School Board Meeting - October 7, 2020

SPS-TV takes us live.

After a 5-second pause I will call us to order.

Hello.

This is Director DeWolf.

I'm so happy and thankfully here today.

I'm now calling the October 7th 2020 Regular Board Meeting to order at 3 p.m.

And to begin we'd like to first acknowledge that we we live and learn in a city that is the ancestral homeland the Duwamish people the Muckleshoot Nation and the Suquamish Nation.

We acknowledge them as custodians of this land since time immemorial.

As guests and in many of our cases as settlers on this land we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to their elders and ancestors past present and future.

So Miss Wilson-Jones.

Roll call please.

Director Hampson.

Here.

Director Harris.

Present.

Director Hersey.

Director Hersey.

I can see that Director Hersey's on but I'm not able to hear you Director Hersey.

Director Mack.

Here.

Director Rankin.

Here.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

And Director Hersey are you there.

Y'all hear me now.

Yes.

And Director DeWolf.

Present.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Superintendent Juneau is also joining us for today's meeting and additional staff will be briefing the board as we move through today's agenda.

This meeting is being held remotely per the governor's proclamation prohibiting meetings such as this one from being held in person.

And the public is being provided remote access today by phone and through SPS-TV by broadcast and streaming on YouTube.

To facilitate this meeting I will ask all participants to ensure you are muted when you are not speaking.

Staff may be meeting participants to address feedback and I'm sure we can hear from directors and staff.

So with that I will now turn it over to Superintendent Juneau for her comments.

All right.

Thank you everybody.

And thank you Director DeWolf.

As I mentioned in my last superintendent comments at the last board meeting this remote setting while not ideal does provide us a few opportunities to provide additional supports for students that are not confined to brick and mortar buildings.

As you know from last time Gail Morris and her team are working to support Native students across the district by opening the Sakachi courses at Nathan Hale and Chief Sealth International High School to Native students and other schools.

So that is an exciting offering.

And now there's also more good news.

We are going to provide a similar opportunity for African-American and Black males through Kingmakers of Seattle Extended.

This is an extension of the Kingmakers of Seattle program that's currently operating in 4 schools Aki Denny Mercer and Interagency.

This virtual extension program will connect more of our Kings across the district with one another to share experiences expose them to affirming curriculum in an intentional way that addresses stereotypes deficit versus asset-based language about Black males.

teach them their cultural identity and how to elevate their voices.

We hope to launch a high school level and a middle school level for 7th and 8th grade.

Kingmakers extended opportunity by the start of second quarter in early November.

So stay tuned for more information and outreach in the next couple of weeks.

That's an exciting opportunity for our students across the district.

As we continue our efforts and partners oh let's see hold on.

Yeah as we.

continue our efforts in partnership with DEEL to expand Kingmakers into other schools.

We hope to also expand to two additional high schools during the 21-22 school year.

And our long-range goal for the Kingmakers program is to establish 25 programs in 25 schools by 2025. So this is a wonderful way to create access to many more Kings across our school system.

And just really a big shout out and thank you to Dr. Williams and the staff and the Department of African-American Male Achievement.

Also plans are in the works to offer a district-based Black Studies course by next semester.

And so we'll be sharing more information as that continues to get shaped and formed.

In other good news our school psychologists are conducting 30 to 40 in-person special education assessments every week.

This is a huge lift and I'm really thankful for their work.

October also is Disability History Month which started in 2008 to bring awareness and understanding of people with disabilities and disability history.

And I know Dr. Pedroza and her team are co-sponsoring events with the special education PTSA this month.

And so thank you Dr. Pedroza and special education staff for all that you do.

to support our students receiving special education services.

October is also Principal Appreciation Month.

While the transition to remote learning has been difficult on everyone our school leaders have shouldered a great deal of that lift.

They've worked tirelessly over the summer to successfully launch the school year distributing tech tracking down students and families who are not connected.

partnering with homeless shelters community centers and other organizations to support the families with their personal needs.

School leaders were also charged with supporting and growing staff in amazing ways including in their use of technology as an instructional tool supporting students with their social emotional needs during this dual pandemic and promoting a pro-Black agenda in alignment with Seattle Excellence.

And so just really happy Principal Month to all our school leaders across the district and thank you school leaders for all that you do to center and support our students and their families.

I know that we all appreciate you.

You've also received some updates about our customer service tool called Let's Talk.

It's been really helpful to several of our departments that were early adopters and we have become better with focused responses as a result.

We're now launching Let's Talk at the enterprise level.

meaning that multiple departments have customer service landing pages organized by topics.

This will help us get information to our constituents during this time of remote learning.

This is a year-long project that includes professional development on how to best use the tool and best practices in customer service.

We're also launching Talking Points.

Talking Points is a two-way translated texting solution for schools and classrooms.

So if you text in English it can get translated by the recipient in their language and come back in English and so it'll really be helpful for making connections with families who who need that.

And earlier this week we trained 70 school leaders.

Next week we'll start training classroom educators.

This tool supports seamless communication in over 100 languages for our EL families.

These two tools will help us continue to get better at serving our families.

And I just really also want to give a shout out to our comms team for lifting these systems.

As you all know we're getting many questions about the return to in-person in-building school.

We are focused on refining and improving our remote learning model and we don't have any immediate plans to bring back students in a hybrid model.

However a number of students with IEP's will soon begin receiving in-person services.

Remote and in-person special education evaluations are already underway.

And we all know that the school board is the body that makes this determination of when we will return to in-person in-building learning and we'll continue to work with the Seattle Education Association the Principal Association community students and families to determine if and when we should return more students to our physical classrooms.

Our staff continues to close.

continues to closely monitor districts that have opened across the country to kind of see the trends and what's happening.

And I know that we don't want to reopen our doors to then have to abruptly close them again.

As you know there are a lot of moving pieces.

There are many things to consider and I just look forward to working with you board to continue to navigate this pandemic while providing the best education possible to our scholars no matter the context.

That concludes my remarks.

Thank you board and Director DeWolf.

Thank you Superintendent Juneau.

We do not have a student speaker for today's meeting.

Again we will we will traditionally be having those.

There was just some issues with scheduling so we apologize for not having a student speaker today at this portion.

So we will now move to the consent portion of today's agenda.

So may may I have a motion for the consent agenda please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Director Harris second.

Thank you both.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

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

President DeWolf Director Harris here.

I would like to remove number 7.

Okay yes number 7. Thank you.

Okay and I and I'm going to I would like to pull number 19 which is approval to utilize funds from BEX IV to fund a school-based health center project at Lowell Elementary School.

Are there any more.

Okay.

Hearing none.

All those.

Actually.

I. I move approval of the consent agenda as amended.

Thank you Director Hampson.

Second.

Thank you Director Harris.

Thank you both for keeping me accountable there.

Approval of the consent agenda as amended has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

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

All those opposed.

Okay.

The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

So.

Yes Director Hampson.

Oh I was just going to move approval of the which one would you like to.

consider first.

Well we have about three minutes until public comment so I'm curious if I might just read some of the kind of housekeeping for public testimony and then I think by about that point it'll be 315 and then we'll come back to these items.

Okay.

Got it.

Thank you.

Okay.

So in a few moments we will begin public testimony at 315. We will be taking public testimony by teleconference today as stated on the agenda.

So for any speakers watching through SPS-TV please call in now to ensure you're on the line when your name is called.

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

I will some summarize some important parts of this procedure.

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

So only those who are called by name should unmute their phones and only one person should speak at a time.

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the listed speaker's name is called and the total amount of time allowed will not exceed 2 minutes for the combined number of speakers and time will not be restarted after the new speaker begins.

In an effort to maximize opportunities for others to address the board each speaker is allowed only one speaking slot per meeting.

If a speaker cedes time to a later speaker on the testimony list or waiting list the person to whom time was ceded will not be called to provide testimony again later in the meeting as there is only one speaking slot per person.

And those who do not wish to have time ceded to them may also decline and retain their place on the testimony or wait list.

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

So now I'm going to hand it over to Miss Wilson-Jones who will help facilitate public testimony with any with any final further logistical notes.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

One quick note.

Speakers please remain muted until your name is called to provide testimony.

When your name is called please be sure you have unmuted on the device you are calling from and also press star-6 to unmute yourself on the conference call line.

Each speaker will have a 2-minute speaking time and a chime will sound when your time is exhausted and the next speaker will then be called.

We do have I just believe Just about a minute or a little less before we reach 315 but our first speaker today will be Emily Cherkin.

So Emily if you're on the line if you want to work on getting unmuted by pressing star-6.

Can you hear me.

We can hear you.

Can you just give me just a moment to get the timer all set up for you.

Okay Emily when you can go ahead.

Thank you.

My name is Emily Cherkin.

Thank you for changing the name of the Superintendent's Reopening Task Force to the Remote Learning Task Force.

It was very misleading.

Second point the AAP recommends outdoor learning as the next best option to in-building instruction.

What are the steps the school needs to take to pilot an outdoor learning program in this district and can the district elaborate on these requirements and provide written instruction.

Three excessive screen time is harmful for young children especially and disproportionately affects children of color as well as children with diagnoses like ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The amount of time spent online for remote learning seems to vary wildly from school to school in the district.

Can the district disregard the state instructional hours requirement which is not in line with the AAP's recommendations for screen time limits especially for young children and allow schools to recommend developmentally appropriate amounts of asynchronous learning.

4. Per the BAR on remote learning in what specific ways is the district prioritizing African-American boys and teens.

According to a recent Seattle Times article their average Schoology log-in rates hover around 60 percent.

I hear the district say they're prioritizing a plan that is grounded in racial equity but I'm unclear on how specifically they intend to do that.

Please elaborate.

5. The presentation from the reopening update work session on September 30th page 8 has a sample document from Jane Addams Middle School which states Be aware that everything you do or say on Schoology or Teams meetings is public record with your name associated with it.

Is it true all students' remote learning experience is now public record.

Is this legal.

This is a serious use of student data.

I cannot imagine my entire 7th grade year being part of a public record now searchable.

How is the district ensuring student privacy and working to protect students with these future risks in mind.

I will be emailing a handout with resources linked.

Thank you for your time.

Have a nice day.

Next for testimony is Chris Jackins.

Chris Jackins.

Hi my name is Chris Jackins.

Box 84063 Seattle 98124. On the Superintendent Task Force for the Reopening Plan and Remote Learning.

Six points.

Number one my thanks to the Chief of Staff for stating the task force meetings will be open to the public.

Please include this in the board action.

Number two the task force membership application period should not close listed as 9 a.m.

today before the board takes action to authorize the task force.

Number three prior to remote learning some board members were proposing that students check in their personal electronic devices.

Number four last week's presentation on remote learning Noted that now students are told that everything you do or say is public record.

Number five such a lack of privacy was once unacceptable.

It still should be unacceptable coronavirus or not.

Number six please hurry to implement alternatives and to distribute more physical textbooks.

Media reports indicate that other nearby districts are implementing alternatives.

On policy 2015 please amend the policy to state that the school board must vote to approve the membership of the Instructional Materials Committee.

