Thank you.

I have a comment and a question.

So my first comment is I would like to thank Dr. Torres-Milas and Deputy Chief Gursi for hosting the initial ASB leadership meeting.

This is something we have been talking about for a very long time and over the summer and we wanted to set this as our main goal to have some kind of platform where we could go to student representatives from different districts and areas to talk about the issues they're facing.

I would have or would have appreciated if there was more communication to us.

I understood it from just receiving the invite what this was, but they probably didn't.

And I was in the same position last year of being a student board member for the first time.

And I just wanted to point that out, that more communication and maybe just an email like, hey, your presence would be appreciated here because we need you to speak on this, this, this.

That would be really helpful.

because we really do understand that you're trying your best and understand that it may be hard to communicate with multiple groups at the same time, but just wanted to point that out.

And my other comment was how student voice and student feedback are two different things.

Now, this kind of reiterates what Director Sarju said.

Student feedback is more of something that is a reaction.

Students are giving feedback on a decision that has already been made or policies that have already been affecting them.

Student voice is something that students, they express their opinions, their thoughts on a decision that is about to be made.

We're incorporating what they think and how it's going to affect them.

That's why we call it student voice because we want to make sure the decisions we made and put in place reflect of the lives they have every day at the school buildings.

So I just wanted to point that out, that there's a difference between student feedback and voice, and one shouldn't outbalance the other.

And I appreciate the efforts to try and balance student voice and feedback right now as the result of this situation, but I wanted to point that out.

Thank you.

Oh, I wanted to give Vice President Viggs and Director Rankin time, so I can ask my question later if we're gonna come back to the table.

Go ahead and ask your question.

My question was, so right now at Ballard, or my freshman year at Ballard, we had an hour lunch, including passing period, and right now we have a little bit over a 30 minute lunch, and we have replaced that time, one hour lunch time, with a 10 minute period between second and third so at the start of third period we have like a 10 minute advisory block and we don't do anything in that period i don't know if this is the same for other schools i know lincoln has a 20 minute advisory period but teachers are sitting there and they want to use the restroom and they can't go because they have to stay with us in the classroom so although i like really respect that you're trying to follow the state laws i also want to point out that we should really not just be following and making decisions that like match the state law we should also be making decisions that fill in and go through those obstacles of how it's affecting students just putting in extra 10 minutes there during the day kind of waste everyone's time and it definitely could be utilized more efficiently with test retakes or any other club activities that we want to use during that time oh i just wanted to ask how we are trying to solve that issue sorry it's literally long

Thank you, Director Yoon.

And so that was part of why we did the extension until October the 6th, because part of it that we were hearing clearly from you all is that we need to have more conversation.

And we 100% understand that this is school dependent because we've heard different issues from different schools.

So for example, I know I got an update on Ballard today that you all have not implemented the lunch schedule yet because the principal's working on engagement with students to discuss issues such as the one that you just brought up but in terms of that I think for me that's why it's important that we continue this conversation beyond this like once this is solved and it's moved we need to keep talking with students about the schedule and what's happening and what needs to happen and what's missing because it shouldn't be that if you did get an advisory period that it's 10 minutes of like yeah we don't yeah what you just said I don't know I haven't been there but it needs to be something more substantive, and we need to know that so we can have the conversation and we can support the educators in that.

Thank you.

Was that advisory, well, you haven't gone to a split lunch schedule, so that was just the schedule at the start of the school year with one lunch?

I'm just trying to understand it.

Yes.

And again, That time, wherever it is, whether it's one advisory or as part of a 30-minute lunch where we're trying to do many, many things, that's, I think, kind of the base problem to solve is 30 minutes can't be all these things.

It just can't.

And so we're going to have to figure something deeper out.

I just wanted to add on the issue wasn't about the shortening of the lunch.

It's just that we're putting in extra time into classes when they aren't serving a purpose.

And I think we need to take in consideration of how it's actually affecting students and teachers in a building.

To me, what I'm hearing, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that we need to look at the whole day's schedule to try to get to a schedule that makes sense for all of you.

We're balancing many, many different interests, but it seemed like that had already been in the plan and it's questionable, so we'll have to look at that schedule.

So we are going to get to Director Briggs and Director Rankin.

We have about 5 o'clock.

I try to strictly start public testimony at 5 o'clock.

I'm going to apologize in advance that we're going to go until probably about 5.10.

We'll start public testimony about 5.10.

We have about a third of the folks here talking about lunch, but there are two-thirds here talking about other issues.

So with that, Director Briggs.

Okay, thanks.

I'll try to be as quick as possible.

So I think what I'm hearing from a lot of people, including my own two high schoolers and their friends, is that all of these problems that have been identified are not problems that they're experiencing.

and I'm hearing this at multiple schools, that there isn't actually an issue with getting kids through the line at lunch, that the way they had it set up was working for them.

And it remains unclear, and to be honest, it remains unclear to me exactly what we're solving for if the school community themselves are saying that it's working for them, and as long as they are in compliance, which it sounds like they are if they have a 30-minute lunch, I don't know what other, I just don't think, it's really hard to tell people that they're having an experience that they're not having, I guess is what I'm saying.

And what I'm hearing is that, yeah, that this doesn't, that there was no problem here until this was introduced.

So I guess what I'm wondering, and this is my question, As long as there are no state laws being broken, why can we not leave it up to individual schools to determine what works best for their school community?

As long as they're in compliance otherwise.

That's just, yeah, that's basically it.

I mean, again, we've had supervisory issues at lunch.

And to understand if, in fact, we think everybody needs a break, students and staff, that we're, if teachers are all volunteering their time, I'd just like to understand that better.

So there are, and then I assume students aren't calculating their instructional minutes.

I just need to make sure this is all actually really working.

And even if it's kind of working, are we really, wherever students are getting lunch, are they getting from us or somebody else?

are all those student supports, can they really all be accomplished in 30 minutes?

I'm struggling to understand what a club accomplishes in 30 minutes and lunch.

How exactly is that working in terms of how we've done clubs other ways?

So I just want to understand it better.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

It is hard to imagine.

Agreed.

And I think the solution is that, like, we would need to go to the school and see ourselves.

Because I do think it's important to take the words of the community themselves at face value, that it is working.

Even if we can't picture that, then let's go see what it looks like, would be my response to that.

But, yeah, I'll be done.

I'm done.

Director Mangelson.

I don't have anything to say.

Perfect.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I'm the parent of a Hale 11th grader who came home and said, Mom, what the hell?

I was like, no, I think Hale's not, I don't know.

I'll keep it there.

Anyway, and I was like, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm trying to figure it out.

So you all don't need another person telling you this was handled badly.

I think we're all fully aware that this was handled badly.

This also came up two years ago.

And there was a lack of clarity at that point as well about the why.

And because of that, I'm gonna totally own, I participated in student-led advocacy and supported them in pushing back against it because I as a board director was not giving the full information about why.

It was made to sound very operational in a very just lunchroom capacity.

I supported students.

We counted lunches and figured out that, okay, if you have under 300 lunches served, it's okay.

So we thought, okay, that was kind of a weird thing to make a deal out of when there was such an easy solution.

But it turns out that wasn't the whole picture.

And so really, this should have been put to rest two years ago, because we should have had a real conversation about the why, what are the problems we're trying to solve, bring people who are going to be impacted into it, and we can figure it out.

So I will own my own participation in that, because I think that's important for us to recognize where our roles are and how we do or don't support progress towards our goals.

This time around, I think the whys may still exist, may still be important.

But we have to really think about what's an emergency and what's not an emergency.

And we created an emergency where there wasn't one.

And the people who are the most responsible for it are actually the least impacted.

The kids are the ones that are being the most impacted.

And they were...

incredible in their organization and mobilization across schools.

They sent out translated materials, which we the adults do not always do.

They sent out translated materials to their peers.

They had alternative opportunities for students with disabilities who didn't feel comfortable, couldn't get all the way down here, so that they could also participate.

It was really impressive, and they should not have had to do that over something so simple as what happens during lunch, because we should have included them in the conversation to begin with, and it just didn't have to be such a big deal.

It's literally day to day.

Lunch happens every day.

But to take us up a level, I don't want to be involved in individual school lunchtimes as a board member.

I really don't.

And where we, the board, are responsible for making, because this is, my experience as a community member before coming to the board as a board member and since has been, we all write our speeches to get us claps and snaps.

Then go home and we don't change a policy.

We don't hold on to be accountable We vote on extending the superintendent's contract.

We vote yes on the budget and then we're surprised when nothing's changed That's our authority as the board the places where we have authority are over policy compliance and the superintendent's performance, which is the district's performance, and the budget.

And if we sit in progress monitoring sessions and don't say anything, and accept no growth, if we extend contracts and don't stand behind performance reviews, and if we approve budgets with no changes that we've asked for, we're enabling the system to continue, and it's totally disingenuous for us to be surprised that nothing has changed.

So that is actually the power that we do have.

What I see as the issues are what I just named for us the board.

And then clearly personnel and internal accountability mechanisms because there was just so much confusion.

And I know that these are not new.

These didn't happen overnight for you all.

But we need to understand what are the requirements for students during the day?

What are the priorities that students have?

And do they align with the priorities of the full community?

I would say, I mean, this is me making a suggestion, but part of the strategic plan probably needs to be a high school instructional day task force, where they receive the information, the task force has the information, here's state statute, here's these other restrictions, here's this, here's that, task force of couple principals, some students, parents, central office staff, what would it look like to actually design the high school day around the high school student?

And then worry about other, I mean, and educators too obviously would be part of that.

But too often what I have seen over the last 10 years is, we can't do that because it's in the contract.

We can't do that because it's here.

We can't do that because it's here.

The board has actually given away so many things that we do have authority over into other places.

The board is legally entitled to setting the length of the school day.

and setting the school calendar.

Those have been given away into other agreements.

So if students, if this task force wants to make recommendations about what needs to happen during a high school instructional day, That can come to the board as a recommendation, and then school buildings can know, here's what you're required to do, here's what you can't do, but within that, do what makes sense for your school.

The problem that we have is we don't set the clear boundaries, and then when people step over an imaginary line, then either the board smacks down staff or staff smacks down the building leaders, but we haven't been clear about what is and isn't in bounds, and that's also on.

on us.

So my question for you, Fred, is I know that you're in this position as an interim, and I know that even though I appreciate you taking responsibility, you didn't create all these problems overnight.

But you are in the position to do something about them.

And you've been around long enough to know kind of where the barriers are.

So I'm going to ask my colleagues if we can be really clear with Mr. Podesta about what we will and won't be okay with him doing in terms of personnel instructional organization.

I am gonna tell you right now, me personally, Fred, and this isn't a vote we need to take, but in a memo I sent to the board, it had some identified priorities about, we need to be clear about what we expect from you, structurally, what can happen before a permanent superintendent comes in, and I understand you don't wanna do wholesale everything, because somebody else is gonna come in, but you know where the problems are, I support you in your full authority as superintendent as authorized by the board in making decisions that you need to make, including personnel and organizational chart decisions.

And I would ask my colleagues, maybe not right now, but to be very clear at some point with Mr. Badasta what the board will and won't support in terms of making changes, because we keep hitting these same problems.

And the only way we're going to stop it is if we insist on actual change.

I do think we all did make a commitment that the expectations and the evaluation instrument for whatever my interim assignment is needs to be agreed to by October 15th.

So that might be a way for you all to give that direction.

It's feeling like I don't know if I'll make it to October 15th right now, but be that as it may.

Yeah, yeah, but be that as it may, there is a vehicle for us to have this discussion that maybe doesn't have to affect board policy.

There seems to be a rational way to get there, but that would be my two cents.

We are two minutes over or 12 minutes over from our public testimony.

So I'm going to ask directors to please quickly go back to the dais and we will start public testimony.

And once again, I'm sorry for starting 12 minutes late for folks who've given their valuable time to be here this evening.

And we will be back at the U later in the meeting after business for some work session updates.

All right, thank you all for participating in the lunch conversation.

Thank you, Dr. Torres Morales and Superintendent Podesta.

But we have now reached the portion of the agenda that is public testimony.

Board procedure 1430 BP provides our rules for public testimony.

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

As board president, I have the right, and I will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by our procedure.

A speaker who refuses or fails to comply with these guidelines or who otherwise substantially disrupts the orderly operation of this meeting may be asked to leave the meeting.

public comment is two minutes when the time is up there is a little dinging and there's a red light on the on the podium and then if you keep going past that I will say thank you please conclude your remarks but with that I'm going to pass it over to staff to summarize a few additional points and read off the testimony speakers

Thank you, President Topp.

The board will take testimony from those on the testimony list and will go to the waiting list if we are missing speakers.

Please wait until called to approach the podium or unmute and only one person may speak at a time.

The board's procedure provides that most of your time should be spent on the topic you signed up to speak to.

Speakers may cede their time to another person, but this must be done when the listed speaker is called.

Time isn't restarted and the total time remains two minutes.

The timer at the podium will indicate the time remaining for speakers here in person.

When the light is red and a beep sounds, it means that your time has been exhausted and the next speaker will be called.

For those joining by phone, the beep will be the indication that time has been exhausted.

Moving into our list now, for those joining by phone, please press star six to unmute on the conference line.

And for everyone, please do reintroduce yourself when called, as I may miss some pronunciations as we move through today's list.

The first speaker on the list is Nico Bacon.

Hi, I'm Nico, senior at Ballard.

It's come to my attention that nearly everyone in this building was in the dark about the plans to split our lunches, and there's a lull in leadership and navigating this change that we've been informed is inevitable.

I'm here to ask you questions about your considerations and motivations in relation to lunch.

I've also passed out a sheet with a more comprehensive list of questions I think deserve to be answered.

Firstly, if we are splitting lunch, how are our SPED staff and students being accommodated?

Lunch is currently used as a space to collaborate with support systems for students with IEPs and 504s, and a split will mean that many students will be separated from their support staff.

Furthermore, where will we be building community?

I've heard repeatedly that we'll have to shift to before or after school, and that is not an equitable substitution.

There are too many school-based extracurriculars happening directly after the bell rings, not to mention our families and jobs.