On Hazel Wolfe.

The school is named for an environmentalist.

A synthetic turf playfield is wrong.

Please vote no.

On the Ed Specs for Kimball and the Ed Specs and Value Engineering Report for Northgate.

These projects need further review.

Please vote no.

A neighbor of Kimball noted concerns to mention to you including fears of pile driving.

has previous work caused plaster to fall in our house.

Thank you.

Next up for public testimony is Marina Gray.

Marina Gray.

Hi.

Can you hear me.

We can.

Okay great.

Hello my name is Marina Gray and thank you for having the time for me here.

I'm a neighbor community advocate and past parent of a student at Lowell Elementary as well as having been a PTA member and board member and volunteer for the past 8 years.

So I'm here today to speak in support of a proposal to fund the remainder of the cost for creating a school-based health center at Lowell Elementary.

As a volunteer and member of both the PTA and the community I've seen firsthand both the strength and resilience of that community and the challenges that are also faced by the students and families at Lowell.

So I absolutely support the continued creation of the school-based health center.

Because of our community includes many students who are transitional homeless or for families that are experiencing trauma as well as the fact that we serve many students who have medically fragile conditions.

It's really important that our students and their families have healthcare and services support especially when consistent access to healthcare or consistent support is challenging due to not having housing security.

A school-based health center will help the Lowell community be better served for the needs of not only the school students and staff but with the design that we've worked on will also support the students families and caregivers as well as their educators.

The Capitol Hill Eco-District is working in partnership with us along with Augusta Brown Clinic and Country Doctor Community Health Center to make this a reality at Lowell.

And I would ask for your support to vote on this today.

We know that students do better when they and their caregivers have robust support systems.

Helping the students isn't always enough if you don't help the entire system and ensure that everybody is working together.

And if our families are in trauma we need to support them.

How we show up for our most vulnerable community members is a real indicator of who we are as humans in our society and I think that we really need to show up for our Lowell community at this moment.

I think we've they've been neglected for far too long and I feel like at this moment of reckoning while we're watching the lack of social infrastructure impact so many families and more disproportionately those in communities like Lowell I would love a vote yes to support the three hundred and fifty thousand fifteen thousand dollars to complete the clinic today.

Thank you.

Next for public testimony is Manuela Slye.

Manuela Slye.

Hello good afternoon everyone.

My name is Manuela Slye.

I'm the President of Seattle Council PTSA and a mother of four children.

I want to give my testimony about the board oversight Specifically the amendment to Policy 1010 and 1240. Our community supported efforts to ensure that our elected officials make informed decisions impacting our students.

We identified the importance of collaboration between the school district the school board and community as crucial for the benefit of our students.

So we ask number one that the school board takes in consideration the feedback provided by community when making decisions that impact us.

I know that you receive hundreds if not thousands of emails and it really reflects the needs of our communities.

We are in high need for many things.

I don't have enough time in these two minutes to describe them all.

But we know the trends we know the patterns and we definitely know the communities that are being affected the most during this pandemic during this double pandemic.

The other thing number two would be the Seattle Public Schools must make the commitment to provide the board with the proper research support information in a timely manner so the school board members can make the best decisions for our students.

I have witnessed a lot of times where our school board members have questions that many times go unanswered and this directly impacts our communities as the leader of our students and families I demand that you do collaborate with each other for the benefit of our students.

Especially now I'm going to talk for the last few seconds about Concord Elementary School.

It has been very difficult to see that community suffer for so long and struggle so much.

And right now there's also the need to come together as a team.

Seattle Council PTSA has been supporting the school But we need the support of the district the school board and everyone else involved.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Dustin Cross.

Dustin Cross.

Yes I'm here to urge the board to fund the remainder of the cost of the school-based health clinic for Lowell.

Often health crisis are at Prior to becoming a teacher I was an executive director of a non-profit working with people experiencing homelessness in Seattle.

Often for those experiencing homelessness it was a health crisis that led them to homelessness and health issues served as a barrier to both accessing services and improving their situation.

Lowe currently has around a quarter of our students who are reported to be experiencing homelessness.

As we know this is an under-reported number.

Our mobility rate is around 66 percent.

Each year two-thirds of our families and of our students either join or leave Lowell or join and leave over and over as the families move around to try to improve the life of their children our students.

As a levy coordinator for Lowell one of my goals is to expand relationships with our community partners to help Lowell become a true community school.

The type of school or families who have lost their social safety net can rebuild one.

The school-based health clinic is a vital piece to ensure the restoration of that safety net for our families.

We've been in talks with our community partners about utilizing the school-based health clinic as a hub where families can be connected immediately and without hoops to services.

To full wraparound services.

Shelter.

Food.

Clothing.

Basic needs.

Utility assistance.

Job training and placement.

And we're even working on partnerships that will connect our families for early placement of income housing.

The school-based health clinic would serve as a hub where these needs could be met.

Where their social safety net could be rebuilt and restored.

Together with the backing of the board on the health clinic we can build a partnership that provides holistic care and transform Lowell into a true community school where both students and families achieve succeed and thrive.

But to do that we need your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Moriah Mitchell.

Moriah Mitchell.

Moriah if you're on the line you'll need to press star-6 to unmute.

Moriah Mitchell.

We can hear you.

Mariah if you're on the line you need to press star-6 to unmute.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Okay.

Thank you.

I was trying to get on there.

So I'm a parent of a 7-year-old in 2nd grade at Lowell Elementary and I'm calling in today to advocate for the the funding the $314,000 I believe I heard for the health clinic.

And the point I'd like to make is that outside agencies require immunizations for us parents and vaccines sometimes against our wishes.

And a health clinic in each and every school would ensure that the school districts have a say in the child's health and well-being with or without outside influences such as CPS the CDC etc.

And I think this sets the stage for a more objective choice for parents to either work with the school administrators and or outside factors and influences.

And Lowell would make a great school to progress health clinics in schools such as Meany Middle School who also has that and has offered my other child who's 13 a position on the Student Leadership Board enriching her childhood with health care practices and policies.

And on behalf of Lowell I would just like to say that is the elementary school that my grandfather went to and now his great-granddaughter is going to.

And this is a major step in progressing the future of our children's health and their well-being.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Brian Terry.

Brian Terry.

Good evening.

In our school today a White student is many times more likely than a Black student to be identified as highly capable.

The mostly White classrooms that this creates are often placed next to mostly Black neighborhood classrooms.

This racial segregation hurts all of our students.

Policy 0030 adopted 8 years ago states that we will eliminate the racial predictability and disproportionality in all aspects of education including under-representation in advanced learning programs and yet racial segregation and disproportionality continue to plague our advanced learning program.

At the root of this is Superintendent Procedure 2190. It presents the framework for how we will serve our mostly White highly capable students in mostly Black neighborhood schools.

While the framework itself impacts all students at these schools the procedure is written only from the perspective of the mostly White highly capable students and mandates racially segregated classrooms as the best way to meet the White student's needs.

The mostly Black neighborhood students who suffer the resulting segregation are not mentioned in the procedure as though they don't matter.

Policy 0030 puts forth a powerful commitment to equity.

But without concrete procedures its impact is limited.

Please demand that the district create superintendent procedures to go along with Policy 0030 and the upcoming 0040 to present a clear plan for how we will identify and address the many forms of racism that hurt our students every day.

Thank you.

The final speaker on today's testimony list is Janice White.

Janice White.

Hi this is Janice White.

I'm President of the Special Education PTSA.

Thank you Superintendent Juneau for mentioning earlier that this month is Disability History Month.

And thank you Director DeWolf and the school board for including people with disabilities in the amendment to policy 2015 that you're considering today.

The special ed PTSA is offering educational programs this month and thank you to the special education department with whose support we will have ASL interpretation and translation into two languages for those events.

We're also distributing an inclusion bingo game with links to content and activities to boost disability awareness including many kid-friendly activities.

I sent a copy of the bingo game to the board and I hope that you will all be able to participate.

It is disappointing however that we have seen very little recognition of Disability History Month by the district.

A School Beat newsletter went out on October 1 to all families with no mention of Disability History Month.

The Governor's Office of the Education Ombuds has adapted its disability history curriculum called One Out of Five for online learning.

Yet we have not heard of any schools in Seattle that are using it.

We have not heard about guidance to principals regarding educational programming to offer this month about disability awareness and disability history.

And at the same time our PTSA is hearing from families That their students IEP's are not being implemented remotely.

That their students are not able to engage.

That they are being told that in-person services can't be provided and the list goes on.

As you know students with disabilities are guaranteed a free appropriate public education by federal law.

We are concerned.

We want to know what is being done to guarantee these students equitable access to education.

Families have known since the spring that many of our students with disabilities cannot access online learning and we need we need more of a plan or policy on how their disabilities will be accommodated and by when.

We ask that you talk to families and uncover the magnitude of the situation.

Thank you very very much.

That was the final speaker on today's testimony list.

Well thank you Miss Wilson-Jones and thank you to all of the speakers who provided public testimony today.

That will conclude our public testimony for this meeting.

So next we will move to the items that were removed from the consent agenda.

So may I have a motion to approve.

May I have a motion for item number 7.

This is Director Hampson.

I move that the school board approve each school within the district as having a school improvement plan that is data-driven promotes a positive impact on student learning and includes a continuous improvement process pursuant to WAC 180 sorry Washington Administrative Code W180-16-220.

Second the motion.

Thank you Director Hampson for the motion and for your second Director Harris.

Director Harris as the director who made the recommendation or moved this item I'll ask you to share comment final comments questions concerns before we move to other directors in the vote.

Continuous improvement plans have been concerning for many many years.

A great deal of progress has been made.

However in the BAR it talks about these plans being updated by November 1st.

I cannot in good conscience and with my fiduciary duties vote for something that hasn't occurred yet.

I might also just from a very quick spot check note that I found at least three schools that indicate their CSIPs were approved in 2019 and their goals were to be accomplished by June 2020. I noticed that in the Washington Middle School CSIP there is not one word or reference that I could find to the Technology Access Foundation Partnership.

And it would seem to me that given all of the work put into it given all of the controversy that we would want to in fact call that out.

Again this is work product that has not been updated and I absolutely in good conscience cannot and will not vote for it.

Thank you.

Okay.

We'll move to directors in order here very quickly.

Director Hampson.

Can you come back to me please.

Sure.

Director Hersey.

I don't I don't have any questions on this item.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Mack.

I had the opportunity to look at the updated BAR and I did appreciate that the schools were actually listed.

I I I echo and share Director Harris's concerns.

And I have the additional concern that this BAR is supposed to be the annual improvement approval of schools which is our our technical duty to approve the list of schools not just the CSIPs but we are actually saying these are our schools in our district as a board and that's something that is required by state law and that the motion doesn't say that.

So I. I'm joining with Director Harris that this BAR is not ready.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

I know I don't have any other questions other than I mean we this came through C&I and for introduction at the last meeting and I nothing new has come up for me.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Yeah I'm trying to I'm trying to do some really quick research based on based on the information from Director Harris.

And I I don't know if I'll be able to sort through it in time for a vote here but I it sounds concerning.

I definitely would like to I don't know if if Mike is here or anybody.

whether you can maybe give us any information concerning Director Harris's concerns is staff members want to maybe speak to those those concerns.

I don't know.

Otherwise I don't have any questions.

Chief Jessee.

Rivera-Smith.

Wyeth Jessee.

Chief of Schools and Continuous Improvement.

I would like to address the your question I just And more information.

So it's part of our annual process.

Director Mack is correct in that it is about an annual process for approving the schools.

That is the list of schools that we are submitting to OSPI in addition to their continuous school improvement plans that we have them.

They are a ongoing continuous hence the name continuous school improvement plans.

They're constantly evolving.

This year is an exceptional year.

So there is some additional things being that were performed over the last couple of months.

Quite another load on top of our school leaders and our BLTs to help trans transition to our remote learning plans.

And so they're going to be posted up on November 1. And so this is one of those opportunities you know whether you know we get them up there or we delay that information for our families.

And so you know people are.

working as fast as they can and getting this information but it's they get three checks over the course of the school year.

And so there is you know again they're becoming live ongoing pieces of documents as opposed to the previously the stagnant just annual simple checklist progression.

So that's some of the big pivots that we have.

Thank you.

Anything further Director Rivera-Smith.

No thank you.

Thank you Wyeth.

Yeah do you know anything about about TAF being included in Washington Middle School's CSIP or maybe was it in there and maybe the parents missed it or is there a reason it might not be.

I can look into that.

I'm not I'm not intimate with every single line in there but it would definitely be a part of that CSIP.

All right.

Well thank you.

No other questions.

Thank you.

And my you know I appreciate elevating this Director Harris.

I don't see those same issues as you and Director Mack so I'm certainly comfortable with with moving forward this.

So Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I have a call call.

President.

Excuse me.

Excuse me sir.

President DeWolf I have a question.

Thank you.

I'm wondering if a motion to amend to have this come up after November 1st is appropriate.

Is Chief Narver on the line please.

I am on the line.

Excuse me.

Yes.

Greg Narver Chief Legal Counsel.

The motion you would be bringing would be as we've done in the past to to amend defer consideration of this item to a time certain to a future board meeting.

It sounds like you would be moving for this to be reconsidered at a board meeting after November 1st.

That is correct.

Yep.

So so that would be the motion would be for the board to take this item off of today's agenda and bring it back up for consideration at the first board meeting after November 1st whatever that is. the motion that if it gets a second would be under consideration by the board.

I so move.

And also we did not circle back to Director Hampson.

Director Hampson any final comments before Director Harris does her motion.

I guess I'm just so I do want to point out that We had this in this was in went through committee and then it went through.

We we had it on the consent agenda so I'm a little bit confused about given that we had approved it for the consent agenda in executive committee.

And then I'm just wanting to get and then had it intro'd here.

So I'm trying to get clarity on what the code requires In terms of our approval it sounds like maybe the original the motion as written isn't as accurate as it as it could be.

And that if is is it that it's by November 1st because that's not actually in the motion.

So I'm I'm a little confused about that.

And if we could simplify it so that we can get it get it done.

That would be my preference.

I can clarify my concerns.

When we talked about this in intro we did not have the CSIPs attached to the BAR.

They've since been updated.

The other issue is it is referenced as a November 1st issue.

I believe in the past in talking about the CSIPs and and previous boards not ones that I've been on have suggested we just have to approve that we're doing it they don't have to be correct which I which I think is a huge ethical and moral failing.

I'd like to see us clean up this work product update it and address this post-November 1st.

That that's where my issues come in.

Director Hampson.

Director DeWolf this is.

I'll second the motion that Director Harris put on the table.

pause please direct Chief Counsel Narver if you could provide me clarity for Director Hampson then I'll move to anybody that'd like to make a motion.

Yes.

So the motion that Director Harris is offering is to postpone this to a time certain and I see that the first scheduled board meeting after November 1st is Wednesday November 4th.

So the motion would be.

Chief Counsel Narver Chief Counsel Narver the question from Director Hampson was does the WAC require a certain date.

Oh I apologize.

I don't believe it does.

I've got it up here.

Give me one second please.

I see I see it being approved annually.

Maybe Chief Jessee knows more about it but I do not see a November 1st date in the WAC.

Does that provide more clarity for you Director Hampson.

Yeah I think I was just trying to confirm that.

that what it sounds I think it's important that we do understand what the what the WAC requires that it is that we confirm that each school has a CSIP which is different from the reasonable request that it is a current CSIP and that we do it annually but there's not a specific timeline.

But we have a district timeline that may or may not be in policy I'm not sure about November 1st CSIP.

There there are multiple timelines that intersect with the CSIP process.

So those timelines go all the way through the year.

So one of the reason it pushes this timeline is because we usually get the state scores we usually get our assessment scores late.

They usually come in August so then there's some pivoting that schools do updates.

That didn't happen this year so that cycle that's why this cycle pushes and the state has informed us that they do need to be delivered on the fall and I do believe that Chief Bird you can also shed some light around some of the requirements of having CSIPs on file and having those recorded for around Title 1 funding.

Director DeWolf.

Yeah I would need to check with Michael Stone.

I think our our understanding has been the iGrant system may have a due date of October 31st.

So I'm going to check with him right now just for a moment.

I think that I'll just say overarching for Seattle School District that the WAC and approving schools and the CSIPs have kind of become a conjoined process in Seattle where other school districts may just you know it's a different kind of situation where it's just the approval of schools.

So let me check on that really quick.

Thank you.

So if any directors have a motion here we can entertain that.

Can I ask a question.

President DeWolf for clarification on my previous question.

Certainly.

Thank you.

So my previous question was about the motion that was made when I heard it read by Director Hampson I didn't hear the words that we were doing the annual approval of schools.

And that is one of my primary concerns and so I'd like clarification if that promotion language actually includes the appropriate annual approval of schools as Director or as Chief Berge just mentioned or if it does not.

Chief Justin or Starosky.

Yeah I'm sorry this is Chief Counsel Greg Narver.

The purpose statement in the BAR does approve each school for the coming year and notes that's a requirement under the WAC.

The motion language is I move that each that the school board approve each school within the district as having a school improvement plan.

That is one element of the WAC but approval of the schools is a second element and so There could be a an amendment offered to the motion language to make sure that it encompasses both aspects of the WAC approval of the schools and also approval of the if each school is having a school improvement plan.

And just for clarification it doesn't currently have the language that says we are doing the approval of schools.

It's in the purpose section but not in the motion section.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we we entertain a motion here so we can move forward to other items on our agenda today.

I move that we delay the approval of this BAR until November 4th which gives us an opportunity to update the CSIP and that additionally we add to the motion approval of schools to take care of the second part of the WAC as just referenced by Chief Marburk.

I second the motion.

Okay.

This has been moved by Director Harris and seconded by Director Mack.

Do directors have any final comments or questions before we move to a vote.

This is Director Hampson.

I don't Director Rankin still has her hand up.

So does Director Mack.

This is Director Rankin.

I just wanted to remind folks that this did come through C&I and that we had a lot of these same this similar discussion and moved it through recommend with recommendation for approval and that we also had similar discussion on these same topics in when this item was up for introduction.

Which is just to say I don't know what what communication is missing but I imagine staff is kind of frustrated about having to go over it again and I'm just just kind of a note for how can we kind of tighten up this process a little bit.

And this is Director Hampson.

My my only concern with the motion is that if we move it to another board meeting that we actually needed to have approved it.

We don't have that information right now according to Chief Berge but that we needed to have approved it by the end of October.

So.

So we have a motion on the table.

If there's anybody else.

Director DeWolf this is Chief Counsel Greg Narver again.

One option would be for the board to table consideration of this motion for the time being waiting for a report back from Chief Berge on what she's been able to learn about a possible October 31st deadline and table this while you move on to the next item and then the then the board could could take this item up again.

That's my suggestion actually.

I would like to do that.

Second that motion.

So Greg what do we need to do from here.

Is it just a removal.

Move.

Yeah I think I think you can just do a motion motion to table this item pending report back on information about the deadline.

Call call for a vote on that.

If it passes then move on to the next item.

This is Director Hampson.

Motion to table.

Second.

Okay so.

Okay the item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Oops I'm sorry.

Director.

Director.

Director Hampson-Jones I'll let you take over.

I'm here for that.

Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Okay thank you.

We'll now move to the next item removed from the consent agenda which was Item Number 19. So do I have motion for this item.

Yes you will in just a moment.

Sorry it's 14 right.

It's number 19.

19. We're still on the consent agenda.

I move that the board authorize the superintendent to utilize $315,000 from the BEX IV capital levy program placement budget to fund a school-based health center at Lowell Elementary School.

Second the motion.

Thank you directors.

Thank you Director Hampson for the for the motion and thank you for seconding.

Excuse me.

Director Harris.

As the director who removed this item I'll just start quickly.

I don't want to use too much of my privilege here but I wanted to pull this item so we could hear from the school leader at Lowell.

So I was hoping to kind of seed a couple of here to allow our the principal at Lowell to share any final words before we move to a vote.

Thank you so much Director DeWolf.

This is Sarah Talbot.

I'm the principal at Lowell Elementary School and we have a thriving resilient group of families who are facing the eye of the storm in terms of the the dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19.

A school-based health clinic as testimony said would be the seed of a hub for a truly vital community school where community-based organizations and government programs can be accessed by families.

where families can support each other and connect with each other and give back to the school as well and volunteer and be involved in their students' education because their the workload of running around to access basic needs would be reduced by accessing them at the school building.

I'm I'm so excited that we might have the opportunity to do this work at Lowell and I think that it's the beginning of a truly a truly exciting community school project where where families do become really stable and really do thrive and educators can focus on teaching and learning and and everyone can get their needs met.

So thank you for considering and I really encourage you to vote in favor of this this agenda item.

Thank you so much Principal Talbot.

I really appreciate you giving some of your time to us.

I know you were very busy and trying to serve and support your students at Lowell.

So thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for your words.

I'm going to turn it over to our directors for any final comments or questions and then we'll move to the vote.

So Director Hampson.

I thank you Principal Talbot for your dedication commitment to all the good work that's happening at Lowell.

And Thank you for being willing to be here today to say a few words and I'll be happily voting in support.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Couldn't be more pleased to see this happen and I think Lowell has been an unappreciated gem for a great long time.

This should help greatly and I look forward to it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Just undying gratitude for taking the time to be here and giving us that perspective.

I think that community schools in general our approach that I hope that we can explore and really excited to see what this is going to do for the community at Lowell.

No further questions and I look forward to voting.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

Thank you for providing additional time on the agenda to have the support and the principal have the opportunity and appreciate all of the community members that came out today as well as the community partners that have worked behind the scenes to support this school and this community.

We had a robust discussion in operations and recommended it for approval and I'm also additionally ready to vote and support this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

Go Dragons.

And this is awesome.

And thanks to everybody who advocated for this and is here today.

And I don't have anything else to add that hasn't already been said.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Likewise.

I'm so happy that we can do this for the school and the community and so ready to vote for it.