In that same vein, how will our historically marginalized students find and create safe spaces if we are splitting lunch?

At Ballard, the vast majority of our student unions meet during lunch.

In these, we work to build community and find ways to get representation within our buildings.

Also, how are we going to bounce back from COVID-based social deficits?

Lunch is the only real opportunity during the day to interact with peers in an unstructured and non-academic environment.

With heightened rates of anxiety and depression in teens, it is critical to provide in-person spaces for interaction that aren't tied to academic performance.

If lunch is split, when are test retakes happening?

In nearly every one of my classes, retaking a test needs to be done outside of class time, with lunch being the only option for those with extracurriculars.

This is also the case for tutoring with teachers or peers, which is a critical resource in more fast-paced classes.

In conclusion, the question I'd like to leave you with is, what separates two lunches from one?

I don't want your numerical answer or your false equity answer, and I don't want you to be regurgitating reasons we've all heard over and over again.

I want you to ask yourselves why thousands of students are fighting so hard to roll back this change and whether you truly understand the day-to-day of being a student and the multitude of ways we will be impacted.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jose Vargas.

Hi, this is Jose.

I'm ceding my time to Alicia Winger.

Hi, I'm Alicia Winger.

I'm a Bridges transition teacher at the Southwest Campus.

I first want to acknowledge that during the July and August board meetings to approve to moving our Southwest programs out of the Rocktail Annex campus, some board members expressed hesitance to sign off on a plan that did not highlight specific deadlines or action steps for supports and resources to our programs.

Yeah, here we are.

two weeks into school with minimum resources or supports from our district to create and foster a meaningful learning environment for our most impacted students.

Our most impacted students.

By moving us out of the Roxhill Annex, this removed important necessary resources and isolated those students from independence and community-based instruction even more than before.

The move was rushed and teachers and staff are the ones that are having to patch the holes and figure out all of this figure out all the meaningful solutions around all the challenges we are facing, and what we are asking for is that leadership listens to us, not just hears us, listens to us, makes action, and is willing to provide the supports we need to ensure our students are able to continue growing through this transitional stage of their education.

It is not okay.

Please support our students and make actionable change, not just hear us.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jake Milstein.

Hi, I'm here to talk to you about two different issues.

Each one impacts one of my children.

The teacher shortage at Blaine K-8 and the two lunch problem at the high schools.

First, the high school issue.

When I look at the backgrounds of our administrators and our board members, I see Stanford, Harvard, Brandeis, Oregon, Duke, Purdue, UW, and many others.

Getting into those schools today is harder than ever.

Harder than it was pre-pandemic.

But two lunches means cutting clubs, cutting time with teachers, cutting time to make up tests.

Today's Seattle high schoolers should have the same opportunity to study that you did.

Now to Blaine.

A month ago, I asked you to intervene and add a teacher.

Since then, I've learned about the 2-FTE policy, and I know Board Director Clark is investigating.

But waiting isn't action.

Declare 2-FTE dead now.

A fifth-grade class with 34 kids, many with IEPs, many who missed kindergarten because of COVID, cannot wait for an investigation.

And Blaine isn't alone.

Families at other schools are facing the same staffing crisis.

Interim Superintendent Podesta and Associate Superintendent Torres Morales could fix this today if they chose to.

Please choose to act now, add a teacher at Blaine, and kill this double lunch disaster at the high schools.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Laura Laney.

Hello, my name is Laura Lainey.

I am the Ballard High School activity coordinator, and I am here representing students, but they represented themselves so well already.

Thank you, Nico.

As the advisor for ASB, I have spent countless hours attempting to listen to students and their concerns about two lunches.

But here's the thing, it isn't really about lunches.

We have attended, I personally have attended countless SPS trainings over 19 years, and I've always heard that students are the heart of the work that we do.

And I'm standing here, and I'm listening to families and students say, students are not being listened to, families are not being listened to, concerns are not being addressed.

And so I'd like to conclude with what Nico said earlier.

The question I'd like to leave you with is, what separates two lunches from one?

I don't want your numerical answer or your false equity answer.

I don't want you to be regurgitating reasons we've all heard over and over again.

I want to ask yourself why thousands of students are fighting so hard to roll back this change and whether you truly understand the day-to-day of being a student and the multitude of ways that we will be impacted.

Thank you.

The next speaker is UT Hawkins.

I cede my time to Susie Beattie.

Hi, I'm here to speak for the people who cannot speak for themselves.

Cognitively struggling, hygiene-lacking students who have no classroom hand-washing facilities, toilets, or showers is unsanitary, unhealthy, and unfair.

According to WACC, Adequate, conveniently located toilet and hand washing facilities shall be provided for students and employees.

Conveniently located is 568 feet convenient.

That's nearly two football fields from our portable four to the one bridge's designated bathroom, which is not ADA compliant.

For all Bridges students entering the high school for any reason, they must be accompanied by student staff, and when there's a class full of students, their needs do not align at the very same time.

This causes staff shortages in classrooms, especially the many Bridges classrooms that are currently short staffed.

And when illness happens and out of control fluids leave the body, how are we expected to support these students with no soap and water in our classroom?

Or when this sick student needs immediate bathroom care, a wipey can only go so far.

Security is not existent, the first and foremost reason we were told we were moving, and there's no admin on site, another statement we were told.

There's no kitchen space for our students to work on their life skills, something our program boasts we work on.

There's no quiet space for students, which is essential in this population and required for some IEPs.

We have no gym, which provided an outlet for those with excess energy.

Our community was walkable from Rocks Hill.

We easily accessed stores and restaurants.

The proximity to Metro has increased our commute times by almost an hour.

Students' IEPs are not getting met because of this hastily made decision to move the Bridges students.

What if these students were your sons and daughters?

Would you make different choices so that your child's needs were met?

Please consider these students as if they were your own child and provide them with the opportunities they deserve.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jesse McFerrin.

Hello, my name is Jesse McFerrin.

I'm a teacher in North Seattle, and my school has been partnering with the Urban Native Education Alliance for the last seven years.

In my experience, making my priorities match the priorities of UNEA leads to better student outcomes, better understandings, better experiences, better reminders of what it means to belong to community.

UNEA is here tonight to urge the board to adopt a boarding school education and Every Child Matters Day proclamation.

Every Child Matters Day is a day to remember and honor survivors of boarding schools and recognize the intergenerational trauma cause.

In the words of UNEA, the federal Indian boarding school policy was expressly intended to accomplish cultural genocide.

The systemic destruction of indigenous identities, traditions, ceremonies, spirituality, and language.

I've heard board members tonight talk about involving the people impacted, involving students.

You can do that very thing by listening to UNEA.

I would like to challenge the Seattle Public Schools Board to adopt this proclamation because we live and breathe on native land.

Seattle is home to the Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, and other Coast Salish, along with many intertribal people from across Turtle Island.

Also because SPS prioritizes instruction and experiences that accelerate growth for students of color, which this would do.

Boarding school history is U.S. history.

Take the lead by adopting boarding school education and September 30th as Every Child Matters Day.

Do that because it's the right thing to do.

Lastly, on Saturday, October 4th, there is a school board candidate forum in North Seattle College from noon to 2.30.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Holly Mendez.

I've seen my time to Sophie Nelson.

Hi, my name is Sophie Nelson and I am one of the teachers who moved back to Raider Beach High School this year with the Bridges program.

Despite knowing about the move back to Beach and the influx of students rising into the program for several years, the spaces given to Bridges were not planned with the student's IEP needs and safety and support needs in mind.

At Beach, we have four high support special ed classrooms with only three instructional spaces.

My classroom does not have windows and is on a different floor away from the other Bridges classrooms.

I am an elevator right away from a sensory room and an accessible bathroom with a changing table and lift.

Another classroom is currently being shared by two caseloads which is approximately 24 adult sized people, several wheelchairs and various student equipment in one classroom.

We are extremely understaffed.

I have seven students and one instructional assistant.

Today, I was the only staff member with my seven students.

The classroom downstairs are down four staff.

Several of these unfilled positions have not been posted for hiring.

Quality education cannot occur when staff is pushed to this level of exhaustion daily.

While the admin at Rainier Beach have been as supportive as they can, procedures for who handles Bridges' needs while we are on a high school campus is a gray area.

Bridges itself has been told they can't use the bathrooms, nurse's office, and security located within the high school.

Beach Bridges is missing equipment, access to a sensory room, and even bathroom and classroom keys.

Our rooms were not ready when we arrived and building staff didn't know we were coming or where we should go.

It is quite intimidating standing before all of you and the general public today to share the conditions Bridges students and staff are experiencing when a lot of us feel like we have been bringing concerns to the district's attention for years with no action being taken.

I am here to beg you to fight for bridges and to do everything in your power to give our students what they deserve and instructional spaces that are equipped to meet their needs and the needs of staff to support students in achieving their IEP goals.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Willow Milstein.

Hi, my name is Willa Milstein, and I'm a junior at Ballard High School.

I want to start by speaking about the detrimental effects that split lunches will have on students with eating disorders.

Lunch isn't just friend time for students, as one of the administrators suggested.

For many of these people, lunchtime is the only chance in the day to get a nutritious meal.

And often that happens only because they feel comfortable and safe eating with their friends.

That sense of community sitting together surrounded by the people they trust makes it possible for students with eating disorders to eat.

By splitting lunches, we risk breaking apart their critical support system.

Students who rely on that feeling of safety may suddenly find themselves isolated and unable to get the nourishment they so desperately need.

What's meant to be a simple scheduling decision could have serious consequences, leaving some of our most vulnerable students without the nutrition they need to be healthy and successful in school.

I also want to share my experience as a club leader.

I founded the Architecture Club at Ballard with my friend this past year.

It took a lot of effort to put together, and I was very proud to be able to lead the club and organize a field trip to a local architecture firm.

This experience has allowed me to share my passion for architecture and also gain valuable leadership experience, all with only 30 minutes for lunch.

With this schedule change, my club will be ripped apart.

I urge you to consider adding time to school day.

Just think, by adding less than six minutes to the day, you can extend the lunch period to 40 minutes.

This would shorten lunch lines, allow time for clubs, and allow students with eating disorders to maintain their existing support networks.

Lunch is more than just a social time.

It offers essential support for students with eating disorders and creates opportunity for all students to develop leadership skills and explore their career interests.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Nicole Diaz.

Hello, this is Nikki Diaz.

I've saved my time to FDA Vice President DeJuno Diaz.

Thank you, Nikki.

Hello, I'm Davina Diaz, the Vice President of Seattle Education Association, and I'm reading testimony from a member, Sarah Mead, a paraprofessional at Bridges Rainier Beach.

I have worked in Bridges program for six years and an SPS employee for 12. I absolutely love my job.

However, in the past three years, I have never felt so disrespected, not only for myself, but for my coworkers and students that are in the Bridges program.

Bridges is without constant and immediate medical care support.

It is unsafe and inappropriate the district does not prioritize professional development for Bridges educators and gives no release time to take their professional development focused on first aid and CPR, especially since we are often out in the community with our students.

There have been times we've asked for bandages, ice packs, gauze, and other standard first aid items only to be pushed back.

There is one nurse for Bridges who is amazing, but she is the only Bridges nurse on Mondays.

If Bridges is in a school building, we receive resistance because we are not a part of the school.

If someone gets hurt, teachers and paras are the primary nurses.

If a student requires medication, we are trained to give medications to our student of care, but we have no extra guidance or support other than calling 911. Bridges staff has been told that the program is getting larger.

However, it comes to space and we are given very little to which to work with.

We are put in portables removed from water stations and bathrooms and the school community.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Gordon McDougall.

Good evening.

Every Child Matters, the Urban Native Education Alliance, youth, elders, and volunteers carefully crafted this resolution for Every Child Matters Day, Orange Shirt Day, which informs and reminds us of traumas inflicted upon our Native citizens by Indian boarding schools and the resilience and the strength of Native peoples.

These traumas continue to echo, and the lessons of history and resilience help us all.

NATIVE, NON-NATIVE, YOUTH AND ELDERS.

I'M A RETIRED SPS TEACHER.

I'VE WORKED WITH UNEA FOR OVER 16 YEARS, HELPING NATIVE YOUTH IN OUR SCHOOLS, AND I CELEBRATE THIS CAREFULLY WORDED EVERY CHILD MATTERS RESOLUTION.

TWO OTHER LOCAL DISTRICTS, EDMARDS AND SHORELINE, CELEBRATE THIS TOOL, TOO, AND HAVE ADOPTED IT AS A BOARD POLICY.

I encourage SPS to continue to support students and families by adopting this resolution.

I cede the remainder of my time to Sandra LaFontaine, Coalville Confederated Tribal Elder.

I'm a boarding school survivor.

My experience was different because I went voluntarily.

I wasn't dragged from my home, my community, to be sent away to a boarding school.

My mom didn't have a choice.

My mother-in-law didn't have a choice.

They were forced to leave family and home cultural identity behind.

This history needs to be shared.

It is a part of the shamed American experience.

This has affected many families with the trauma, generational trauma, like I said.

History like slavery, Japanese internment, World War II, they are taught in schools.

Why not Native American boarding school's history?

The next speaker is Melissa England.

Hi, my name is Melissa England and I have a son at Garfield.

He was here actually in the spring advocating for his community and strongly advocating for the SEO position.

I'm here to reiterate that and also add a few points.

First, enrollment at Garfield is down and it's down because of safety.

The number one concern I get from parents asking how my experience has been has been around safety.

If we want to continue to have people support and pick public over private, we need to make Garfield safer.

Second, we need to trust and support Dr. Hart.

He has fought tirelessly and the community has supported this.

We need to support the people on the ground and the leaders on the ground.

Third, I also want to call out that the officer is different than any other position in or around the building and they deter crime and they can respond in an emergency in a way that others can't.

And finally, we need to make this decision now.

We can't delay the vote.

We need to maintain the support at the school, and that position runs out.

So please don't delay the vote.

I see the rest of my time to Rylan.

Hi, I'm Rylan Springer.

I've seen you guys quite a few times now.

The irony is not lost on me that most people in this room are gathered to speak about school lunches.

At Garfield, surviving school lunch is not a guarantee.