Thank you.

Okay thank you.

And I just want to make sure we do do at least elevate the the tremendous community effort.

The parents the families the students the educators Principal Talbot for your incredible work on this.

I know it was a lot of organizing and thank you to the partners that showed up in District 5 as Capitol Hill Housing Kaiser.

So thanks to all of them.

Miss Wilson-Jones turn it over to you for roll call vote please.

Director Harris.

Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director DeWolf.

Absolutely yes.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you thank you thank you.

Congratulations Principal Talbot and the Lowell School community.

Thank you so much.

With that we will now move to the action items on today's agenda.

As we move through the items today I will also just want to remind you I'll call first on committee chairs that pertain to those items and then I'll call the remaining directors for questions and comments.

So we will now move to Action Item Number 1. This is approval to name the Daniel Bagley Elementary School Primary Wing South First Floor in honor of Mrs. Barbara Stone.

This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval.

May I have a motion for this item please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move that the school board approve the naming of Daniel Bagley Elementary School's Primary Wing as the Barbara Stone Primary Wing.

Second the motion.

Thank you so much directors.

This item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

We'll now move to directors for any comments or questions for Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta before we vote.

So I'll begin with our Director Mack as our Operations Committee Chair.

As we talked about in intro this came through Ops.

We had robust discussion recommended for approval liked it.

be able to honor and support community members and the community originated this process and desire.

And I welcome other comments from Mr. Podesta if there are any at this time or other community members that may be on hand to also speak.

Thank you Director Mack.

Chief Operations Officer Podesta.

I just wanted to echo that we did hear a lot from community.

Principal Carla Holmes followed our procedure well to get community input to honor a woman who gave a 48-year career to Bagley and seems much beloved by the community.

And we heard many good stories about the impact she had on students' lives.

Thank you Director Mack and thank you Chief Podesta.

We'll now move to Director Hampson.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

No questions.

I'm thrilled about this.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

None for me.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions.

As was noted in committee when we discussed this it's nice to have something good to celebrate.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you.

Yes.

Definitely excited to honor this teacher.

Ms. Stone sounds like one of those teachers you don't forget.

And I'm glad that we can do this to just remember her always for future students as well.

Thank you.

Okay.

And I have no questions at this time.

So Ms. Wilson-Jones roll call please.

Director Mack.

Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you directors and congratulations Daniel Bagley Elementary.

Next we will move to.

Of course.

Next we'll move to item Action Item Number 2. This is Superintendent Task Force for Remote Learning.

This came to the Executive Committee on September 16th for consideration.

May I have a motion for this item please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move that the school board authorize the formation of the 2020-21 Remote Learning Task Force.

Second the motion.

Thank you directors.

This item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

This item has been updated since introduction and Chief of Staff Sherri Kokx could you please brief us on that update and then I'll move to directors for comments and questions before the vote.

Yes thank you President DeWolf and good afternoon Director Sherri Kokx Chief of Staff.

I just want to call out a few of the changes that were made based on director feedback at our last legislative board meeting.

First I want to note that the changes in the BAR are around the name of the task force.

The original name Reopening Plan and Remote Learning Model came from the substitute resolution 2020-21-4.

However we've realized that this name is misleading and we are proposing that the name be changed to 2020-21 Remote Learning Task Force.

This name more accurately reflects the charge of the task force which is to monitor progress implementation and efficacy of the reopening plan and remote learning model.

So thank you Directors DeWolf and Director Hampson for bringing this idea forward.

Directors also expressed concerns around the dollars being spent in this task force work.

On top of the consultant who is helping support this work I'd like to add that there will be additional cost to this task force for interpreters.

I want to give a huge shout out to Marcel Hauser and Antoinette Harrison who have done an amazing job with with outreach to community that we have a record setting 515 applicants and we know that based on a scan of these applicants we will definitely be needing interpreters at these meetings.

The other changes based on director feedback are in the charter.

On page 1 I believe it was Director Wolf's suggestion it now reads that throughout the 2020-21 school year the task force will make recommendations to the superintendent and board leadership in the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee on a quarterly basis.

So that change was made.

And also per director feedback on page 3 of the of the charter now reads stakeholder engagement will include internal and external partners such as Seattle Public Schools Information Technology Advisory Committee.

The Health and Safety Work Group outlined in the SEASPS MOU and Community-Based Affinity Groups.

And then I want to also acknowledge one thing that I missed in the last one.

Many of you noted the lacked the lack of board director participation in this charter.

However my team is much wiser than I am and this information is actually already in the charter on page 7 if you want to see what it calls out director participation in that section.

So this concludes the changes since our last meeting and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

Thank you.

Okay.

We'll move to directors for questions and comments.

As the Executive Committee Chair I'll just be brief.

Thank you for these updates and for more clarity.

I will pass it over to Director Hampson for questions and comments at this time.

Hi.

Thank you.

I I don't know.

I do want to say that having met with Zithery Antoinette and Marcel I had my first meeting with them and I believe Director Rivera-Smith was really fantastic.

And so I'm looking forward to the work that they're going to do.

And there were some things that they said that I wish were captured here.

It's it's too late for that now.

I hope that we'll start to see some of that work coming forward.

And I think just related to the only question I have is related to the the reporting back and whether or not that needs to be something that is done more frequently than quarterly.

And the reason I say that is just because of the time frame that we're in where where we're needing to make changes and updates so frequently.

So I think that's my primary question is whether that's a possibility or at all logical to to report back to board and superintendent monthly rather than quarterly.

Thank you Director Hampson.

That's a great question.

And I think the answer is yes probably.

It depends on what types of data we'll be looking to capture.

We're certainly happy and we'll be taking minutes per board policy for task force and superintendent procedure around task forces that there will be minutes posted at the end of each of the meetings.

And so the work is very public and I'm happy to work with my team and present information as frequently as we have new information to share with folks.

Okay yeah if it's as rich as I think it's going to be and as that initial conversation was I think it will be of great benefit for everyone to be sharing in that and particularly if there are specific conclusions that the task force is coming to on a regular basis that our families and our students in particular deserve the benefit of those updates as we are in the middle of this.

So I would appreciate that consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Hampson.

And I just want to be really clear here a formal request to the superintendent and SPS on the record here.

Please provide minutes immediately after they're done from those meetings to the board.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Thank you for that request Director President DeWolf.

I have two questions.

One we've changed the name.

So are we going to do another task force for reopening of schools because the community and understandably so is asking us for transparency in what we're going to do.

And given all the different districts whether or not I agree with them and frankly I do not are talking about reopening.

So so where does that land.

in in this conversation and continuum.

Second Ms. Cox you've talked now two or three times about your team.

Can you tell us who is on your team and how that's made up.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you for both of those questions.

Director DeWolf I actually want to defer to you on her first question about the meeting that has been scheduled for next Wednesday.

Do you want to talk about that or do you want me to talk about that.

Happy to just give some context.

Director Harris thank you for that question.

In an effort to kind of holistically and thoughtfully engage with the topic that you described in your first question Director Harris I asked the superintendent if she could reinstate or re-establish the leadership group meetings excuse me the leadership group from last spring.

And so that was representatives from SEA PASS students board and staff.

And so those discussions I think about as we look to develop a timeline or to think about that planning I will I will hopefully be able to provide some more information after our meeting next Wednesday.

But it is something we're absolutely at least on our mind and and this was my first attempt to get that conversation roll.

Thanks Director DeWolf.

And then Director Harris do you want to follow up on that.

I did want to follow up on that.

With respect to the quote unquote leadership group of last spring I understood that to be the entire executive committee of which I am ostensibly a part of and I would like to know whether I will be included in said same conversation.

It actually was an executive committee.

It was the C&I chair myself and Director Hampson.

Thank you for the clarification.

Director Harris — Director Harris I can answer the second question that you asked.

I believe you sat in with the wonderful leaders of the task force to date.

Zidhri Saleem is our outside consultant.

And then Marcel Hauser and Antoinette Harrison are our two staff members that are supporting and lifting the work to date of the task force.

I will also note there's a whole lot of staff working behind the scenes.

to develop processes for screening 515 applications for this task force.

Ms. Cox will any board representative be part of that screening process as has been in the past with task forces.

That's a great question Director Harrison because we don't actually have the the full procedure laid out how we're going to screen it.

And I know that Marcella and Antoinette are on this call now and heard your question and we can certainly work with either President DeWolf if he'd like us to work with him or with Director Rankin to bring a board director who wants to screen 515 applicants with us.

Two comments.

One I would like to see a board director on the screening committee.

I think it's hugely important.

I think when we had a board director on the STRAP plan which was not originally envisioned we brought better communication to the table.

Second I might say that my conversation with Salim Marcel and Antoinette was most impressive and I am Very grateful for that.

Thank you.

You're very welcome Director Harris.

Thank you for saying that.

Thank thank you.

Director Hersey.

Hey hello.

Thank you so much.

My only question is mostly for community.

Given that we do have a record-breaking number of applicants if we could speak to a little bit about what the selection process will look like and how we can ensure balance on various metrics including you know place where you live in the city race gender that type of thing that that would be greatly appreciated because I've been receiving questions as even as late as this morning around around those types of concerns.

So if you could just speak a little bit to what that process looks like given that many of those applicants will probably have never served on a task force before that would be greatly appreciated.

Sure and thank you for that Director Hersey.

The charter does lay out some of the high-level selection processes like it talks about the due date and then it will be reviewed by a committee of people between October 7th and October 12th.

And then it says the review I don't want to read it to you but it is on pages 7 and 8 in the charter talks about some high-level I'll be honest we did not anticipate the number that we received and so we are working with our legal department for example to ensure that we have a process that meets all of the legal requirements that we need to ensure as well as our commitment to centering our families furthest from educational justice and our students and in particular our African-American and Black families and students.

Director Hersey any follow-up.

No.

Thank you.

And Director Hersey I'm committed to if there are some specific changes to the selection process we will get that up on our task force website as well.

Great.

Thanks for that.

You're welcome.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

I appreciate the editing of the title but I'm a little confused and also wonder whether or not there may be confusion in the community and of the people that applied.

That the charter is focused on remote schooling not reopening and I would suspect or question that perhaps folks when they heard the title and the application request went out were hearing being on the reopening task force and that they may believe that they were going to be a part of a process of determining whether or not we would be reopening in some form or fashion this year.

So.

I have some question and concern about that change midstream for this task force.

But mostly I I'm I'm really concerned about that we don't I had thought that this task force was going to be part of the process by which we would have the conversation about whether or not we reopen in-person.

And I'm a little disturbed to hear that that's that process isn't in place and that that process isn't really a board process.

It's I'm I'm confused.

Director Mack I'm happy to clarify.

I'm I'm happy to clarify here Director Mack.

I'm confused by what I'm confused by what you shared about starting some meetings and leadership team and all of that.

that you know the community is asking for what our plan is and.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

So in the substitute resolution that we all approved this summer it had the word reopening in it because there was a reopening plan template provided by OSPI that we needed to kind of walk through.

We had a very long meeting if you remember in the summer.

In that resolution I know I certainly was advocating hard and I'm glad it was there is to we I wanted to add a task force that would oversee how remote learning is going throughout the year so that there was a feedback loop in case we needed to improve or refine revise to better serve our students.

That is the intent in the resolution that is well noted in the charter and in this BAR.

I'm not sure what it says on the website I would assume or presume that there may be people that looked at the word reopening and potentially thought that.

However over 500 people applied.

So I imagine we'll have plenty of people to choose from.

Again I'm not part of that process but but this has always been about the remote learning and being able to improve it as we as we need to kind of over the course of the year.

So that at least has been very clear in what we approved in the resolution and in this in this charter.

Yeah.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

Director Mack today I met with Antoinette and Marcel who are the CAI department wanted me to let you know they're on loan from them.

They actually are not hired by me.

I had this very conversation with them that I am positive that there are some of those 515 people who believe that they are looking at how we reopen our schools safely sometime this school year.

And so we've asked them or I asked them today that Once we land on who potentially could be our task force members that we circle back to them and we ask that very question to ensure that they have taken the time to read carefully through the charter to ensure that they know exactly what it is that they have signed up to do.

Not we don't want to mislead folks and we don't want them to start the work on the task force and then decide that this wasn't what they signed up for and quit because that's not going to be helpful to anybody.

We have a plan in place to mitigate the chances that we'll get somebody on the task force who is confused about the reason they're on the task force.

Okay but I and I appreciate all of that and thank you President DeWolf for expressing what the author's intent with the language was there.

But I'll I'll admit to you that my understanding and reading that did not hear that intent.

My understanding of the intent behind this was that the task force would be both the dual purpose of the reopening plan and remote learning.

That's how I read it.

So whether or not the intent was there I would have to let you know that I didn't personally understand that to be the case.

I don't have a problem with this task force being focused on the remote learning and supporting a task force around that nature.

I think this is a very worthwhile and important effort to go forward.

What I do have concerns about is that we do not have a board process or a district process at this point to discuss whether or not we're going to reopen and to have those deliberations I I would share President Harris's perspective that I don't I don't see that being something we can do in the very near future and there's lots of different things to talk about there.

But we do need to be having that conversation as a board and a district about when we're going to make decisions if we're going to make decisions and how we're going to make them.

And not having a process in place has me concerned.

So I guess I would request to you as a president that if you're starting a process that it would be really helpful to your fellow board members as well as the community to express what that process is what that conversation is because folks are wondering what what are we doing or when are we doing it what's going on.

So I would just really strongly appreciate that that information needs to come out soon and that process needs to get determined.

Thank you.

Happy to clarify here and I want to be very transparent about my personal opinion and particularly in the conversations I'm having in community.

Reopening is not as urgent for many in our community so I want to just at least personally say that from my perspective that is not the way that a lot of the folks in my community particularly the families of students furthest from educational justice are saying they need us to focus on reopening today.

In addition I wanted to make sure that anything that we did as a district was not from singularly the board or singularly the district or singularly the unions.

So I asked for a first meeting to get folks that represent those stakeholders to come together to talk about what's our process what's our timeline and how do we engage our different constituencies whether it's the board the staff SEA past students in the process.

So it is starting in earnest.

I'll have updates after next week.

Nothing has happened.

Just trying to just trying to set the stage so that none of the actors that are part of ensuring the success of our district whether it's labor students families the board or the district that we're all kind of moving in concert together and being more collaborative.

That was my hope for that meeting.

I also just want to say I did not interpret the resolution or the charter to say what you interpreted as.

So I think we'll just have to leave that up to interpretation.

But but that work you know will be will be forthcoming.

Anything else before we move to Director Rankin.

No that's fine.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No I think that it's helpful to change the name and I'm sure that of those 515 applicants there are folks who applied thinking that they were planning in-person learning.

And so I think Chief Kokx what you mentioned about putting a process in place to make sure that communication with the folks who had applied was clear so that they understand They have the expectations that they need to have to do the work would be would be good.

I also you know reopening we're open.

School is happening.

It's not happening in our buildings except for very eminent in-person special education services but.

were open and that you know the substitute resolution for OSPI was about opening in fall and we we opened in fall in a remote model.

That's what we did.

That's what we all approved.

And then so this the remote yeah just to reiterate the remote learning task force I think is super important not only for what's happening you know right now and how we how we want to see how things are going.

But also knowing that whatever back to normal might mean when this current health crisis you know hopefully goes away at some point.

I don't think we will ever be returning to school in the way that in which we knew it before.

There are so many students and so many families for whom it it didn't serve.

It didn't it didn't work.

And so whatever analysis or data collection or learning is done through this task force I think is going to be critical for us now and also into the future as we think about what's working for our kids and our families and our teachers and how can we build a better How can we build a better normal.

I want to I guess re or second the suggestions that we have a report that's more than quarterly.

I think that would be really helpful for us to kind of see trends either negative or positive to understand if there's you know quick policy corrections that need to be made or something unanticipated or something that's going really great somewhere that needs to be expanded.

You know more than quarterly I agree is definitely definitely helpful.

Also concur with the suggestion or request to have a at least one board member included in in helping sift through all of those 515 applications.

And I have other stuff I could say but I'm going to keep it to myself right now because I don't want to get totally off topic for this item.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Director Rivera-Smith you might be on mute.

Hello.

Sorry I had a million toggled apps going on.

Sorry about that.

I yeah no thank you.

I appreciate the name change.

Definitely it was very confusing for families and in my communications I was always sure to point out that it was not about reopening.

Reopening equals remote learning.

Re-entry is what we should use for going back into in-person.

So thank you for that clarification on that.

And I did I did take a look at the application and it had it had a lot of it asked for it wasn't just a check boxes sort of application there was actually like short answer questions in there.

So hopefully that was able to weed out people who were who were misunderstanding the purpose of the task force and hopefully that does help you have the right people who applied.

Clearly there'll be some who who's who still you know were misunderstanding.

So I wish you the best of luck wading through those in 5 days.

That's a lot that's a lot to do.

I I'm happy to help.

I don't know.

I know you haven't decided to have a board member on that but I'll always raise my hand there in case I need somebody to do that.

But thank you so much for all the work on this house for us.

Very excited to get it started and agree that more than the what is it the quarterly check-ins would be great.

Having the minutes when they come out from the meetings would be wonderful.

we can easily track what's going on with the task force.

And other than that no other questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks Director Rivera-Smith and I see Director Hampson has her hand raised before I move to the vote.

Hi.

Yeah I just want to to put a request and an encouragement to all of us as staff as board members as community members to to make the language shift.

It is naturally confusing because what we did starting in June once as soon as the school year ended was we we started working on the quote unquote 2020-21 reopening plan as was required by the state of Washington.

So that was the the legal language that we were given and it's absolutely the the meeting was called the reopening Fall 2020 reopening.

The BAR was the Board Action Report was to adopt a reopening plan.

So therefore the substitute resolution referred to not that clarified what that meant to the extent that it was remote or in-person.

Right.

But that's a subcategory of the reopening.

We are open for business and providing education in a remote capacity.

to the extent that we are right.

I won't go into clarification about that.

But it's I think for the sake of our of our constituents and our public it is really important that we get clear on that and that the reopening was getting into providing education in some way and that this task force was really about what ended up being primarily the remote delivery specifically and and making sure that we were making good on our promises as adopted in that in that resolution around the remote learning.

So whether that extends to other areas I'm not sure in terms of the charter but I think that that that there are aspects of the the reopening plan resolution that I would assume that that that would be that that task force would would also be accountable for.

absolutely want to echo everyone's concerns that whether we are anywhere on the spectrum of that we need to be providing of whether we will be going back or think we should be going back in person that we need to provide some clear communication to community about where we are with that and where we plan to be with that which is why the request was made to to restart the leadership team as a as a step one And ideally a collaborative step so that we're not like we were in the spring operating in in a vacuum or in silos and then heading into bargaining again for example.

So so so I'm hopeful that we can actually have you know have joint discussions and pretty quickly get to some clear communication because I agree that our families deserve that and I think that that is that is the intent and we should all be talking about that with our constituents and and with each other and trying to get information out as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

With that Miss Wilson-Jones roll call please.

Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith Director Rivera-Smith aye.

My God.

Can you repeat that one more time please.

Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye

Director DeWolf aye aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones.

All right now we'll move to Action Item Number 3. This is Amending Policy Numbers 1010 Board Oversight of Management and 1240 Committees.

This came to the Executive Committee on September 16th for approval.

May I have a motion for this item please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move the school board amend Policy Number 1010 Board Oversight of Management and Policy Number 1240 Committees as attached to the Board Action Report.

Second the motion.

Thank you directors.

This item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

We'll now move to directors for any final comments or questions before we move to the vote.

And we'll begin alphabetically backwards with Director Rivera-Smith.

Hi.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Definitely a lot of work went into this.

I feel like we've been talking about this one for a while.

At least I know in the exec committee and Ellie did so much work gathering Board members input on this.

I couldn't have asked for more engagement with at least I felt for myself and other board members that it was seen being feedback collected of.

And I don't think I have any questions at this point but I'll let you know if a circle back is needed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions or comments at this time.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

Hi yes.

I recognize that I may very well be in the minority here and so my comments and concerns raised here are not may or may not be shared by my fellow board members.

But I have having read through the policy and the strikethroughs on 1010 and and the change in language in 1240 I am very much supportive of the intent behind making adjustments to create clarity and I think that the end result of what is here doesn't meet that goal and that it in fact reduces the board's oversight function in a number of ways.

One there's I have a couple page list of very specific policy points that cause me concern.

One of the.

large ones is the removal of the work plans that are approved by each committee that that doesn't exist in the policy any longer.

That the oversight areas around technology and planning are struck they're struck they're gone.

The topic areas may be mentioned in the committees but it's not There's still some lack of clarity.

There's lack of clarity around from my perspective in Ops the word capital and if we're talking about the capital fund or if we're talking about capital facilities.

And the removal of the that the new operations data dashboard I'm not sure what happened to our academic scorecard but that's gone and we have less consistent information going forward to be able to provide oversight.

And the annual work plan for the board for the board committees I think is is something that needs to be back in there.

And I spoke with staff.

and raise some of my concerns but I have so many I can't just throw out amendments but I don't I cannot support this as it is.

It's not a matter of only one thing.

I think overall it hasn't met the goal of creating clarity.

I think it has reduced clarity about how committee work gets done.

I think it's also reduced the board's oversight functions by striking through a lot of the very specific things that were in there.

And so with that I can't support it.

I thought about offering an amendment or a motion to table and I you know be recognizing that I very well might be in the minority of having these concerns.

I'm I guess that's all I can say.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

I don't have any additional questions on this item.

Director Harris.

Okay.

My big concern on this is on page 2 of 8. I'm going to read the paragraph.

For committees of the whole portions excerpts of paragraph.

For committees of the whole only the 3 members of the origin committee.

shall have the authority to vote on items unless a committee member is absent and another board member has been designated to vote under the rules of this policy.

I have a question for Chief Narver.