The irony is not lost on me that most people gathered at this board meeting are here to fight for their clubs.

I sat at my vice president's vigil.

My first club post was a memorial.

We have been waitlisted.

We have been postponed.

We have been ignored and silenced for three months, if not more.

There has been no action so far to do anything to stop gun violence.

Garfield's kids are in danger every single day they go to school.

So while we talk about lunches, let's talk about making sure kids can survive them.

Because when I went to lunch, I was used to running from it.

I had to drive my friends home because we heard bullets.

Please keep that in mind while you discuss your lunches.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Karen Zaug Black.

Hi, my name is Karin Zogblak, and I'm a proud graduate of Stevens, Meany, and Garfield, and a proud parent of two students also going to those same three schools.

I'm here to speak in support of the SEO pilot program at Garfield.

Gun violence continues to affect students and schools and families across the US in Seattle, and particularly at Garfield.

My daughter's best friend was the student who was shot at the bus stop.

And our entire community has continued to mourn the loss of Amar Murphy Payne and other students lost to gun violence.

And we're seeing it firsthand every day.

Keeping our students safe is a top priority and one that we should be utilizing every different possible tool or support that we can.

Garfield has a long history of successfully having a safety officer at our school who is trained to help notice when people that aren't supposed to be on campus are arriving near our school.

So I would like to say, please support the pilot program.

This will allow us to gather more data and feedback about how the safety officer can complement with our other safety enhancing strategies that we are utilizing at Garfield, and that can also help benefit schools across the district.

Thank you, and I'll cede the rest of my time to Luis Barajas.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Luis Barajas.

At Garfield High School, I've noticed that when we have a cop, they're usually near their squad car, not really connecting with their students.

And SRO should be more than just a present in the parking lot, but also believe they should not be inside the school building or in classrooms.

Their role should be to patrol outside and prevent weapons from coming in or hurting people.

and make sure the campus feels safe.

Too often SROs end up making small arrests that don't solve the bigger problem.

What we need is an officer who is controlled by the community, protects students, and focuses on preventing gun violence.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jennifer Marquardt.

I would like to see my time to Jade Warren, please.

Hi, my name is Jade Marie Warren, and I just want to start this by saying I was reminded outside today that if I were just five minutes later to getting to school from lunch, it would have been me getting shot instead of Amar.

So when I talk about SROs today, I want to talk about how much I know that we need safety in our school, because not only have I seen students hurting each other, I've seen adults hurting students.

I know it goes on around our school, so I know more than clearly that we need safety inside of our school.

But when we talk about safety inside of our school and we talk about police officers inside of our school, I'm not talking about someone who will.

will also sit outside on their phone playing video games while I watch them and while I have to go into school and just see people who are supposed to be helping us treat us like we are just a paycheck to them because we are children and we are not something that they need to come in for paycheck to paycheck just to defend us defend us I say in quotes but As I say this, we need SROs in our school and we need police officers in our school, but we cannot accept the racist police officers, the misogynistic police officers, those who wish to hurt us and wish to indocument us just because of money, simply because of their racial prejudice or because of their hate towards women or because of their hate towards LGBT students.

And with the rise of ICE as well, I don't want to sit there and I don't want to bring these people who want us gone into our school.

Because Garfield is a black and a brown school, no matter how many white students go there.

It's a school that was made to support us black and brown children.

And if we are bringing in people who want us gone or who want us dead, then that's wrong.

And that's crude to say.

So here I am today asking for SROs who want to be a part of our community, who want to get to know us as children, and who see us as more than just color, or as more than just money, or as more than just immigrants.

Those are the people who need to be in our schools protecting us, the people who want to protect us.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sherilyn Crowther.

I am stuck in traffic and I am rewriting my testimony.

I am here to talk about the Bridges program in southwest Seattle, although I'm also amazed at the problems in south Seattle and Rainier Beach, a brand-new program.

I speak both as a board member with the Seattle Special Education PTSA and as the parent of a Bridges student.

I will not go through the list that you have heard about the problems with the location, but I want to explain to everyone else hearing, Bridges, is a federally required program that transitions students ages 18 through 21 from special education and out of the system.

They need to have job training, life skills training and preparation for future education and employment.

Something as basic as an ABA-compliant portable restroom will immediately solve one of the biggest issues, the bathroom.

Toileting is a very real issue with many of the students that are in Bridges.

I also want to talk about the fact that my son will go every day to a location where he practices work, where he is gaining skills so that when he gets out of Bridges program, he can find a meaningful activity in his life, whether that is paid or through volunteer work.

I want you to understand that the students who are at the Bridges program at Beach, at SELF, and like my son at Ingram, are human.

They are students.

They are SPS students.

To hear the abysmal conditions that they are dealing with in locations is so disheartening.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Addy.

hello my name is addy weaver i am a junior at ingram high school i am here today to talk about the negative effects on splitting one unified lunch into two separate lunches across seattle public high schools as someone who went straight into middle school right after the covid pandemic my academic and social life plummeted I longed for connection as many other kids did.

When school finally started, I was so happy.

I wanted to show up every day to meet and finally learn face to face.

There was finally a time I didn't have to click a button to ask a question.

Even though I was still wearing a mask, I could see the eyes of all my peers around me and I knew I wasn't alone anymore.

As my middle school years were at the end, I started the transition to high school.

Classes and lectures got harder.

I fell behind the rest of my peers.

I used lunch as a time to talk to my peers who understood what we were learning and who wanted to help me and wanted me to understand.

Clubs were also introduced as a way to get more involved in topics I thought nobody else was interested in.

Clubs were college opportunities, a way to get involved.

skillful life lessons for after high school the split lunches takes away students opportunities to ask for extra help with different lunches it would be impossible for extra extra help if a teacher uh sorry uh this if Thank you.

There are students behind numbers, you see.

Students who have family commitments, jobs, sports, community service, visual theater arts, and so many other things that makes it impossible for a strong club to host before or after school.

Even then, Teachers don't get paid to host or after school, they have lives too.

In SPS instructional philosophy policy, it states that SPS is connected to an engaging, rewarding, challenging, relevant, and identity affirming inclusive curriculum that provides all students with an opportunity to meet or exceed learning standards, multiple careers and college possibilities, as well as opportunity to enrich their lives.

How does splitting one lunch show is an act of SBS committing to their own policies?

It hurts more than it helps.

The decision to change the schedule threatens to disrupt a thriving school culture and compromise a key component of the student experience that supports both academic success and personal being.

Thank you for listening.

The next speaker is Maya D. Robertis.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Maya DeRubertas, and I am a junior at Ingram High School, and I'm here today to speak about the changes to our schedule and the impacts on my school community.

At Ingram High School, lunch is more than just a break.

It's a time when students and clubs meet.

This time ensures that there's equitable access for everyone.

After school simply just isn't an option for many students because of family responsibilities, jobs, and sports.

If this time is taken away, you're not only just rescheduling clubs, you're effectively eliminating access for many students.

Eliminating access, for me personally, clubs like Mock Trial and Model UN are already difficult to organize and would not survive without this designated time to meet.

These clubs are not just hobbies, they foster belonging, build leadership skills, and create opportunities that prepare us for college and careers.

Taking this away undercuts the very thing that keeps students connected and engaged at school.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to meet with the interim superintendent and district leaders along with a few other students.

I appreciated the chance to share my perspective.

But what I still don't understand is why a change like this might be necessary for some schools that has to be forced on all schools.

Equity is not the same thing as equality.

What works for one school will not always work for another.

This feels like a top-down decision that is being imposed without listening to the communities it affects most.

SPS should evaluate what each school needs and help them meet their needs.

Additionally, I've heard the proposal of one day with a single lunch and the rest with two days of lunch and this does not solve the problem at all.

Clubs can't function with meeting once a week and many students belong to more than one of them.

Suggesting that as a solution shows that multiple lunches aren't truly necessary in the first place.

Ingram doesn't want this change, our staff and teachers don't want it, and most importantly, our students don't want this change.

I urge you to reconsider this decision and listen to the voices of the people it impacts most, your students.

I also urge you to listen to the next speaker, Amelia Winter, who has a proposal to mitigate the challenges with these lunches.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Amelia Winter.

Oh, okay, you can.

Hello, my name is Amelia Winter, and I'm a junior at Ingram High School.

I originally came to ask you to reverse the two lunch policy, but now I speak to you with a possible solution.

I proposed a schedule that would have 50-minute lunches for every school.

By adding this, it would give students plenty of time to eat by also allowing time for clubs, retakes, and much more.

Not only that, but it would also satisfy the necessary instructional minutes legally required.

By having six 55-minute periods of 50-minute lunch and passing periods would fit school schedules for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

By having six 40-minute periods of 50-minute lunch, passing periods, and advisory times, would fit school schedules for Wednesday.

I have a schedule planned out that should work for all high schools.

Each student would receive 1,560 instructional hours, no, sorry, not hours, minutes every week, over 480 minutes over the legal requirements.

I will email this schedule to all board members so you can formally look over this draft.

I thank you for your time and ask you to consider this proposal.

The next speaker is Enrico Abadesco.

Hello, my name is Enrico Abadesco.

I'd like to see my time to Yang from Rainier Beach High School.

Hello, I'm Yang from Maynard Beach, and I'm part of Migranti Youth, an organization serving Filipino migrant communities who came here seeking better lives.

I am here again to represent the concerns of students, especially targeted by military recruiters on campuses.

A commander of Seattle Recruitment Company came to the board meeting in August asking the district lift the limits on recruitment visits from two per year to achieve more access to community.

But more access would further put students, especially migrant students, at risk.

I once confronted two recruiters.

in school, they plainly explained their program will be beneficial because we provide life and career skills.

I also found that they told another student they shoot bad guys.

Why is SPS allowing this to enter our own schools?

I saw the military, oh sorry, the US military test their guns in our home country, the Philippines, bringing fear and furthering wars on aggression against China that will that will push Filipinos that are being recruited here to back home in a world that they don't want to be in.

Is this really a program we need?

Do recruiters think that the goal for youth to be in military is to aid in wars?

Should we be in a space where military is prioritized?

No.

Migrant families moved here for a better life, but instead lives in a country where prioritizes profit and power.

The youth with limited resources need actual solutions like quality education and services, not predatory military recruitment just because they promised them financial support and security.

We demand you as the board to take stance and defend the right of working class migrant youth to be safe, accessible and quality education.

Do not lift the limit of military recruitment visits to schools.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Zoe Bryant.

Hello, my name is Zoe Bryant and I'm a sophomore at West Seattle High School.

I want to first thank Miss Top, Miss Clark and Mr. Mizrahi for listening to students the other day in their office hour call.

Sorry, I just completely lost.

Okay.

I recently got my mock trial club started this year after being unable to start it last year due to overcrowding issues that I've spoken about here before.

I've spent hours this past summer figuring everything out, like getting local attorneys as mentors and teachers as my sponsors and all the recruitment that comes with making a team.

Clubs like mine give students the chance to learn valuable skills for life and for school, but this lunch splitting is going to really harm those clubs.

Since I'm running the mock trial, my team would be going into competitions, making lunch meetings essential to practice, prepare, and learn the current case for the competitions.

I already know two people who are unable to join the club meetings any other time than during school, which is completely unfair that just because they aren't available after or before school, that they don't get the option to participate in clubs, especially since SPS is supposed to value equity for students, but making this lunch change would not give most students an equitable chance to participate in most clubs that they would want to.

We can't have clubs during school at all other than the 30 minute blocks of time on Friday advisories if you split lunches in two.

30 minutes is nowhere near enough time to do all of that clubs need to do to prepare and learn, so I urge you to rethink this decision.

I urge you to leave these lunches alone until we can formally plan, make different options, or make a different way to get to all the regulations without taking away students' chances to participate.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Ben Krakauer.

Is Ben in the audience or online?

Ben Krakauer.

Okay, we will come back.

The next speaker will be Sarah Sense Wilson.

You can stand right there if you want.

Hello everybody.

My name is Sarah Sence Wilson.

I'm a member of the Ogallala Nation.

I'm a grandmother and a lifelong resident of Seattle.

I serve as Urban Native Education Alliance elected chair.

UNEA is a grassroots, native-led, student organized, student-centered organization.

Our 18 years of advocacy and support for Native student success is a model for uplifting the voices of Native students while providing culturally responsive mentorship, tutoring, and a variety of educational, cultural, and academic opportunities.

I'm here today to advocate for Seattle Public Schools adoption of UNEA resolution number nine, boarding school education across all ages in schools and to designate September 30th as Every Child Matters Day or Orange Shirt Day.

The boarding school resolution provides, brings voice and truth to a legacy of lengthy 100 year era of United States government sanctioned forced assimilation policies.

The resolution was co-created by Native students, parents, educators, elders, survivors of boarding school and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

We stand together to urge Seattle Public Schools to join the growing movement across Turtle Island in taking actionable steps to educate all students about boarding school era and the atrocities endured by boarding school survivors and in remembrance of those who passed away due to the violent or neglectful conditions they were subjected to.

SPS leadership has the opportunity to support this resolution and to bring truth, justice, and healing and reconciliation to the survivors, descendants, and all student learners within your institutions.

We urge you to stand with us on the right side of history and to make right decision to uphold your core values through action, collaboration, genuine commitment to quality education for all.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Kay Fidler.

Kay Fidler is next.

My name is Florence Kay Fidler.

I'm an enrolled member of the Pembina Band of Ojibwe, and I might have broke your microphone.

Yes.

Not all of us are 6 feet tall.

So in the printed materials box I left some orange fabric and I hope each of you are going to get a piece of that that you're going to keep with you on September 30th after you make that the memorial day for the residential survivors.

Not everybody survived.

Some did.

And Seattle Public Schools is probably thinking they're not a boarding school program, but they are part of the same institutionalized racism that created the issue.

Our children don't always get the kind of cultural education that they need.

And that does cause death.

And it causes all kinds of inequalities.

I'm not always good with words.

When my dad was 11 or 12 because he was deaf, he was sent to a boarding school.

on this side of Montana, he lasted two weeks and he ran away and he walked, remember 11 or 12, he walked by himself, a deaf child, all the way across Montana, halfway across North Dakota, so he could get home.