That's not how it's been done in the past and I'm not always willing to stand on precedent but if we have a committee of the whole ought not the entire committee of the whole be voting sir.

Thank you Director Harris.

This is Chief Counsel Greg Narver.

I've been with the district one year.

I'm not in a great position to talk about how it's always been done.

I did talk to staff and some of my colleagues in legal.

My understanding from them is this is how committees of the whole have been handled by the district at least for a while.

Whether it was done differently in the past I don't know.

It's really up to the board how it wants to structure the voting around Committee of the Whole.

I did talk to Director Mack about some of her concerns and I can I can draw on my own experience when I worked in the U.S.

House of Representatives.

The handling of Committee of the Whole is very different there but there's no requirement or no restriction on the ability of this board to structure it how they like.

I believe the.

intent behind having only the members of the committee of origin vote is that those are the member those are the board directors who are most likely to have expertise or knowledge in the matter that their committee has jurisdiction over.

And I believe that's why there's been the at least in this version of the policy restricting voting just to those members.

It is really a board decision how you want to structure a committee of the whole.

It's not it's not something that's governed by some external law.

I agree this isn't the way everybody does it but it's up to this board how they want to structure it.

Well under the no questions asked or stupid questions I would push back and say that's not my recollection of committees as a whole in the past.

Second so this then would be a committee meeting and they would recommend advancing a BAR with for consideration pass or do not pass.

Is that correct.

So that the rest of the board would have the opportunity to be on public record and be accountable.

That's correct.

Committee process.

Is that correct.

That's correct.

It is your following committee process.

We did this last fall for the TAF contract.

We did an executive committee meeting of the whole.

I believe that's the one time we've done it since I became Chief Legal Counsel and that's exactly what happened.

All directors were present participated in the discussion.

But when it came time to decide whether or not to move it forward to the board only the members of the or perhaps it was C&I but it was only the members of the Origin Committee who voted at that time.

Yeah that was in December and that was with the — Oh sorry Director Harris I was just I was just clarifying that was in December an executive committee of the whole that was you me and Chandra on the TAF conversation just as the last time.

I just I just want to make sure that in terms of transparency and accountability for our public for our families for our students that that we have the opportunity to say our piece.

That's that's my only concern.

And it was confusing to me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hampson.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I we there has been a lot of work that has gone on with this and I I in kind of in response to some of Director Mack's questions it I was wondering if some of those things aren't actually while they're deleted and are stricken in some places that they actually appear they're just not they appear in the in the at some point in the policy they're just not they're referenced rather than duplicated in terms of the requirements.

So I guess I'm just not seeing that.

I.

I. I.

I'm sorry were you asking for a sponsor because I was actually there's a number of places where I searched and I did not find them again.

So I could be incorrect but there's that all there's like two pages on 1010 that don't show up again and they're they're specific oversight areas that are called out.

So that was that you know maybe my reading is maybe I'm missing something but.

from my read I'm concerned about language going missing.

So thank you.

Yeah and I guess I would just ask if if Ellie wanted to speak to that at this time because I felt like well I had originally had some of those concerns that they were actually alleviated once we went over it and that this really was about clarifying trying to provide some clarity for the sake of staff and board work on the on the committees.

And that while there are other aspects of these two policies that I believe still need a lot of work that I tried to maintain or keep my concerns to the matter at hand and that it was a almost impossible task to provide that that clarity.

And so for for those purposes I'm satisfied with where we are right now but I do believe it'll have to be revisited.

in the not-too-distant future.

That's all for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Miss Miss Wilson-Jones I don't have any more comments.

I know we spoke extensively in committees and over the summer in working with directors on any feedback or ideas and so I want to just at least thank Directors Rankin and Director Mack for the work over the summer on this.

But if Miss Wilson-Jones you wanted to provide any more clarity or anything here before we move to the vote.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

To clear up the confusion on just one of the points that came up on 1240 the committee's policy There is some reorganization and to Director Mack's question about committee work plans.

Those are indeed shown as being struck in one place but that's because I thought that was such a sort of central task of each committee that it is actually elevated to be the second bullet after 0030. So that's one edit that shows up for each committee.

Also did hear Directors provided feedback that you wanted the language to be from 1010 to be kind of moved over to 1240 and consolidated but also to be made leaner.

So there is not a word-to-word transfer of the language that is in 1010 but we we discussed the various topics that are covered there and then worked over the last few months to assign those topic areas to the committee.

So that's the way that information is transferred over.

Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones.

Again I thank you for your work on this.

I know we worked over the summer and really probably starting it at least over over the spring as well.

So I thank you for the work on this.

Truly appreciate it.

So with that Miss Wilson-Jones roll call vote please.

Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director Harris abstain Director Hersey aye Director Mack no Director Rankin aye Director DeWolf aye

This motion has passed with a vote of 5 yes to 1 no to 1 abstention.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Okay.

We will now move to Action Item Number 4. This is Special Education Contract Amendments.

This came through the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th for approval.

May I have a motion for this item please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to approve contract amendments in an amount totaling $1,254,933.34 for the above listed agencies and contractors.

Second the motion.

Thank you directors.

This item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

So we'll now move to directors for any comments or questions excuse me any final comments or questions for Chief of Student Support Services Dr. Concie Pedroza before we vote.

And we'll begin with Director Hampson as the chair of our Audit and Finance Committee.

Thank you.

Yes as we discussed during our last board meeting and in Audit and Finance Committee these are the costs associated with additional students that are receiving services at these facilities and these programs.

And there is the potential for discussion and remedy to having to go back and get approval every time we have additional students by increasing the contingency amounts that are utilized by special education in these contracts.

At the same time I heard loudly from other directors that they may prefer to have these board action reports have to come all the way back for the sake of transparency.

Because these do represent a relatively small number of students it's something that I want us to be really thoughtful about when considering.

But for this particular board action report this is just very simply the additional students that we served after our original contracts.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Hampson.

We'll next move to Director Harris.

I think I would be one of those folks that prefers that it come back so that we can keep our eyes on the ball.

And I will appreciate this is a small number of students and for four and a half years I continue to ask when we can offer some of these services in-house.

I will be voting for it but I would like to see some progress on the planning for bringing some of these extraordinarily expensive contracts back in-house because we do in fact have the talent.

Thank you.

Director Harris are you making a formal request for some analysis on that from the district.

I want to be thoughtful here that we need to be really explicit in our communications to the district and the superintendent.

I've made those requests for four and a half years in Audit and Finance.

I feel comfortable that my record is Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

No additional questions on this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

I appreciate it coming back as a complete BAR for clarity and transparency purposes and I don't have any additional questions on the BAR in front of us.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Mack.

Director Rankin.

Oh excuse me.

No for me it's actually more meaningful or valuable to understand number of students serves and what the services are than just the contractual item.

So I'll just I guess state my my understanding that You know having having individual items come back like this can be cumbersome but that there is a need for transparency and information and just I actually don't see the specific contract information as for me what I want to be apprised of I guess.

But I don't have questions today about this specifically.

Thank you.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions or comments.

Thank you.

And I have no further questions or comments at this time as well.

Ms. Wilson-Jones roll call vote please.

Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Next we'll move to action item number 5. This is approval of contract amendment with EPI use for SAP SAP staff support for school year 2020-2021.

This came to the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th for consideration.

May I have a motion for this item please.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute a contract amendment with EPI use for a total not to exceed amount of $820,000.

Oh I believe it says 800 is that correct.

Yes it is correct.

Sorry $820,000 including taxes for SAP staff support services with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the amendment.

Second the motion.

Thank you directors.

This has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

So we'll now move to directors for any final comments or questions of Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge before we vote.

And I'll begin with Director Hampson as our Audit and Finance Committee Chair.

No additional questions for me.

Again we spoke about this at length in Audit and Finance and then in intro.

And so I will pass to the next director.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

Ditto those comments and tabs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

No additional questions for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

Yeah no questions.

I think we were robust in our conversations in intro.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rankin.

No questions for me.

Thanks.

All right.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you and I have no questions at this time.

So Miss Wilson-Jones roll call vote please.

Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you directors.

Okay.

Next we'll move to Action Item Number 6. This is Amending Board Policy Number 2015 Selection and Adoption of Instructional Materials.

This came through the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee on September 15th for consideration.

We have a motion for this item please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move that the school board amend policy Board Policy Number 2015 Selection and Adoption of Instructional Materials as attached to the Board Action Report.

Second the motion.

Thank you so much directors.

This item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

This item has been updated since introduction.

So Senior General Counsel Ronald Boyd would you mind briefing us on the update and then I'll move to directors for any final comments questions before the vote.

Of course.

Thank you.

Per request at the introduction at the last board meeting we've added an additional attachment which is the state law in regard to instructional materials So that is now added and there's a highlighted section on that attachment of the RCW which indicates the specific language which was pulled from the law and is now in the board policy.

Are those the only updates you have for us Ronald.

Yes those are the only updates is the attachment.

I appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Okay we'll begin.

with Director Rankin as our Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee Chair and then we'll move to other directors.

Yeah I don't think I have anything to add.

We talked about this in intro and I have not heard any other any new concerns come forward.

So please continue.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Director Hampson.

No questions from me.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next up Director Harris.

Sorry I was disconnected.

No questions.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

None from me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Mack.

Hi I just actually wanted a little bit of clarity on the question that was raised in PEPFAR testimony about the question we've had this conversation multiple times over about whether or not the board needs to vote on the committee members.

And can you clarify how that's landed in the policy revisions.

Yes gladly.

The the policy indicates that the board approves the membership of the IMC and the word approve is in reference to the positive affirmation of the board after a vote is taken.

And that's a term that's used not only in our board policies.

For example there are a number of board policies in the thousand series that use the same language referencing the positive end result of a board vote.

And also if you notice in the attached RCW it also indicates that as well I believe.

So the the board policy as written and as in addition to the previous board policy uses approve to indicate that the board will vote and that it has to be a positive you know vote of the membership of the IMC.

Okay great.

I'd just be curious at some point to get a clarity about when that happens annually or every three years or what that process is but I'll just ask that to be followed up on later.

Director.

Thank you.

I could do I could do a Friday memo.

Sure.

Thank you.

I was just going to say you know one thing I'm trying to make sure we do is follow up on that.

So Ronald it sounds like you have that Friday memo.

Thank you for that question Director Mack.

Yes.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Okay next we'll move to Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you and thank you Rama for including that the attachment.

I really appreciate that.

Director Mack covered what I was going to ask also about following up on that idea of does vote does does approval imply and I don't know that we ever approve things in any other way other than a vote.

So I wanted to get clarification on that which you gave.

So no other comments.

Thank you so much.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

And I'll just add.

for in my comments or questions here.

Just a huge debt of gratitude to not only Ronald as well as Director Rankin and Chief DeBacker and Director Mack in working on taking the LGBTQIA plus resolution we unanimously passed in June and operationalizing it in policy.

And this is one of those places we did that.

So thank you.

the directors and staff for the collaboration on that.

I want to read you the the item that we did add to this on page 5 of 8 of the policy and it's item number 15. Under the heading of an adoption committee selection criteria will include each of the following standards to be met in their instructional materials review.