And that's why I'm not afraid to stand here and face any of you today.

My dad was a warrior, my mama was a warrior because she survived.

And those of us who survived all of that, we know what it means for our children.

You have to teach, well, you could do whatever you want, because your Seattle Public Schools, I guess, you took their lunch hours.

But don't take any more of our children, please.

And so, I'm asking you to respect my grandchildren now.

I've been coming here for 40 years to talk to you.

The school board used to listen better though.

Seems like some of you are getting back to it, talking about listening to these kids.

You kids in the audience there, don't ever give up.

If it takes you 40 years, keep coming back.

Keep voicing your opinion.

This is your history, not theirs.

So you stand up for what you need to stand up to.

And these kids are going to be 18 pretty soon.

They're all going to be voting for who gets to be on the school board, so it might be good to listen to them.

And somebody left something up here, like a clip-on thing.

Anyhow, that's what I had to say.

The next speaker is Anarchy Loggers.

Do we have Anarchy Loggers in person or on the phone?

Okay, I will come back to you.

The next speaker is Blaine Parse.

Hello, Seattle School Board Directors.

My name is Blaine Parse.

I'm an enrolled member of the Cineboine Sioux Tribe of Fort Peck, Montana.

I'm a parent of two students in Seattle Public Schools, a third grader and a 10th grader.

Growing up in this large city, it was hard to find my place and identify, but as a student and graduate of American Indian Heritage, I found my place in people who look like me.

I stand here beside my children, elders, and my close friends among UNEA, in support of the school the boarding school resolution or known as orange shirt day september 30th this resolution was presented to the school board members in may of 2025 and seattle public schools indian ed department indian parent advisory committee we stand in front of you recommending you follow the leads of our smaller neighboring school district shoreline and edmunds school districts.

Show our kids and community that they do matter by passing and approving this resolution.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Lisa Rivera.

Good evening, Superintendent Peresta and board and community.

My name is Lisa Rivera.

I am a former school board director and now serve on the board of Urban Native Education Alliance.

I'm here tonight with our Clear Sky interns, youth and elders to ask you guys to please adopt a boarding school education and Every Child Matters Day proclamation.

Our students deserve to see their history acknowledged in the curriculum and in the public commitments of this district.

Indian boarding school policies were designed to strip Native children of their culture, language, and connections to family.

The impact of these systems continues today as intergenerational trauma and inequities that Native students carry into our classrooms.

I'm going to read a statement from an Exxon student who talks about what Every Child Matters Day means to them.

It means acknowledging the children who survived the abuse from schools and boarding schools.

acknowledging that kids were sexually assaulted, forced to do manual labor for the school's benefit, and beaten for simply speaking their own language.

The way the white colonizers forcefully implemented their own culture, language, and traditions upon these kids And since these children were forced to go to these schools, their immune systems were not used to the diseases and sicknesses of the white people that they were used to, and so 6,000 of them died of tuberculosis, but only 3,200 were recorded, and most families weren't even notified.

So these kids' graves are unmarked and their families disrespected.

So again, our students carry this into the classroom and you have a great opportunity really to show them that you see them.

I urge you to consider how this also connects to your broader commitments of equity.

For example, September is also National Hispanic Heritage Month, an opportunity to lift up and honor the contributions of Latino and Indigenous communities whose histories are deeply intertwined.

Recognizing these truths together helps us move forward to a more just and inclusive education for all.

I wanna close by pointing out, as I was speaking earlier, this resolution was co-written by students and community, and I ask that you stand with them in adopting this proclamation.

Thank you.

I'm gonna go back to two people who were not here the first time I called them, Ben Krakauer, Okay, moving on, Aniki Loggers.

Okay, we are gonna move on to our wait list.

The next speaker is Avani Rodriguez.

Is Avani here or online?

Okay, we're gonna move on to Marc Pelletier.

Mark here.

Okay, we're going to move on to Davina.

I cede my time to Allison Kent.

Hi, my name is Allison Kent.

I'm a Bridges Level 3 teacher.

I've been working with Bridges for seven years, and I've been a teacher coming into my fourth year now.

I was previously at the Rocks Hill building, and there were issues with that building because it was old.

We only had one water fountain for two programs.

There was no security on campus we had to share with Chief Self.

which caused some issues when we did have things happen around the community or one of our students were needing help.

There was no nurse on campus the majority of the time because we have one nurse on staff and she's only available one day a week and she has 12 sites that she has to go to.

So that was the majority of the time with students with high medical needs and most of the time we didn't have enough staff to effectively support the students and those are with students with one-on-ones that are written into the IEP.

And so while that building was old and had its own issues of health hazards, we did have the room that we needed there.

We had sensory rooms for students that needed.

They were bathrooms that were readily available without having to go out of a building into another building.

There was space to put equipment and gear for students that needed OT and PT gear.

And things were within easy walking distance.

There was a major bus hub.

There was a shopping area.

There's a lot of community options there for those students.

I was reassigned to Rainier Beach High School this year.

My classroom is one of the ones that is sharing two classrooms.

I have one classroom and then I'm sharing, there's two caseloads in that classroom.

So I effectively have 12 students in my room along with the various staff that we need for the students with one-on-ones.

I'm down my other co-teacher right now because we're still in the process of hiring it.

So I'm not really getting much opportunities for breaks or things like that because I am assisting the sub-cert right now.

While we're near our beach has been very welcoming, I did have an issue of moving into that classroom and the first thing was there were giant rolls of carpet rolls, solar panels, wiring, all in the room.

And when I was asked about why are these still in here, because I came in June, they said, we can't move it, it's not ours.

And we didn't know, this is storage.

It looks like Anike Loggers has joined us online.

You can press star six to unmute.

Anike Loggers.

Hi.

We can hear you.

Okay, perfect.

So I noted at the beginning of the meeting that you said essentially along the lines of what can students even get done in 30 minutes um and as the president of my school's hosted chapter i have an answer for that my club started doing in-person labs to help support students learning as they studied for their competitions which included things like learning how to suture which is how to do stitches on fake skin learning how to do cpr using cpr dummies um stuffing trauma wounds, which is like gunshot wounds, stab wounds, et cetera, on using paper towel rolls and gauze and so many other things that are necessary to do or to practice or even just have experience with when it comes to not only just life in general, but these are students who It is an opportunity for them to get a jump start on potential future careers.

It is a way for them to engage with their passion that they otherwise wouldn't be able to with a split lunch schedule.

we would have to or there would be the potential to have to switch classrooms and given that there's only one science classroom available during the first lunch period the second lunch if the lunches were split would have to do the club in a non-science classroom which means that they would not have the same access to materials that they need to not only study for the competition but but to prepare themselves for their future um that other students would have which is INHERENTLY INEQUITABLE AND INEQUAL WAY OF WORKING I GUESS WITHIN THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT WERE GIVEN AS STUDENTS WITHIN OUR OWN PERSONAL SCHEDULE AND WITHIN THE SCHOOL SCHEDULE.

THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY.

THAT WAS OUR 25TH AND FINAL SPEAKER.

All right.

Thank you again to folks who came out this evening to share their comments with us and giving their time as we make decisions here.

Before, directors, we take a quick break, I do want to jump back to something we didn't get to before public testimony, which was student board director comments.

So we will now go to our student members joining us tonight for comments and look, see if any directors.

No?

Director Yoon?

Yes.

I just wanted to make a quick announcement that we have a student board member training that's coming up September 27th.

And we, Mary Furtakis, who serves on the State Board of Education as chair, has worked very hard on this with me, Julia, and also Mr. Howard over there, who's taken leadership of this.

So we would really appreciate your presence.

No, board directors are very busy, but it's also a great time for team building, relationship building.

So we would appreciate your presence.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will just add to that.

So you should have directors receive the dates and invites for all three trainings.

If you get your availability to carry so we make sure we avoid quorum issues would be super helpful.

Thank you.

Other board directors?

Director Mangelson.

Hi, my name is Josephine Mangelson.

I'm looking forward to being a student member on the board this year.

I first would like to start by acknowledging some of the earlier expressed issues, including the lunch issue.

I want to talk about the health aspect of what that would look like from a student perspective.

I know that we heard a lot from adult and administrative perspectives and maybe what people have been hearing from students.

But directly from a student, I would like to talk about how the act of splitting lunches will force many students to have to go to a later lunch in the day, which will have a significant impact on health, such as loss of focus due to hunger, loss of focus due to being anxious to move around, move their bodies.

Having four periods before lunch is not sustainable for many students.

On the other side of health, when we talk about social emotional health, I think it's important to acknowledge that having that unstructured time for students to engage in communication with their peers of their choosing is really essential for developing skills that they'll use in their daily lives for the rest of their lives.

And I want to acknowledge something that Director Yoon talked about earlier.

discussing the advisory issue.

I know that at my school, I go to West Seattle High School.

We do have an advisory period.

We have had an advisory period.

And throughout my time as a student, including middle school, we've had a lot of social emotional learning activities been administered to us during our advisory periods.

I believe that switching out that lunchtime for an advisory period is really exchanging kind of that social emotional learning activities that are given to us, like administered through teachers and students who necessarily don't want to participate in it, it's really exchanging that time that could be used on a lunch time where people are engaging in real world social emotional connection.

And I think that in general, that the district states that social emotional learning is a priority and it's important that schools are implementing this.

And lunchtime is that real world time to engage in that, that real experience that students get to really truly develop their social emotional horizons.

So, I'd like to Also, thank everyone for being here.

I'm really excited to be here, so thank you.

Thank you.

Director Massoudi.

My name is Isabel.

I'm also new to the board this year.

I'm really excited to be here.

And I was going to add on, adding on to the social and emotional issues of having a split lunch.

There's also many consequences for academic support for students.

For many of us, lunch is the only flexible time of the day to retake tests, meet with teachers for extra help, or collaborate on academic clubs and leadership groups.

When students are divided into separate lunch blocks, this shared time disappears and wither the critical academic opportunities that lunch offers.

First of all, retaking tests can become far more complicated when teachers and students aren't on the same schedules.

Teachers can't reasonably be expected to accommodate for two separate lunches, meaning students on one court may completely miss the chance to make up important work, and the same applies to getting help, especially for students who are struggling.

When class time is packed and after school availability is limited, lunch is often only the window for students to be able to get the questions and clarification that they need.

And removing that window hurts those who need the support the most.

As well, like many people have mentioned, clubs are very affected through this.

Many groups use lunch period to plan events, hold meetings, or prepare for competitions.

And with the split lunch between two times, group collaboration often becomes difficult, if not impossible.

Participation will drop and student-led initiatives, something schools often pride themselves on, will suffer.

Without the unified lunch periods, we risk closing off essential opportunities that contribute directly to student engagement and achievement.

Thank you.

Thank you to our student directors.

We are going to move into the business action items on our agenda, but before we do that, we are going to take an 11-minute break, a little bit longer break, longer than 10 minutes.

We will be back at 6.30, folks.

Thank you.

All right, it is six minutes past the time and we will start, we're gonna start in two minutes, just letting folks know that we will start back in two minutes.

We're going to join back together.

Here we are at the action items.

We're going to move to the consent agenda.

May I have a motion for the consent agenda?

Approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

Okay, the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Briggs and seconded by Director Mizrahi.

Do directors have any items they would like removed from the consent agenda?

All right, seeing none, all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

We are moving right along.

We're going to now move to the action items on today's agenda.

So the first action item is amendment to board policy number 4311. Can I have a motion for this item?

I move that the school board amend board policy number 4311 as attached to the board action report.

Second.

Second.

This item has been moved and seconded.

Do directors have any questions for staff on this item?

For staff, not discussion on the actual item.

Yes.

Before you get to that item, I think you should put in the record that the consent agenda passed unanimously.

There was a voice vote, but there was no placing in the record that it had passed.

I think that's a necessary step before we get to this item.

Alright, the consent agenda has passed unanimously.

We'll figure that out later.

All right, so I want to, because there are some procedural things that I think will happen here, I just want to make sure where we're at.

We have a motion and a second for the amendment to board policy number 4311, school safety and security services.

Motion was made by Vice President Briggs.

Director Mizrahi made the second.

Right now we are at questions for staff.

I DO HAVE ONE QUESTION FOR STAFF.

WHAT STAFF ARE WE ASKING QUESTIONS?

WE HAVE OUR CHIEF ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICER HOWARD AS WELL AS DR. HART HERE TO HELP US TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.

So I have one question.

I feel like we've talked about this at the table conversations before, so I just want to make sure, but I want total clarity on this.

So in the way that the current policy is, the moratorium as it's been called, is there any, within that rule, Is there any restriction on an officer interacting with the school building in a way that an officer would interact with any other building in the city of Seattle?

Or is it just about the SEO SRO program?

I'm talking about not the proposed amendment, but current policy.

The current policy as it stands?

Correct.

Are you asking can officers come in and out of buildings?

Or I'm not clear on your question.

Yeah, should there be an emergency or if they're requested to take a police report or something like that?

If there is, per se, you're calling 911 for an emergency situation, then you're given the authority for police to come on campus.

So that's the only time they actually come on campus when it's either an emergency situation like that.

Okay.

Okay.

That answers my question.

Other questions from directors?

Oh, director Clark.

Um, so I guess after our conversation last time, I still, um, have some confusion about how and if, um, the moratorium plays into, um, or is associated with, um, Policy 4311, can you, Claire, I'm just, I'm trying to understand if taking action on 4311 will solve our problems with police feeling like they have the authority to come onto our campus or if more has to be done.

I'm gonna hand it over to Superintendent Podesta.

Policy 4311 is about our safety program and is really specific to agreements with law enforcement agencies in the capacity of school resource officers as defined in state law.

It's not about other interactions with the police or general police response.

So the moratorium, as it were, which is referred to in the current 4311 just prohibits us entering into those agreements for school resource officers.

And that's why we're proposing this revision.

Questions?

Okay.

So I think what I hear you saying is that this is the only action that needs to be taken.

Yes.

I mean, if we wanted to, we've amended the policy that we brought before you to limit the authorization of this to a pilot at Garfield High School.