Instructional materials adopted by the board will and it has a ton of items.

It has 16 items and number 15 is the one I want to highlight here.

include in United States history social studies and language arts instructional materials and reasonably include in other instructional materials significant events social contributions and or positive representations of American Indian Alaska Native African-American Latino Asian-American LGBTQIA plus individuals and persons with disabilities.

So thank you again to staff for working on the language there.

That's really all I just wanted to highlight.

I'm really excited to see this.

come forward.

Director DeWolf I don't see Alaskan Native in there.

I heard you say that but I don't read that in there.

Sorry maybe.

I put this out here for my colleagues and I wonder whether just like the LGBTQ whether it's time to put an ableist policy resolution together as well for future reference.

Thank you.

Yes I think there is a couple of models from WSSDA that we can certainly look at.

Absolutely.

I've looked into it.

Any other final comments or questions.

Okay.

Ms. Wilson-Jones roll call vote please.

Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith Director Rivera-Smith Director Rivera-Smith it looks like you are on mute.

Director DeWolf do you want me to keep running and come back to Director Rivera-Smith.

Director Hampson.

Here.

Was that was that an aye.

Director Harris aye Director Rivera-Smith aye and Director DeWolf aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones and thank you directors.

All right.

Next item is Action Item Number 7. This is BTA IV slash BEX V Award Construction Contract PE5137.

bid number B082097 to Yoy, Inc.

Doing Business as Verdeas for the Garfield High School Upgrades Waterproofing and Exterior Door Repairs Project.

This came to the Operations Committee on September 10th for approval.

So may I have a motion for this item please.

This is Director Hampson.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute construction contract P5137 with Y OY Inc.

DBA doing business as VERDIS in the amount of $732,390 including base bid plus alternate number 1 and alternate number 2 plus Washington State sales tax with any minor additions deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and to take any necessary actions to implement the contract.

Immediate action is in the best interest of the district.

Thank you directors.

This item has been moved by Director Hampson and seconded by Director Harris.

So this item is on the agenda for introduction and action today.

Chief Operations Officer Fred Podesta I believe you will be briefing us.

Yes.

Thank you Director DeWolf.

There are two scopes of work involved in this construction contract at Garfield High School.

One is to make below-grade waterproofing repairs and re-waterproof the school's second floor courtyard.

And this work will involve some landscaping and excavation and then replanting of trees and other vegetation.

The second body of work is to carefully remove and refurbish and reinstall the school's existing multiple entry doors and windows and door frames.

which are part of the historic landmark exterior of the school.

So it's very detailed work.

The this did go through operations the last operations committee meeting but the bid opening wasn't conducted till September 22nd which was not enough time to identify the apparently successful bidder for the September 23rd board meeting.

So we asked for the item to be deferred.

That said we're introducing it today and would appreciate action because The waterproofing work does involve excavation and replanting some trees and other vegetation and that's more likely to be successful and will make the likelihood of the vegetation surviving and being more viable the sooner we get the work started in the fall.

So we're looking to give the contractor a notification to proceed as quickly as possible.

So that's why we would appreciate action on On the BAR today the bids did come in and they were aligned with the cost estimation that we had done and were competitive.

So we're comfortable about this approach and the sooner we get done the better this will work out.

I'd be happy to take any questions directors have.

Yes.

Thank you Chief Podesta.

I'll now move to directors for any final comments or questions before the vote.

And as a reminder we'll start with our Operations Committee Chairperson Director Mack and Director Mack just as a personal question here not personal just a clarifying question if you can share more about just around the approval and if you feel comfortable with the intro and action today just to help us as we consider this as well.

Thank you.

Yeah thank you.

Actually I am having a difficult time recalling my memory actually having this conversation about Garfield.

It said that it was approval on the 10th but I was just permanently going back into my packet and I don't I don't recall having this conversation.

So I apologize if in fact it did.

But Mr. Podesta is it possible that this didn't actually come.

I believe it was discussed I think it was deferred later.

There were just a very there was a huge volume of contract actions taken up at that meeting.

So I had to go back and look also.

Yes there was a huge volume.

Was it like 30 or something.

So it was kind of.

It felt like at least.

And Director Rankin and Hersey were there.

Do you recall this.

Do you have any thoughts of recalling that discussion.

I want to just go back into it before I say anything further but I would love if my fellow committee members had any thoughts or if we just said yes this looks great.

We definitely said yes this looks great.

That's my recollection.

Okay.

Director Mack any final comments.

No.

Appreciate it.

I know that staff is incredibly thorough on working through these projects.

This is important work to be done and yeah no no additional thoughts or comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hampson.

No questions.

Thank you.

Director Harris.

One question and that is whether or not this includes the intercom system at the front doors and how many schools of our 104 have those systems.

Thank you Director Harris.

This this work does not.

I and I do recall you asking this question at a recent meeting and I believe we did report it in the Friday memo.

We have AI phones installed at 90 of our 104 operating buildings and we're we'll finish that work in time for the 21-22 school year.

Okay but when we're doing doors for Garfield do we include that work or is it already there sir.

I would I'll have to check for Garfield as well.

This this particular contract is really around woodworking and the work for the door.

AI phone installation the major part of that work is conduit and data communications.

It's really a very different skill.

It's not really about installing building hardware as much as it is kind of a network system.

I will I don't know where what the status is at Garfield per se but I can find out.

And will you be reporting that back in the Friday memo sir.

I'd be happy to.

Thank you so very much.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Nothing from me.

Okay.

Thank you Director Rankin.

Anything else.

No.

Director Rivera-Smith.

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I have no questions for you at this time Chief Podesta so we can move to a roll call vote.

Ms. Wilson-Jones.

Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you Ms. Wilson-Jones.

I also have an update from our consent agenda item number 7 so Ms. Wilson-Jones or Greg do we need to reintroduce it or how do we how do we bring this back.

I think as board president you can just bring it back from the table to get to receive the additional information.

Once you have that we should talk about what the motion would look like at that point.

Okay.

Okay so I am.

bringing back consent agenda item number 7 and Chief Berge I believe you have some more information for us.

That's correct.

So I I want to say I think that we had given Chief Jessee some confusing information.

So there there is not a requirement to do this by October 30th.

However we've had enough time to potentially offer some amending language which I think that Chief Jessee might want to offer if if the board's interested.

Let me please just give a little bit more background to just a little bit around why we have the 90 days.

Chief Narver is it appropriate to amend an amendment.

I think that's why I before Chief Jessee offers amendment language I want to make sure that the board has received all the information about deadlines because there were there were there was both an amendment to language and also a proposal to defer consideration of this to a future board meeting.

I want to make sure the board has heard everything about what internal or external deadlines might apply to to this.

This is not an official amendment.

This is more information to inform our votes.

Is that correct.

I'm not sure what he.

Sorry I'm not sure what he was about to say.

So.

The way that Chief Berge seeded up was if you're interested in an amendment.

I just want to be make sure that our record is very clear here.

I'm more than happy to listen to more information but it seems to me that an amendment.

More information at this point.

Yeah sorry.

If Chief Jesse could finish and then we can listen to what that person says then we can ask for further clarification.

So Chief Jesse please continue.

Thank you Board President DeWolf.

I was just following up off of what Chief Berge was mentioning that usually you know on their annual cycle you have 90 days post the state testing information.

to record your CSIPs back with OSPI.

That's also just in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act.

And so because of the unprecedented situation we're in not only did we not get the the state testing information but we don't know currently what the state testing information or requirements are going to be which obviously is critical to the school improvement plans.

because they are centered on student outcomes.

And so in addition to other requirements that OSPI has if I'm just putting it out there on a straight overarching purpose of the CSIPs.

But they also just my last point would be so then you know in the event I mean we can always post them up you know I just want to know you know about the goals and stuff like that but there's also just you know for every school In the motion they're having you know having transition 7 weeks after us approving the remote learning plan plus the waiting for the Department of Ed and OSPI to give further guidance I just wanted to let the board know that information related to the CSIPs and what the history was of why we do it 90 days post-date testing and we get that done by the end of October.

Director Harris having heard

My motion stands that we move this item to the November 4th legislative meeting so these CSIPs can in fact be updated and they can be correct so that we are not box-checking and frankly quote goals and stuff like that I think are hugely important for transparency and accountability.

I have enormous empathy for our principals our directors and our staff.

But when we put out work product I would like it to be correct.

I would also like it to be amended.

As I said before that amendment is on the floor and has been seconded that this is also the approval of our schools not just the C-6.

Boards matter.

Work product matters.

We have a fiduciary duty.

to tell our community what we're doing in each and every one of our schools.

I've pointed out at least three.

I've found several more that are a year behind and are cut and paste or just rolled over.

And I am not proud of putting out work product to box check.

I think it needs to be correct.

I think we can and must do better.

Thank you.

Okay so this item has been moved by Director Harris and seconded by Director Mack.

We'll start with Director Hampson and move through alphabetically for any final comments or questions before the vote.

Director Hampson.

On the amendment correct.

Yes.

I'm sorry this is Greg Narver.

I want to clarify.

Pending is a motion both to postpone consideration of this to a time certain which is the November 4th board meeting.

and simultaneously to amend the motion language to clarify that this is approving each school building within the district and that each has a school improvement plan.

So it's both approving the schools.

I'm sorry.

Yes I understand that.

So is the is the second of those two more Scribner as far as being able to just clarify in the language or do we need to create an actual amendment.

Well at this point if the if the amendment as phrased passes you're not voting on anything tonight and there will be an opportunity if the BAR comes back to you at the November 4th meeting to correct the motion language at that point.

But the board would be on record as asking for that that change to be made.

If this does not pass.

then the board is going to consider it tonight and I think at that point we'd want to be sure that there could be a freestanding amendment still to change the motion language.

Only the board would be voting on it tonight rather than on the 4th.

So I think first first the board needs to vote needs to debate and then vote on a Director Harris's amendment as as phrased which would both defer consideration and change change the motion language.

Director Hampson.

Okay.

So I heard confusing language.

I was going to say that my my inclination is to not vote yes to the the this current motion because I heard it as the motion was for us to approve the CSIPs not approve that the schools have CSIPs.

which is my understanding of what the state law requires.

So that needs some clarity.

And I still didn't get an answer to my question about it sounds like we're we don't have to have them approved.

We don't have to have done this approval by the 31st at this point.

So that I need confirmation on.

And otherwise I'm fine waiting until November to get it cleaned up.

Those other two pieces remain outstanding.

What Greg said is what I understand that that the clarification needs to be but when Director Harris stated it it sounded like we were approving the CSIP's which is not my understanding.

I apologize but for clarity can we have the motion language actually what's on the table on the screen so that we actually understand what we're debating here because my understanding and Greg said it but what Director Harris said was different.

But it the motion that Director Harris made was to defer this item to a time certain being the November 4th date.

And Chief Narver added in the addition of the change of the motion language of the original BAR to include the approval annual approval of schools.

I think that is what the motion is that's on the table but I just would like clarity if we could have it on the screen that'd be helpful.