Yes.

And so it allows for that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Questions?

No questions.

Okay, then, for staff?

Okay, then I'm gonna go for staff.

Director Rankin.

Yeah, my question is about the, and apologies, because I know that we have talked about this so much, so I'm just trying to, the actual MOU, that's not, we're not taking action on the actual MOU, we're taking action on Mostly, this policy, limited authorization, this policy authorizes the superintendent to enter into an agreement with the city of Seattle for a pilot at Garfield High School.

the superintendent shall not expand the use of SEOs or school resource officers to other district schools without board amendment of this policy to authorize such expansion.

So my interpretation of that, and I want to check that it's the same interpretation as staff, is that basically what the moratorium did was take the authority to enter into any kind of agreement about an officer from the superintendent to the board.

Correct.

And so this change would still retain that except for allow a pilot at Garfield.

So I think we're getting kind of caught up in the releasing the moratorium, not releasing the moratorium, what that means.

What's important, I think, what I want to make sure that I have a shared understanding with staff is is that we do ultimately need to return authority to this, I believe, to the superintendent and let this be a school decision with the superintendent and the city within boundaries that we, the board, set, but we need to not be approving all these individual things.

However, in terms of releasing the moratorium.

We're still, in this reading, the board is still retaining the authority over whether or not officers return or are engaged at schools.

And so I'm just, I'm worried about the kind of black and white issue of, like, there is a moratorium, there's not a moratorium.

These are all things that we've said and words that we've made.

And the Moratorium, I think, continues.

Yes.

With an exception at Garfield for one year.

And no one's arguing about the moratorium.

I think the moratorium, if I looked at all ten things that you had talked to Dr. Jones about and he agreed to start having those conversations, You're talking about a culture shift change, and this is not going to stop.

This is ongoing.

So what you've done is actually commendable because you're talking about having conversations with the community, meaning the students, meaning staff, and that's ongoing, and the supports around Garfield.

And that's the community passageways right now.

It could be boys and girls in the future.

It could be YMCA.

But it's fluid.

It's going to change.

So what you've done is created a culture shift for Dr. Hart to follow, and that's what he's doing.

He's doing that with the community, and my two cents about that is we're not there every day, and things are changing so rapidly in our country.

The person who should be making that decision is standing right here.

We should allow him to make that decision with his community, with his students, with his families, and we should support him.

And so as we represent the community, If the community speaks, we should honor that.

Thank you.

The second question I have is about the actual MOU, and I know that there's a new state law that requires those to be reviewed annually.

Who then approves that, and who would be approving this particular one?

So this would be executed by the superintendent.

And yes, and our policy complies with state law that these agreements need to be negotiated annually after engagement with student staff and families, which Dr. Hart has done.

But yeah, it becomes an administrative function at that point.

So you would be authorizing staff to enter into such an MOU that complies with the detail in our policy and in state law.

And then we would basically be revisiting this conversation a year from now about this and any other.

Because for me to so-called repeal the moratorium, even though that's, anyway, that's not really a real thing, but what I want to see before completely returning authority over the whole district of this is the items that were outlined in the reasons for suspending the program and have a full comprehensive update and understanding of what was done for those things, and then also how Any MOU aligns with our guardrails and expectations for student safety, which doesn't just mean physical safety.

It means psychological safety.

And then we also have expectations around disproportionate discipline and things.

So before completely being like, Yep, I think we, the board, on behalf of the community, need the assurances that any agreements will be done in align with our expectations.

I can tell you what Dr. Hart will bring back to you, and I've kind of narrowed it down to three things.

First one, systems and evidence.

The question that would arise is what evidence demonstrates a combined impact of restorative practice, cultural responsiveness, and a proposed officer presence on student safety and well-being.

He will bring back evidence around that.

Community voice and equity.

You will see the question that's being raised here that Dr. Hart has agreed to come back to and present to you is how have diverse students, families, and community voices, particularly those most impacted by policing, shaped this proposal?

And then the last question is accountability and sustainability, which is what metrics and reporting mechanisms will track equity and effectiveness, and how will progress, unintended impacts, will be communicated to the board and the community?

So those are the three buckets that he will bring back, and that's ongoing cultural conversations.

And I would say to you, you know, one of the big things that Dr. Hart is addressing, which is not an easy thing, is looking at the historic perspective of policing.

When you look at slavery and look how policing was used with the black community, it leaves a sour taste in the black community's mouth.

and since Garfield has been predominantly African-American school where they could actually go to school when it was redlined, it shows you the conversation that he's willing to have, but it also commends the police department and our partners like Duane Chappelle here with Deal They're willing to have these hard conversations.

If you guys hadn't put that moratorium in place, we wouldn't have been having these hard conversations to make systemic change.

Prison the pipeline's real.

How do we ship those practices?

They don't happen overnight, but we're willing to have these tough conversations and engage community about gentrification, about educating our young people about decisions that were made that weren't popular, talking about slavery and what things have happened in the past.

You just had our Native American people up here as well.

These are progressive things that Seattle Public Schools is known for, and we're not shying away from it.

Dr. Hart has been there for five years, so he's not shying away from those conversations, and we're continuing to have those conversations in the community, and those are ongoing cultural shifts that need to happen.

The last thing I want to ask is that the main concern, I think, is, again, we're getting caught around, what does the moratorium mean?

What does SRO mean?

People, I think, have different definitions of it, even though our state has a specific one that we're referring to here.

But the main concern that I have had to begin with is inside the building versus outside the building.

And is there any more clarity needed from us that, yes, of course, any member of the community who has business at a school can enter a school?

that Officer Ella can use the bathroom at Garfield.

That's allowed.

The board is not saying she's never allowed inside the building.

And even as a member of the community, she should, if she needs to come talk to Dr. Hart, she's allowed to go in the building.

What we don't want is officers patrolling our hallways and criminalizing our students.

and so is there more clarification that needs to be made or how do we how do we make clear that we are talking about securing the outside of the building from threats in the area not policing students and that there are some boundaries in place to make that true but also that the board never said no police officer ever was allowed to come into a school

Yes, we have that in the MOU.

It's very clear about when Dr. Hart can actually engage the police.

real question i hear you putting on the table is how do we teach our young people how to engage with police officers that's a real question for all our diverse cultures in seattle public schools how do you engage with police not only in the building but on the street what does that look like and how does police see our young people as human beings and so this is an ongoing conversation that we can continue to have in a reflective way with the community and the moratorium the 10 things have actually helped those conversations go forward so again I want to commend the board for actually putting these pieces in place because you were really ahead of your time futuristically looking at how systems need to change so yes that answer the question directly is in the MOU about when police can be involved and when police are not going to be involved very clear it's spelled out

Yeah, they're not like vampires.

They don't have to stand at the threshold.

But they also can't just come in any time they want.

They need to be there on business and be, you know, welcomed in partnership by Dr. Hart and then, you know, no walk in the halls for, you know, yeah.

Anyway, thank you.

Any other questions for staff?

Director Sargeo.

This really isn't a question.

It's a request.

And the request is that in the collection of data, the research should be done by research people whose job it is to do research.

As far as I know, Dr. Hart, you're a principal.

Correct?

You're not a researcher from one of our local fine research universities that have actually done research for Seattle Public Schools.

It should not be on you to collect data.

Well, first of all, it won't be valid and reliable.

We've had this conversation.

If you're going in for a cancer treatment, you want to know that the research on the treatment is valid and reliable because you want to be alive at the end of it.

We need to treat this, the livelihood, the emotional livelihood for our students, the same way.

And so I don't know if that's you, Mr. Howard, or you, Mr. Podesta, or a combination thereof.

back this up with effective research, because at the end of this, what we want to know is, is this beneficial for students?

At the end of the day, our job at a public school district is students.

It's not to prove that a really nice police officer can make one or two connections with one or two students.

It's like, does this really bring safe emotional physical safety and security to the building to the surrounding area but most of all are our students and particularly those who have been disproportionately affected by policing in schools right it is a school to prison pipeline we don't i'm not arguing with nobody about that because the data not michelle sarju's data but the university of washington has data on this.

And I want to see a robust evaluation of this program.

Because at the end of one year, Mr. Hart needs to know what is the next decision.

And we should not be questioning whether data is valid and reliable.

That's what any good research experiment will do.

And this essentially is that.

This is the pilot.

We're researching.

We're testing.

We're trying to see does this work like a cancer treatment.

Yes.

I can tell you that Dr. Hart would do the qualitative pieces with the community and conversations.

Qualitative, yes.

Because it's going to take his his relationships to get students to open up and community open up and have conversations, he's there day to day.

With Mr. Podesta's direction to me, I will take the research and evaluation that reports to me and make sure that gets done when Mr. Podesta directs me to do that.

It's on camera.

So you have it.

I like it when the cameras are rolling when we're doing some truth telling here.

Not when I'm eating my dinner.

We'll bring that back to you.

Guaranteed.

Thank you.

Okay.

Further questions for staff?

Thank you, Dr. Yes, Director Yoon.

So, Dr. Hart, you said you were going to be part of the qualitative research with engaging with the community and students.

Would that communication just be through you and the students or will the students have a chance to speak with potential SRO officers?

Like, will they have a space to speak with them face to face and kind of be part of that evaluation process?

Yeah, so I've done a couple of, I have offered a couple of opportunities for our students to sort of engage.

I mean, we've had our student leaders sort of lead discussions about this very issue.

In addition to that, one of my goals and one of the sort of the CSIP sort of, strategies that we're using this year and we started that this summer with a sort of a family summit so that type of engagement that is sort of affinity group engagement is sort of a part of what we're doing now at Garfield meeting with communities meeting with with communities with translators and and really sort of having students and families sort of lead this discussion so yeah it's sort of in alignment with just the cultural work that we're doing to make Garfield better.

Anyway, so yeah, I think the qualitative part and our ability over the course of the school year to continuously engage students and really center students and have students lead much of our cultural work is definitely what we're doing at Garfield.

So yes, we'll have plenty of opportunity for students and staff and families to sort of continue the conversation and get feedback from them.

And our students have agency and they use that agency and we encourage them to do so.

Thank you.

I think it's very important, like what you said, to communities come together and speak with each other, but also my question was more so of asking if the SRO officer would be able to speak with those communities face to face, not just communities together, so that they are aware of who they are and the person they are.

Yeah.

Now, I don't know specifically what's stated in the MOU about that, but for me, having the students engage with the individual or with the SEO is absolutely something that we need to do, we have to do, I want to do, and the students sort of demand that.

And the MOU is fluid.

The MOU is fluid, so he can make changes in that as he learns.

One of the things that was built into the MOU was the unknown.

Things may happen and sometimes we develop procedures and we don't leave any space for flexibility.

This MOU gives Dr. Hart the ability and staff and students to make adjustments as they learn across the year.

So it's not, you have to wait until next year.

No, it's built into that.

And I think that if we don't offer students the opportunity to engage, then we're not engaging students.

So I think it absolutely has to happen that the students are engaged with anyone who is serving in the capacity of an SEO on an ongoing basis.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

Board discussion.

Director Mizrahi.

Yeah, I would like to make a motion to postpone consideration of the proposed amendment to board policy 4311 until the board regular meeting on October 8th, 2025. And I'm happy to discuss that.

I need a second first.

Is there a second?

I second.

Okay.

Motion has been made to postpone by Director Mizrahi and seconded by Vice President Briggs.

Director Mizrahi, do you want to speak to that?

Yeah, thank you.

So I want to say that I certainly hear from the very valid and valuable input from the Garfield community about the need and desire for an SEO and to have this reimagined SEO program at their school to improve uh safety and their in their willingness to be uh the the school to pilot this um obviously hear from dr hart uh and and value his uh thoughts on what the community needs um also i've heard a lot from uh folks who are not comfortable with an sr program and i i had been working on an amendment that would hopefully have bridged some of this gap um and secondly you know this concern that i brought up this question about um this sense that the moratorium was somehow barring police officers from interacting with school buildings like normal human beings, as you said, is very problematic to me.

And even in the way that this is written, the way that the current language reads to me, feels like that would continue at 16 other high schools, which is also a problem.

If the view is that without this moratorium being piloted away, that police officers can't interact with buildings normally, I don't want that happening in any building.

So also as part of that amendment that I was hoping to bring forward, I wanted to have language that would make it clear that the moratorium was never intended to do that.

nor should it be read that way going forward.

Unfortunately, ran out of time to just get that amendment right.

So I'm making this motion and asking for grace for my colleagues to give a little bit more time.

I also understand the urgency of the situation and the frustration with how long this has already taken.

So I want to acknowledge that and say that if the next meeting weren't three weeks away, I would not be asking for this extension, but asking for a hopefully slight delay so we can maybe get the language a little bit Better.

Discussion, Director Rankin.

I have a question about the motion on the floor that may be for the motion maker, but it's probably actually for staff, which is there's an officer there now, even though we're debating whether or not to have an officer there, which I'm sort of confused about.

What would the impact of delaying this vote be on what exists right now?

There is an officer at the Teen Life Center.

There is not an officer at Garfield High School.

That is a limited deployment that SPD extends to us at the beginning and the end of the school year.

I think that will be winding down shortly unless we evolve into something else.

So I don't think it helps us with our relationship with SPD.

There's some...

Director Sarju.

I don't understand what you just said.

Particularly the last part.

It doesn't...

What doesn't help our relationship?

That...

that this is viewed moving into a broader relationship than deploying a patrol unit officer is the goal of this agreement, is to kind of move beyond that and to see how we can get into true relationship building.

Things are very busy at the start of the school year and at the end of the school year.

So this just delays starting to have those conversations, which we have been having about the MOU.

And it's the same conversation we've been having for the past year.

you say this just delays what is what is failing to move on to executing the mou that we're trying to um to negotiate either not doing it or delaying doing it so i'm i'm i'm literally trying to understand

So Director Mizrahi just proposed to delay a vote on the amendment so that we can have what looks like three weeks to work on the language.

And I don't need this to be perfect.

So, three weeks from today is October 8th.

You're saying that is a problem?

I'm just saying that typically, you know, we get help from SPD in the first month and the last month of school, and we're coming to the end of that.

Oh, you typically get help.

Okay.

So, this isn't about the pilot.

No, this is about, I understood Director Rankin's question to be about the emphasis patrols we get at many of our schools, but particularly Garfield, because there's city property there in the Tief Life Center.

We get that at the start of the school year, we get it at the end of the school year, and we're We're getting to the end of the start of the school year.

And what is this arbitrary line of the end of the start of the school year?

Is there a definition?

Like, is there a date?

There isn't a written agreement.

That's what our policy is trying to put in place.

They provide resources, my understanding from police.

Again, they're stationing someone on city property.

There isn't a formal agreement for that, and they do that as resources are available, so it's not, there is no agreement that binds it, so sometimes they're able to do that, sometimes they're not, and they understand, just like we employ contract security for the first few weeks of school, and at the end of school, that's kind of the window, depending on what's going on.

But again, we don't have the benefit of an agreement that spells all this out.

No, I understand that, but to say that we're getting to the end of the start of the school year.

Typically it's about a month.

So that would be around October 8th.

Could be.

Can I ask a quick clarifying question?

So then has the police presence that's been around Garfield throughout the rest of the school year just been the Teen Life Center?

When we talk about how there's been a police presence outside, it's there.

That's what we're talking about?

It's there.

It typically isn't there the rest of the school year.

It's typically at the start and the end of the school year deployed at the Teen Life Center.

Okay, I was under the impression that as of where I...

Alicia, are you in the audience?

Okay.

Your chart that shows...

Yeah, that we had a hard copy of last week, but don't have it now.

There was the date at which a police presence was...

at Garfield and how the crime rate went down after that.

That wasn't just for September and June.

Okay, that's what I'm trying to figure out.

So was that police officer just at the Teen Life Center?

Dr. Sarju, she can't come to the microphone.

Can Dr. Hart answer?

Dr. Hart up to answer.

Perfect.

The officer, Officer Ella, it's on the teen life side of the parking lot in front of Garfield.

And during the times that she is there, or an officer is there, they're parked there.

So adjacent to or in front of the Medgar Evers pool.

So, that's the space that she is.

So, she's not officially on Garfield campus because that space right there is city space from what I understand.

So, that's where she's sort of parked when she's there.

Okay.

Thank you.

That was the clarification I was looking for.

Thanks.

Director Clark.

appreciating I think everybody's concerns I'm just wondering if a pathway forward to give Director Mizrahi time to work on the amendment could be to just call a special meeting before October 8th so that we can consider this these policy changes with Mizrahi's amendment

If we had another date in mind, I would consider that a friendly amendment to my amendment.

If we just want to say postpone to the next official meeting, whenever that is.

Yeah, official or special meeting.

I don't know if we can make that.

Hang on just a second here, everybody.

Let's hear from Mr. Narver real fast.

The motion under Robert's Rules of Order is to postpone to a time certain.

So the motion should identify a time for consideration that would not preclude the scheduling of an earlier special meeting if the board follows the process for scheduling that, either the board president or a majority of the board calling for that.

In order to take it off the agenda tonight, the vehicle is to pick a definite time where it will be set for.

So at the very least, it will be heard on October 8th at the regular meeting.

It would not preclude scheduling an earlier meeting to do that.

This is the procedural vehicle to move it off the agenda tonight.

But it could be held sooner if we have another meeting between now and the...

Correct.

But tonight you're saying we're moving it to October 8th.

That doesn't preclude later scheduling a separate meeting, an earlier special meeting to take it up.

Perfect.

Okay, thank you.

That answers my question.

Other directors?

Dr. Hart, sorry.

Yes, thank you.

While I understand the delay and the possible need to move this to a later date, I am really interested in getting this, if this is a resource that is going to be approved and we can start sort of engaging our staff and engaging our students with whomever is selected to be the SEO, it's something that, you know, we want to do as soon as possible.

And I understand that there's, you know, there's rules and procedures related to, you know, how you do your work.

But for me, for us, and in order to have an adequate time to do a full pilot and to really engage students and look at the data, having a longer period of time to do that and to get that resource on campus as soon as possible is something that I think I'm definitely in favor of and I think that that's what we need at Garfield.

We have situations happening every day and already Officer Ella has been sort of an asset to the area and I think If we can address this as soon as possible, working within, of course, your sort of parameters and your timelines and whatever the rules are, but I would really sort of request that this be reviewed as soon as possible and a decision be made as soon as possible so I can take this back and we can sort of end this ongoing sort of process that we've been engaged in for months.

So that's my request, that we address this as soon as possible.

And if it's gonna happen, let's plan it, let's get it done, and let's sort of start collecting the data and the evidence.

And if not, we need to move forward.

Thank you, Dr. Hart.

We are going to take a vote, but I'm going to remind folks what we're voting on.

We are voting on Director Mizrahi's request to postpone this item until a date certain, which is October 8th for right now.

That doesn't mean it can't be called earlier, but that is the vehicle we are using, and that is what we are voting on.

Right now, and so I will call for the vote.

I apologize.

Can I add one more quick comment?

I'm sorry to keep coming up here on this If if this is done in a special meeting earlier I have to remind the board that because we're talking about a policy change there does have to be an opportunity for public comment And so we don't normally offer that at special meetings But if you do go the special meeting route to take this up there will have to be public comment provided at that meeting I

Mr. Norbert, don't go anywhere.

Director Rankin may have a question for you on that.

Clarifying question on that.

Yes.

It is my understanding that we could limit public comment to that item.

Correct, because it's legally required.

We don't normally provide public comment, but if you're doing a policy adoption or change, you do have to allow public comment on that item, correct?

Okay.

Yeah, I think that would be...

Yes, if you are amending the policy, you have to provide public comment by state law.

No, I understand.

What I'm wondering is if we can limit the public comment to only that item rather than having a whole...

Yes, because that's the legally required part.

Yes.

All right.

Looking for questions.

Going once, going twice.

All right.

We're going to take a vote, but again, this vote is just on Director Mizrahi's request to postpone.

I will go to staff for the vote, please.

Vice President Briggs.

I, and I also want to advocate for scheduling a special meeting ASAP before October 8th.

Director Clark?

Aye.

Director Hersey?

Aye.

Director Mizrahi?

Aye.

Director Rankin?

Aye, but let's make this the last time we punt this.

Director Sarju?

Don't clap.

Aye.

President Topp?

Aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay, we are now going to move on to intro items on today's agenda.

So we first have approval of the revised board policy number 6222, 6222, selection of contractors for small construction projects and renaming policy small works vendors and consultant rosters.

I'm going to pass it to Dr. Buddleman to present this item.

Dr. Buddleman.

Good evening, Kurt Bettleman, Assistant Superintendent for Finance.

Today we're introducing a change to policy 6222, which would provide for more efficient and effective procurement operations.

Hang on just a second, Dr. Bettleman.

We need to be able to hear folks.

So folks, if you are continuing your conversation, please go out into the entryway.

Appreciate that.

So we can hear Dr. Bettleman.

Thank you, Dr. Bettleman.

You have the floor.

Thank you.

We're introducing a change to policy 6222, which will make for more efficient and effective procurement operations for certain services.

I've asked Nick Iona, our procurement and distribution services manager, to share some details, and we're happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you, Dr. Buddleman.

Good evening, board members.

In order to utilize the statewide roster system hosted by MRSC as approved by the Washington State Department of Commerce, the district must receive board approval.

MRSC makes this a condition of their approval prior to utilization for the use of these roster systems available.

The roster systems are the small works roster, the vendor services roster, and the consultant services roster.

The district wishes to use all three rosters available to aid in assisting staff resources.

Also, by adopting the MRSC rosters, we anticipate the district will increase the number of contracts with small and diverse businesses.

I'd be happy to entertain any questions the board may have about this change.

Okay.

Directors, questions or comments on this item?

Again, we're not voting on this tonight.

It is just being introduced.

Director Rankin.

Pre-apologies because I was having a side conversation.

We got a letter that was addressed to you I think about certain contracts, but was that related?

Do you know what email I'm talking about?

I think it was unrelated, but I wanted to make sure to see if I don't have questions.

We got in a letter recently about our student and community workforce agreement.

Yes.

Yeah, that is about large construction contracts.

Okay, no impact on this.

About this roster.

Okay, thank you.

Other questions or comments?

All right, thank you so much, you two.

Thank you.

All right, and the next item, Amendment to Board Policy.

There's a longer title here, but I've been told I don't have to read the whole thing.

So, Amendment to Board Policy Number 1111, Oath of Office 1310, Board Policy Manuals and Superintendent Procedure, and it continues onward from there.

I'm going to pass it to Miss Wilson-Jones to present this item.

Good evening.

Oops.

Sorry.

Good evening.

I'm Ellie Wilson-Jones, senior assistant general counsel.

Recently, the board reviewed and reaffirmed your direction about the maintenance of your policy manuals.

And so under board policy, the superintendent and staff are directed to bring forward recommendations to ensure your policies remain compliant with applicable laws and support the effective administration of the district.

So this policy package responds to that direction.

The Board Action Report proposes amendments to ten policies spanning both your governance and your operations areas.

These updates improve clarity, provide consistency throughout your policy manual, align with district practices with state laws, and also take into account recommendations from the Washington State School Directors Association, or WASDA.

If there's specific questions that you have about the policies that are presented, I may need to follow up with you to provide additional clarification, but I'm going to briefly highlight some of the key changes.

Several of these revisions respond to House Bill 1296 passed this year.

This is the legislation that builds on a 2024 initiative focused on parent and guardian rights in public education, so under this House Bill 1296, the legislature made several changes which we need to reflect in the policies.

First, your oath of office needs to include reference to state laws in addition to state and federal constitutions.

Second, policies and procedures need to prioritize student safety, access to education, and privacy.

And so you'll see language incorporated into the recommended version of 1310. Third, the protected classes for which discrimination is prohibited has been expanded.

And so those changes are reflected in 3210 and 5010. Fourth, the law requires certain notifications to parents about student safety issues.

And so policy 3143, which by law needs to match WASDA's recommendations, is also updated to incorporate required notifications.

Finally, the child abuse and neglect policy would clarify staff responsibilities for reporting and then reference updated procedures which would present a more coherent version of the process staff need to walk through.

there's three additional updates included in the package 3240 which is our policy on responding to anaphylaxis would allow the district to maintain a supply of epinephrine which is again consistent with a recent change in state law your policy on personnel records 5260 would be made more concise so that a so and a supporting procedure would be updated to include relevant changes in state law and then finally a couple more policies on student behavior and discipline and student safety would be updated to better connect to your basic rules of Seattle Public Schools.

Questions or comments from directors?

Director Rankin.

One comment.

Just thank you.

This is such a nerdy thing to be excited about, but I continue to be very excited about our new policy format that Ellie developed.

I think it makes it really clear what the policy is, why it's a policy, and then allows us really easily to see what the history of it was.

And so I know all these packages are a lot of work, so I just wanted to say thanks.

Well, thank you for setting the foundation and all of the collaboration.

Thank you, Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Okay.

So we are done with the business action items of our agenda.

Do board directors want a quick five-minute break before we move to you?

So we will, I can't see the clock up there.

It's 725. We will join back together at the tables down below at 730. and we will be at the tables for the rest of the meeting.

We do have a quorum here, even though not all board directors have returned yet.

So we're going to continue to plug along on the next item of our agenda, which is a strategic plan update.

So I'm going to pass it over to Superintendent Podesta to begin the presentation.

Thank you, President Topp.

What we'd like to do today is we're going to come back next week to do a briefing about one particular part of the strategic plan.

So this discussion is mostly about process, not deliverables quite yet.

We could advance the slides, please.

Or maybe I can advance the slides.

There you go.

So we want to talk about the status.

There are several parts to the overall structure.

We want to talk about the status of each of those components.

We want to start talking about draft priorities.

The strategic plan will be driven by goals established by the board and we want to describe how our priorities and the development process will, the components of that and where we are.

We've been doing a lot of work on that front and I want you to be able to see that connection.

It's taken me two years to get used to.

There's a lot going on, as you all know.

There's always a lot going on.

Maybe we're at a particular high water mark now, and so our quilt diagram here is a bit of a Gantt chart to show how the strategic planning process fits into many things that are going on.

The board established an ad hoc budget committee that is giving us advice and guidance on ideas we have about how to modify the budget process and information the board needs.

We know there's the city's levy that supports many of our programs.

A vote on that is coming soon.

You know that you're in the midst of a superintendent transition and recruiting, so just wanted to illustrate that there are many concurrent activities going on in the district that are all highly consequential.

But we are making this a deliberate focus because it's going to impact how we achieve the goals of our community over the next several years.

We're being very mindful of policies as we think about this work, policies that you're all familiar with, policy 0030, 0010, the foundational beliefs that we've all worked with, and then the relatively recently adopted guardrails, particularly guardrail 3 with regard to how it affects equity and how we're building that.

into the strategic planning process.

So why now?

It's really, strategic plans do many, many things and, you know, give you a clear management direction, you know, serves as your kind of north star for high-level goals, which really spending particular focus on resources, partly because of our financial issues, but also the board had expressed interest in, so where are all our resources going?

How well are you doing them?

or how well are you using them and we've all recognized needs to better align resources with the strategic goals and the constraints that the community has asked the board to help drive the district and so we've engaged partners that can really help us look at our resource allocation and are they aligned with our values and with our goals now So in terms of process and the time that we're in, the board revamped the goals of guardrails that informed how we started doing this work, what the diagnostic tool that we're gonna present next week, It helped guide what we and our partners looked at in terms of resource allocation.

A big central theme there is are we allocating resources aligned with need and how do those relate to the district's equity goals and eliminating gaps in service and the way We're providing services to students and different communities.

So now we're in the stage of building priorities.

So the goals and guardrails are great guidance about what you want to achieve, the vision of what the future will look like, what constraints you face, and what you're not going to do along the way.

we need to translate into implementation tasks and the way our organization is actually built.

And so to achieve those goals, what do we need to prioritize?

What do we need to start doing?

And that's the, we're going to, Eric and others are going to talk about this prioritization phase next.

And that's really the stage R, is how do you turn where you want to be into a roadmap of how you get there?

And with that, I will turn it over to Eric Gerstein.

Thank you and good evening.

Going to kind of walk us through a little bit about where we are and preview what's coming up on a week from today on the 24th.

We've used resources as a point of entry into our strategic planning process for three reasons.

The first is that we face a significant structural deficit according to which we are planning to spend more money than we bring in.

The second of which is that we have sort of stagnant and declining enrollment which has pretty major implications.

for how we distribute resources across the district.

And the third area is that in many areas of the board's goals, we have sort of flat student outcomes and we want to improve significantly our student outcomes.

As we were developing the goals, Director Briggs and others asked the question, how much money would we have to spend in order to achieve those goals?

And we took that question probably far more seriously than Director Briggs even imagined at the time.

And what we would submit to the board is that when we come back next week, we're going to think about student outcomes as a function, not necessarily a direct tie between resource use and student outcomes, but how much we are allocating, how many resources in our particular area, the mix of how well those resources are leveraged, So how well are teachers, the 30 teachers, the 20 teachers, the 10 teachers in a school doing their work?

And then what is the student and staff experience that that creates, ultimately translating into student outcomes?

That first box up there, resource use, will be the focus when we come before you a week from today with our partners at ERS.

And the student and staff experience that we're trying to build is the focus of our strategic plan.

Mr. Podesta used the word student experience earlier when he was referencing how do we think about a topic such as school lunches and how it fits into the broader day.

I think that is really consequential as we think about the plan.

What is the student experience we want to build and how does that ultimately translate into the outcomes?

And I just noted under there that progress monitoring is about student outcomes.

And so there's sort of three different ways of thinking about our work.

Resource use, which is currently the diagnostic analysis focus.

That will become the budget focus.

Student staff experience, that's our strategic planning focus.

And student outcomes.

Just as I flip to the next slide, just want to note, yes, Director Sarju.

I think what I'm seeing here is a results-based accountability framework, the how much and the how well.

Is that correct?

I think so, yes.

You think so?

I think there's some inputs as well, but yes.

Right, but that's all a part of the...

Totally.

I think that's important to note because we haven't done that here ever, right?

It's just been...

business as usual and not a lot of results, but also not a lot of accountability.

And so this is on the right track when implemented well.

There has to be accountability to this framework, which is called RBA, if you want to look it up.

It's a whole thing.

And businesses use it a lot, and this is, in a way, it's a business.

But I think that's important, because it does provide a way to measure and course correct, or whatever needs to be done.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And I would just also note that we're trying to move from a place where we kind of have a budget that's creating a set of implied priorities and we want to shift towards having a set of priorities and plans that then the budget funds in turn.

So how are we doing in getting there?

We've had a series of inputs that have served as the foundation of our work.

There's a series of data points that we don't need to go over now, but I'm going to show you an example in a moment.

We've had a series of leaders who have been involved and community members who have been involved in the development of this work.

We've been working across across the functions of the organization.

We've brought in school leaders to conduct a survey in a way that I think Director Sargi was scientific and how we kind of looked at and unpacked the results.

We've had a stakeholder task force that's been working alongside us and has been previewing some of these results as recently as last night.

We've had other partners, including labor partners, in some of our design sessions with us.

We have a long way to go, but I would suggest that we're starting to work a little bit differently as part of this planning process in a more cross-functional manner by bringing more folks to the table to provide sort of input and feedback along the way.

There are a series of components of this draft strategic plan that are emerging, and I think it's important to call those out.

And we're going to kind of walk through those in a second.

As Superintendent Podesta mentioned, we have goals and guardrails, which are how you as a board evaluate the success of the system based on the community's vision and values.

We have priorities, which we're going to get into in a second around how we organize our work.

And those are areas of intentional improvement that we need to organize around in order to achieve the goals and honor the guardrails.

We have strategies, which are sort of like our overall approach towards getting there.

And then we have initiatives, which are the specific tasks and actions that we're taking along the way.

And if we want to simplify it on the right-hand side, I'd draw an analogy to a road trip.

I shared with you last time we were together that the sort of way that we're organizing the plan is in line with the way that other districts that have a policy governance framework have done that.

This is an example from Charlotte Mecklenburg.

And I didn't show you this last time, but I did want to drill down.

It's a little small up there.

But something you may be wondering is how is this going to help us achieve the goals?

We have a series of initiatives or projects, as they're called, under this framework.

that are directly aligned with the goals and others that are somewhat less or indirectly aligned with the goals.

And that just helps us call out that there is a lot of work that goes on in the system.

Some of it contributes more directly to goals than other work.

That doesn't mean it's unimportant, but we do want to just keep that in mind as we move along and think about what we want to scale, stop, start, or continue.

Yes, Director Rankin.

Thank you for allowing me to interject really quick.

In line with what Michelle was talking about in terms of accountability, Charlotte Mecklenburg goes further than this and there is a picture of a person and a name associated with every single specific project.

You know exactly who in their district is working on what and how they all connect to each other and how they ultimately tie to improving the lives and education of students.

So our progress in getting there, and thank you, Director Rankin, and yes, there are sort of departmental specific plans that align with that as well if you were to go online and pull that up.

How are we doing in sort of drafting the plan?

Well, we've outlined the challenges and opportunities using, again, a variety of data sources, and I'll give an example.

In just a moment here, we've drafted priority areas for intentional improvement to achieve the goals that we're actively seeking feedback and input on there, very much draft form.

We're beginning to identify strategies that will enable us to make that improvement in those areas.

Again, soliciting feedback.

And we're beginning to map all the ongoing and new initiatives that are happening within the district and that we propose might happen in the district.

And if you were to be in this building over the last several weeks, I think you would find staff working hard.

working across divisions, collaborating with one another in order to map out all that work so we can begin to break it down into even more granular detail and so that we can begin to attach it to resources.

This is a little bit small on the screen, but I just wanted to point out in front of you that we are, again, taking multiple sources of data, some of which we're going to bring in front of you a week from today, and other data points that you've already seen.

So as we think about a priority around recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse and effective workforce, we've drawn surveys from principals.

We've drawn the diagnostic analysis.

We've drawn the enrollment decline study.

We actually know that from that study, our community loves the teachers and staff in our building and they value that and they want to make sure that we continue to have more people like we have in our buildings doing the kind of work with students and we also have highlighted some of the some of the feedback from our task force around their experiences with staff noting that there have been positive individual experiences but that they would like staff to be more reflective both school-based staff and central office staff and those data points qualitative and quantitative from multiple sources pull together in order to create the draft priority And on the next slide, we can see how the draft priorities writ large, this is sort of our priority set.

There are five draft priority areas.

The first is around rigorous and inclusive academic experiences.

The second is what I just previewed, the recruitment and development of a diverse and effective workforce, unified leadership and systems of accountability, equipping schools to meet student needs.

community engagement trust and building that along the way I would note that board members you're probably not surprised about these areas but it is important to call them out and I would just share that we had a pretty powerful moment I would actually say yesterday when you asked director Briggs how what went wrong here with the lunch issue that we've been talking about we were able to actually point back to our draft priorities to begin to explain that these are things we need to improve and we had a just a quick reference sheet and I thought that was pretty powerful

Again, I think this gets us to the priorities helps us get to who and how we're going to do this, to make that transition from what we're trying to achieve.

We know these are priority areas in terms of outcomes, but where the responsibilities rely, how do we have to reorganize ourselves, and things that aren't exactly reflected in the goals in terms of what or the guardrails in terms of who and what.

And so I think it's really important.

The one in the center, being a technocrat, I guess, to me drives everything else.

School district is an organization, it's mostly people.

And so if we can't propagate our goals through the organization, it'll be impossible to achieve them.

And I can keep going if you...

Again, with this chart, we want to keep checking and rechecking that we can map the priorities back to the goals and guardrails and where not just that they're in the ballpark.

As we get further into the initiatives and the outcomes that we expect from those initiatives, the litmus test for us will be, so we have some specific interim measures that are applied to these goals, so how will this initiative affect those metrics?

And what is our theory of action that each initiative that we prioritize if we can't tie it back to this relates to a goal or a guardrail then we'll have to have a serious conversation and i won't promise that as we thought through this and hopefully the board would appreciate this feedback as we're thinking about it we felt that something is really important, so perhaps there's a gap in our goals and guardrails, if you would entertain those discussions.

It is all the language there that we need to do, because as staff look at this at the detail level, every once in a while we get the feedback, well, I'm not sure I see myself in this, or I see how my responsibilities tie.

Sometimes that means that we need to realign ourselves.

Sometimes it means we might have questions for you all.

Do you agree with us that this is important?

I'm seeing lots of shaking heads.

Yeah, well, and I think the important thing is that the measurement of the progress on the goals is evaluative of the whole system together.

So that anything we do, I think we need to ask ourselves, does this get us closer to achieving our goals and does it honor our guardrails?

And if the answer is no, not at all, we should probably think about why we're doing it.

If the answer is kind of, And it's within budget.

There might be really good reasons to continue doing it.

But it's ultimately about the monitoring.

It's not meant to be exclusive.

It's meant to be evaluative of just generally are the things that we're putting resources toward, the activities that we're doing, moving us closer towards, you know, because we could, I think Michelle talked about it.

We've had a lot of input-based conversation, lots of compliance and box checking.

this district where well did we do these things yes yes yes sign the form send it to OSPI and where I think we're trying to go is and did all of those things together improve student learning and student outcomes

So I'm going to talk us through one of the draft priorities.

I backed this up one slide just because we're going to talk about rigorous and inclusive academic experiences.

So one, I wanted to set the stage for us first on how does that priority align with the goals and guardrails?

So one, this one clearly is going to align with the goals because they're going to be basically like around our sixth grade sixth grade math, second grade reading, et cetera.

But it also gives us a crosswalk of how it aligns to the guardrail.

So examples, student access to quality learning, anti-racist adult practices, et cetera.

So here we have the priority area.

And within the priority area, there are examples of six strategies.

First thing I want to point out is this is draft.

So this is in draft form.

This is not saying, hey, City of Seattle, we've decided all this without talking to any of you, without talking to the board, and this is set.

This is a draft.

It has had a lot of input already.

But I'm going to walk us through a little bit.

So in terms of rigorous and inclusive academic experiences for all, what we're saying is that these are the six strategies we think are going to get us there that is going to align to the goals and the guardrails and get us to goal attainment.

So the first one talks about ensuring high-quality research-based standards aligned integrated core instructional practices, core content, culturally responsive and social-emotional learning practices, aligned assessments with intentional investments in improving instructional quality for second-grade literacy, sixth-grade math, and life-ready experiences.

The second one talks about establishing the data system and collaborative structures.

I'm going to go into that a little bit more here in just a minute.

Third one, implement multi-tiered systems of support and structures, and I think Director Briggs may remember she and I had a conversation about this probably about a year ago, and I was saying, no, it's coming, we're here, so I'm gonna talk about it here in just a minute.

Design clear learning pathways, I think this is very relevant to the conversation we just had earlier today about what's going on with our high school schedules, what are the learning experiences, thinking about what are the credit accessibility for all of our high school students, depending on what high school you're at, So that is some of the work that will be coming forward.

Creating culturally relevant spaces for students of different identities and finally prioritizing investments in student safety, security and belonging.

So here I'm gonna specifically talk us a little bit through, here's an illustrative example of a strategy crosswalk for priority one.

So when we talk about multi-tiered systems of support, what we're talking about is rigorous and inclusive tier one instructional practices as the foundational support for everything we do with students.

So some of the actual work would include updated MTSS guidance and training for school leaders and how to build robust and effective support systems within schools So this is talking about the guidance and the training that will happen for educators, for leaders, for teachers, et cetera, and it's built into the plan and crosswalked all the way backwards to the goals and the guardrails.

So some of the potential early literacy initiatives, for example, improved staff use of DIBELS and MAP data for assessing monitoring student progress in K2 and K5 literacy, the updated MTSS guidance, how to adjust core instructional practices as needed, and identify supports for all students.

What does that mean?

So in the past, I think you all will recall, we would do board progress monitoring, and we would come forward and we would say, here are our map results, and then we'd say, we'd always get the question, okay, what are you doing about this, and what are you doing different for your strategies?

One of the things we're gonna start doing now is, We have a structure whereby there is a student's academics and services cabinet.

That means anyone that works, the leadership of student services, the leadership of academics and CAI, and the leadership of schools are all in one space, looking at the data and making decisions as to what's gonna happen next.

So for example, when we have DIBELS data available for K through two, we're gonna look at that, unpack that, see what students' needs are, and start providing support out to schools, to the educators, for what we think needs to happen to start moving that data.

and in conjunction with the educators.

One of the things I've been clear about is this needs to be a two-way street.

It can't be that we're just coming out and saying, here are your materials and here you go.

We also need to hear back from the field as to what they need.

But in doing that strategy, it is a different approach to this than what we've done traditionally.

This is actually us coming in a proactive way and having clear strategies ready to go when we come to report.

So we're doing all the data analysis.

When we come to report to the board, what we're going to tell is this is the data, but here are the things that we're doing and here are the clear practices that we're supporting our schools in to get kids over the line.

So I'm going to turn it back over to Deputy Chief Gersey, I believe, to close us out, but willing to take any questions as well.

I think I have the closing remarks, but any questions for Dr. Torres Morales?

So if we could just go to the last slide.

We just have a few steps.

big steps left to complete.

So we've talked about the kind of priority areas.

Those are leading to strategies and specific initiatives.

We're working those now, trying to map them to goals, guardrails, and make sure that we understand the relationship to the goals that we're trying to achieve.

And that linkage will be achieved through metrics that actually measure.

And as you all know, Our progress monitoring process is all about specific metrics and interim goals And then we met last night and are continuing to meet with an advisory task force that as we go through this process, we need to find other ways to also provide stakeholder feedback with the community, with students and staff.

When we get granular enough so we can say specifically what will these initiatives lead to, what will be the change on the ground, and then to refine those and then finally conduct deeper engagement on both what those initiatives are and how we're going to measure them.

And so there's still a lot to go.

There's also the transition in leadership, both with the superintendent and the board.

And so we're trying to find a milestone where this work is complete enough but still there's room to finalize it with the leadership that will be in place later this year early next year you know as as things go so happy to take any questions about any of this board directors

Director Yoon, would you share your microphone?

Yeah, thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you so much.

I feel like this feels different.

Like, stuff's happening, and it's really, really nice to see, and I appreciate all the work that went into it.

So thank you.

The teams worked really hard.

We really appreciate our community partners that help us fund this work to get partners on the ground.

I think this particular time, you know, with leadership changes and other things going on is kind of an opportunity for this.

So we really appreciate your support as well.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

Yeah, I want to second that.

This feels real.

And...

Responsive.

So the question that I have, and I appreciate the, you know, the position that you're in to sort of, we need to move work forward, but we don't want something so nailed down that somebody else comes in and is like, well, I don't, that's not what I want to do.

So, but, you know, the values of our community are not going to change.

So, and what we want for students is not going to change.

So that's, this is just really important foundational work.

The question I have is, this is also very much in the weeds, and some people love to get into the weeds, but a lot of people just kind of want to know what's going on.

So is there an associated, aside from tuning into a board meeting, because as I like to say, this is a meeting that we hold, in public it's not a meeting for the public so is there is there an accompanying strategy or communication um description that is specifically to communicate to the public hey this is what's going on this is how we're keeping you updated yes and per your encouragement you have a website maybe dr torres morell no

All our microphones are dying.

Maybe that was a sign, yeah.

Yes, we're working on that and we have a website and all the materials, the board presentations are posted, but also as we develop draft inputs or draft components, we're laying those out.

And the other point I would make, Director Rankin, to your initial comment is the work needs to continue and we're trying to create a structure here.

And if you can create a structure, you can insert into that structure changes, no problem.

But if we, to go back to our earlier conversation about the high school day, if we want to add a strategy around using time differently, we have a structure within which to add that strategy and it fits within the bigger picture.

I think our task force is helping us practice explaining it to a different set of wonky people.

So that's a start, so we can get some practice at this.

Our team is thinking about how we can do more staff engagement on big issues, and this would be a natural candidate for that.

I will just add on I think I chatted with Chief Redmond a little bit about this the opportunity at least for the ERS material to be a roadshow and how and doing that and super excited to I think we would start that here shortly too.

But again, I want to echo what Vice President Briggs and Director Rankin said is I appreciate this work and I appreciate that the continual updates.

I know that each time I say this has to be on the agenda, it's like it has to be on the agenda again.

But yes, I appreciate that we continue to move along and see progress.

I would really like to thank leaders around the district who learned from the past years about how some of this was approached and are using that.

While some things and priorities, I think people say, well, they're not surprises there.

We kind of knew this.

But they also recognize we need to do something different this time to make incremental progress over where we've been.

All right, thank you, Dr. Torres Morales, W.E. Chief of Staff Garcia and Superintendent Podesta.

We're going to move to the last item on our agenda, which is board committee and liaison reports.

So I'll start.

I'm just going to say again, this Friday will be our first of our follow-up engagement events on the superintendent leadership profile.

Again, I will say thank you to those who have signed up to participate in those sessions.

If you have not, please get your availability to carry as soon as possible.

I am excited to reengage our communities with who so generously gave their time previously.

over the summer I also want to mention that director Clark director Mizrahi director Yoon and myself will be meeting with the delegation from our sister city in South Korea I will not be able to make the full meeting so if anyone wants to take my spot and meet with their equivalent of school board directors there we're not meeting with them in South Korea no it is it will be here but it says this summer what does that mean Not that I think that that was from my previous comments about spending time with us this summer over engaging on the leadership profile report.

I think it was slightly behind where I was in real time, the text.

It's in an email to all board directors, but I believe it's on the 22nd at 2 p.m.

all right thank you director Mizrahi I also want to thank UNEA for bringing forward the resolution for this boarding school education on behalf of the board as board president I we do encourage recognition of every child matters day on September 30th and urge our community to learn about the impact of Indian boarding schools on Native children.

We want to share that information and resources were sent to school principals and assistant principals yesterday, and that Seattle Public Schools and Native American Education Department has Orange Shirt Day and indigenous people resources on for all grades and they have been sent around.

So just flagging that with that many, I think all of our committees met since the last time we've met and there has been a lot going on.

So do other board directors have reports?

I do.

Oh, yeah.

Vice President Briggs.

I can make this real quick.

From the audit committee, I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that we had our first meeting with our non-voting community advisor member, Sherry Carr, which was great, great to have an outsider present.

She had a lot of good input.

And we are still looking for additional community advisors to serve in the role.

I have spoken with Chief Redmond about putting a communication out so we can advertise more broadly, because I think it's on the website, but people aren't necessarily stumbling on that.

So we hope to get more applicants and have more And the idea behind this, just to remind everybody, is considering what kind of format we want to have for our audit committee, because a lot of schools have their entire audit committee made of community members, and then there's just a board liaison.

So that's one way we could go.

Right now we're gonna try this hybrid approach and see what we think of it.

But anyway, just wanted to update on that.

And I don't think there's anything else from the audit committee.

Okay.

Director Rankin.

Thanks.

Just to add to that, specifically the community advisors, they're professionals in the field.

It's not a, hey, come have an opinion about whatever.

It's us acknowledging that we're seven people with a variety of different backgrounds that are overseeing this, and we're asking the community who has expertise in audit and this type of mechanism to come and support us in our decision making.

So, yeah, it's really great.

I guess one thing from the audit committee that I wanted to elevate is if board directors didn't look at the materials, we saw some great progress made on the communications audit that was done a couple of years ago and some work that staff has been doing to be responsive to that that you may want to check out.

So I have, let's see, I have a legislative liaison update and a policy committee update and then a WASDA thing.

So I'll try to be, I'll try to do this rapid fire.

Michelle and I went to the NSBA cube conference in LA this past weekend.

We met Colin Kaepernick.

which was amazing but also just the whole just it's always really great and centering and affirming to be with other folks from other parts of the country dealing with a lot of the same issues and it's also I think a really good reminder of the role that we have in being a voice for public education more generally.

And yeah, so anyway, we went to some good breakout sessions and made some good connections.

And Brian Stevenson.

No, are you serious?

Yes, he gave an amazing keynote speech about his background.

So the federal government is in recess right now.

There's not an adopted budget for fiscal year 2026, which starts soon.

The potential outcomes when they come back in session are they could come up with a final appropriations package that the House and the Senate agree on and have a working budget and move on.

That's probably the least likely outcome.

There could be a government shutdown.

If there's no agreement on a budget, they could just not have government until there's something that can be agreed on.

The other of the options, there's a short term continuing resolution, which we talked about some last year, because we're operating under continuing resolution right now, which means that instead of creating a new budget, the federal government agrees to continue the previous year's budget.

So, we're actually operating under President Biden's last budget right now.

The 2025 fiscal year was a continuing resolution.

They need to figure it out and come to an agreement or there's no money coming from the federal government.

If there's a shutdown, no money leaves.

So, there is a...

House bill, their appropriations bill that hasn't been passed, because as I said, there is no budget, is pretty devastating if it does pass.

It's a proposed 15% cut to the Department of Education from current levels.

It is a proposed $4.7 billion reduction in Title I grants, which would reduce support for about 25 million low-income students across the country.

Title II is eliminated, Title II Part B is eliminated, which is $2.2 billion for professional development in 80% of school districts across the country, including SPS.

Again, that's not passed, but that's what the house is floating right now.

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved a bipartisan proposal that would increase Title I funds, increase special education through IDEA Part B, maintain CTE grants at a level of $1.44 billion, and maintains $2.9 billion for Title II, which is that professional development.

so I have written to our legislators in support of this the Senate package happy to share language if anybody else wants to weigh in on that but that's where we are and we just kind of have to wait and see till they come back into session where they're at with if it's a shutdown or if it's various things.

There's going to still be some folks trying to use some things that we don't want to see happen as a bargaining chip in budget reconciliation, which is an expansion of school tax credits for school choice, which would allow folks to basically remove funds from the public system.

and also they're still floating or floating again converting title grants to block grants which would basically just remove all requirements from the federal government for these targeted populations that these grants are intended to support and just say here you go states do whatever you want with the money which on the one hand we still get the funds but that means that for us what we would want to do as a assume school board is make sure that those funds don't just get disappeared into districts general funds that we're still using them to prioritize the more vulnerable populations that they were intended to serve so that's all coming are coming our way policy committee we met for the first time this school year we are moving forward on our next set of deliverables If you're a nerd, it's very exciting.

I am a nerd, I'm very excited.

We're going to have, we're moving into how do we create a structure for ourselves to actually have the capacity and the practice of providing oversight for all of our policies.

and various reports that come out of them.

So lots of districts do it different ways.

We're going to have Sandy Hayes from North Shore School District, which is really, I would say, kind of the gold standard in terms of functionality in our state.

She's also a past WASDA board president.

She's going to come to our next committee meeting and talk about how they maintain their policy manual and their schedule of oversight in North Shore for us to learn from.

We will also, as individual members of the committee, be reaching out and looking at websites of other districts and seeing what their structures are so that we can inform ourselves about what we think might work well for us to bring back to you all.

And then the last thing is I am representing us at WASDA General Assembly on Saturday where the legislative representatives from WASDA.

Every board gets one vote.

I'm our delegate.

There's not that many positions to vote on, but we all come together, and just like PTA and other membership organizations, there's positions that have been brought forth by membership.

We all vote as a body, and then depending on the outcome, that's our membership's adopted position.

I sent the catalog to everybody, and apologies that I did not send it that many days ago.

It's a pretty short catalog.

I think we're, I'm gonna assume we're probably pretty aligned with what the committees, the WASDA committees recommended pass or do not pass, but if there's anything that you feel strongly about, you can either let me know now or send me an email.

The one specific thing I wanted to ask about was we submitted two positions.

One was an amendment to a a permanent position, which is just a, you know, all the time kind of value statement, we submitted amendments to the professional development one that got a little bit more specific about good governance that the WASDA committee recommended do pass.

The other one was a new legislative position to advocate for the state to create legislation to require and fund training for board directors.

We submitted that.

The committee recommended do not pass because they want to focus on board director compensation first.

I don't think it has to be an either or thing personally.

I put in the email kind of what my thoughts on it were.

So on the one hand, we all approved it and sent it to the position so that in one way would be a yes vote.

But I wanted to know if, it's not a hill I'm gonna die on, this one.

So if you all had thoughts about maintaining our position and me voting yes on the position that we submitted or taking the recommendation of the committee and me voting no.

That's the one question I have for you all.

I think we should stick with our own position.

I would say stick with our own position, but if you feel like in the voting process that something changes, you have the flexibility to do that.

Are you done?

Yeah, that's it.

That's kind of the one.

And then between now and Saturday, if anybody, if something catches your eye in the assembly handbook and there's something you feel really strongly about that's different than what the WASDA committee recommended, let me know.

I really appreciate deliverable number three from the ad hoc policy committee.

That's the one I'm most excited about.

So thank you, Director Rankin.

Director Mizrahi.

And Director Clark, I do see your hand.

We'll come to you after Director Mizrahi.

Wait, I'm so sorry.

One more thing.

I am meeting with Nathan Hale ASB students tomorrow morning on lunches and have also extended the same opportunity to Ingram ASB and have not heard back on a time.

But just so you all, I just wanted you guys all to know that I'm meeting with students.

Director Mizrahi.

Okay, very fast.

Tomorrow, the Seattle City Council is voting on the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan.

There is a letter that I drafted in my personal capacity.

Two other board directors have signed on to that in their personal capacities.

But in order for there to be more than three of us, we have to talk about it at a public meeting.

The gist of the letter is that we have a 15% enrollment decline.

Our own enrollment study found that the vast majority of that decline was due to unaffordability and displacement.

We can talk about all the things we want to talk about, what the enrollment choices that people make, but the biggest choice they make is that they can't afford Seattle.

The letter is in support of Amendment 34, which would add back eight different opportunity zones to the comprehensive plan, which would be more affordable family-sized housing around school areas.

And I think it's important as school boards that we talk about enrollment as a housing issue.

And so I wanted to bring it up here.

It was posted online about 24 hours ago.

I have a physical copy here, but we do have to send this tomorrow morning.

So looking for other board directors if they want to sign on to give me a thumbs up or tell me afterwards, I'll follow up with Director Clark and Hersey.

But if folks want to look at the letter and sign on, that would be great.

So there can be more than three of us.

I am giving a ver...

Uh-oh.

There we go.

Mr. Narver.

what Director Mizrahi said.

This is not board action.

You're not taking a vote here.

You're not speaking on behalf of the district.

You are not advocating as the school district.

You do not give up your right to advocate in your personal capacity by joining the board.

You can advocate to government officials for a position you believe in.

And other directors, should they choose to do so, can sign onto the letter in their individual capacities.

But please don't get the impression that this is the school board advocating for this or that you're making any kind of collective decision as you sit here.

Yeah, the first sentence is, we write this letter in our individual capacities.

Yes, there we go.

So I just wanted to clarify that.

For transparency, I am one of the, I have signed on.

Yes, it's Director Rankin and President Topp.

Thank you.

Joe, I read it and I'll sign on too.

Thank you.

Great.

This is Director Clark.

I have been engaging in the comp plan and I know what amendment you're speaking to and I would like to sign on in my personal capacity as well.

Just so folks are aware, Director Hersey had to leave at eight this evening.

All right, Director Clark.

Thank you I have I will be very brief two minutes or less the ad hoc budget committee is meeting on Friday so I do not have any updates and we'll have them at our next meeting.

Mainly I just wanted to share with directors that the Council City Schools annual conference is coming up in Philadelphia at the end of October and we need to make some decisions quickly about if any of you would like to join me as the liaison.

And so if you could please reach out to me and let me know so that I can start working with whoever I need to work with to get the budget for attendance at this conference this year approved I would really appreciate it before our next meeting would be ideal but sooner is better okay that's it thank you anyone else all right there being no further business to come before the board the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 8 24 p.m.

thank you everyone and I will see you all on the 24th if not sooner