So before before we do that can I get an answer to my question which was whether or not there is any issue at the state level if we approve this in November.

And if so can we just consider the postponement to November.

Thank you.

Just please pause here.

My question is for Greg.

Can I just pull this item today and bring it back on the 4th without going through this whole process here.

Just bring it back on the 4th.

No I think the board needs I'm sorry I've got a bad connection.

Can you hear me.

Am I audible.

Okay.

I think the cleanest thing to do is I don't think you can do that.

I think the board needs to because it's been offered and seconded it's before the board I think the board needs to make the decision to postpone consideration of this to the 4th.

I had understood Director Harris's motion to also include some direction about changing the motion language but that doesn't need to be part of this motion.

If it's going to come back on the 4th there would be time to.

make whatever changes could be made to the BAR.

So my one suggestion would be that Director Harris offer the motion simply on deferring to a time certain and leaving out for now anything about what change is going to be made to the motion language.

That's that's an option the board has.

Withdraw withdraw my previous motion and make that motion.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Harris.

So the motion on the table now is. to table this and bring it back on November 4th.

In that time we can do some of the the clarifications.

Do I have a second on that.

Okay.

This is moved by Director Harris and seconded by Director Hampson.

Miss Wilson-Jones can we do a roll call vote please.

Yes just a second.

Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director DeWolf aye

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you directors.

Okay we will see this again on the 4th.

Next we will move to board comments.

It's 527 p.m.

just as a time check for y'all.

I want to just offer that we will begin this section with an announcement from Director Hampson as our Audit and Finance Committee Chair.

I'll let you take it away from here but I know you have an update for us before we move to board comments and adjourn.

Yes thank you.

As required by Board Procedure 6550 Board Procedure BP internal audit Moss Adams completed an independent review of the of this announcement is taking place as the as what's required.

Internal Audit Moss Adams completed an independent review of the district's internal audit function.

The results of the review were presented to the Audit and Finance Committee on September 14th.

The report identifies recommendations that will help create high-impact internal audit functions designed to help the district achieve its goals.

With these recommendations the work performed by internal audit will help the school board superintendent and other district personnel accomplish goals and have a positive impact on students.

The completed report is available online at the Office of Internal Audit's public web page.

Click on Departments and Services under the Directory tab.

Then click on Internal Audit.

And we have a board action report regarding the recommendations and the board's acceptance of this audit report that will be coming to Audit and Finance on Monday and then hopefully to the board at our next meeting.

And I'll be happy to answer questions about that offline.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Hampson.

Thank you for the announcement.

I will turn it back over to you for any final board comments before we adjourn.

If it's possible to go later since I have a very noisy Roblox game going on in the background I would like to comment at the end of the session so I can quiet my children.

Thank you.

Yes.

Back to you.

Director Harris.

Props to Director Hampson for initiating this process and to staff for cooperating in it.

I think these are long overdue issues and I'm beyond pleased that we are raising transparency and accountability and could not be happier.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hersey.

Are these our general board comments or commenting on the announcement.

Yes your your your board comments.

Oh okay.

Thank you.

I would just like to say I don't have many comments I'll preface with that but I would like to say a big warm thank you and appreciation To all the warm wishes from everyone as I traveled home to lay my uncle to rest last week.

He passed away from COVID.

He was very special to me.

As many folks know my mom passed away when I was young and my dad worked 12-hour shifts both during the day and at night.

And for many years when my father was working nights I would stay with my uncle and my cousins.

And really a lot of what I know about how to be a member of a community.

How to stand up for what's right.

But most importantly how to have a smile during even some of the most trying times I learned from him.

And I just want to.

offer the sentiment that for many of us even who have access to health care who have access to so many privileges that many of our students don't enjoy this pandemic is still very real.

It is still claiming the lives of many of our loved ones especially in Black and Brown communities.

So As we begin to have conversations about returning to school in fashions I just want folks to be very aware that for many of us this is very much far from over and we are still suffering huge losses as we speak.

So my heart goes out to all those who are still dealing with the day-to-day trauma that this situation that this global crisis is placing on our students and our families.

We see you we love you and we are here to support you.

Thank you Director Hersey.

And our condolences to you and your family.

Director Mack.

Oh one more thing.

I did want to also say a huge thank you to my colleagues here who sent the wonderful flowers.

That that really did warm my heart to know that while I was visiting my family in Mississippi I was in the thoughts of my family here in Seattle.

So thank you very much.

It was much appreciated and my my father wanted me to make sure that I extended a warm warm thank you to you all as well.

Thank you Director Hersey.

Director Mack.

Director Hersey I'm I'm grateful for you speaking and also I'm deeply sorry for your loss and I just I want to share that I appreciate hearing and I share your perspective that the this Our communities are are dealing with this pandemic and the dual pandemic on a daily basis and it's still very much present in what's happening with our kids and our community and very much our responsibility to be sensitive and concerned.

And I I don't have the I never have the right words to express my sorrow for your loss personally and appreciation for you and the gratitude for an uncle that gave you so much.

I mentioning the smile is really meaningful and I'm sorry I'm getting a little choked up here so I I struggled with actually putting anything pen to paper for comments tonight.

The last couple of weeks have been very difficult for me around on a personal level that I'm not going to go into publicly but what I'll say is that this remote schooling environment and the pandemic And all that we're going through right now is really tough for a lot of our families our teachers our principals.

And I know and I trust that so many people are trying to do their best in service of our students.

And it's just really really hard across the board and I want to encourage folks to give each other grace and to give yourself grace and you know to be sensitive with each other in this time because it's a lot.

It's a lot across the board.

And I also wanted to just briefly Director DeWolf you had made a request in email recently to get an update on the WSSDA Legislative Committee was a legislative work and I saw that email but I I didn't have a chance to actually send back a response so I just wanted to very briefly give you a little bit of an update to contextualize.

So every year WSSDA as the full body comes together in what used to be called Legislative Assembly but is now called the General Assembly to vote on all the positions.

And you appointed Director Rivera-Smith to be the delegate this year.

And I serve on the WA as a legislative committee so I was also present for that.

There were some 80 votes taken.

So what happens is essentially the legislative committee kind of preps all of the things that are being offered and then it comes to the full body for like an all-day voting event on these positions.

Most of them passed.

There were some a couple things that were I didn't quite expect but after that what happens is that every school district delegate across the state puts forward their top 15 priorities and those priorities get sent to the legislative committee to evaluate this Friday and Saturday to compile to be like what is the basic overall platform for WSSDA.

You had sent out an email about the Ledge Rep 101 and the priorities next Wednesday.

I encourage all the directors that are interested in that to participate if they can because I do believe that's probably that's when the like the overarching platform will be presented.

So I'll be sitting on Friday and Saturday in all-day meetings with Ledge Committee at WSSDA and I'll leave it to Lisa to maybe give a little bit of context to the votes and the different positions and so forth if she chooses to.

And I know I had a couple other things that I actually wanted to say but I do not recall what they were at this point.

And so I will rest for now.

But thank you.

Thanks Director Mack.

Director Rankin.

Thank you.

I have had a cabinet break in my kitchen and it was the the sort of manifestation of everything that has been frustrating me and pissing me off and I can't I like can't recover from this broken cabinet.

But it's sort of been emblematic of of you know the the kind of chug and churn forward that everybody has been participating in since March.

And for some reason for me it came to a head with a with a broken cabinet.

So I kind of a lot of madness and sadness hit me yesterday in combination with getting some Communications from some parents of students with disabilities.

And so I I just I wanted to just read something which is that the first two weeks of October of every year are Disability History and Awareness Weeks.

One out of every five Americans is a person with a disability.

A person might be born with a disability may acquire a disability through an accident or illness.

or may acquire it simply as part of growing older.

And it's a natural part of life and it is something that affects all members of our community regardless of race ethnicity income level.

We all have have and know people with disabilities in our lives whether or not we're aware of it.

And disabilities can be invisible.

They can be physical.

They can be intellectual.

psychological developmental and we're hitting a point in remote learning now where we're we're about a month in and the sort of willing to give it a shot and continue on is wearing really really really thin for families of students with disabilities who are not getting appropriate support right now.

And I want to clarify something that has been told to a lot of families erroneously which is that the district is requiring a certain period of data to be gathered on their student before before the IEP can be reviewed for different accommodations.

It is actually that within the first 30 school days not after the first 30 school days within the first 30 school days all IEPs should be reviewed and made current.

So I just want to be super duper clear for for folks that may have heard and it's not I don't believe that there is malintent there's somehow crossed signals or some misinformation that got out there.

There are families that are really struggling with students with very impactful disabilities at home and are being told that they have to collect data for another 2 weeks before they'll be even consideration of changing their IEP.

And that is not the case.

So and I some communication will be going out to staff as well.

So I just you know as a as much as a struggle as this is right now for everybody and as we are all trying to navigate our children's education in a remote setting and feeling like you know a lot of families are barely hanging on.

There's a lot of families in our communities that are drowning because their their child on a in in regular times has the support of a lot of professionals and therapists and and they're without those right now.

So I want to encourage parents and families to keep communicating.

Talk to your teachers.

If there's something that your student needs that you're not getting please please speak up.

And and I know that educators are trying so hard to to make this work for themselves and for everybody else and and for students and it's a huge challenge.

Huge huge huge challenge.

But especially in light of Disability Awareness Week I just wanted to say that out loud.

And that that's it for me.

Thanks Director Rankin.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Thank you Director DeWolf and all of my colleagues for the comments shared.

I wanted to start by responding to some of the comments that were shared by community tonight.

I hate for you guys to come out and give comments and then not hear anything back.

So if you're still listening I know it's been a little bit but I wanted to just respond as much as I could to a few of you.

Emily Cherkin raised I believe some very good questions in regards to the privacy of our students who are now thrust into online world that may not be offering them the privacy that their families would expect and I Chris Mr. Chris Jackins raised this concern as well.

So I too would request that maybe the applicable staff could give us some clarification on that and I guess maybe an upcoming Friday memo or something just to just so we know is it is everything our students are doing online becoming public record and what concerns should families have about that.

I would thank you for that in advance.

To Marina Gray Dustin Cross Marian Mitchell and Prince.

Thank you so much for coming out tonight to spotlight the important work that goes on at Glow and how the health center will benefit your community tremendously.

So glad that we could get that approved for you and look forward to the benefits that will come from that.

Seattle Council President Manuela Slye thank you always for your advocacy and for your push for community feedback being recognized and utilized.

and for our board to be getting the information we need in a timely manner.

I concur and thank you for that support as always.

To Janice White President of the Seattle Special Ed PTSA thank you also for your non-stop advocacy.

You are truly a rock star for your special education families.

And I was glad to hear glad to hear about there's a disability history curriculum.

I was not aware of that and I would love to learn from from staff if that is something that is being utilized in our schools and classrooms and if not maybe it's something we can take up in committee because that sounds like a valuable asset we could be using.

Oh and Brian Terry yes yes Superintendent Procedures 40030 are woefully overdue and I hope I also hope that we can see those soon.

I don't know if I missed anybody.

I tried to get you all but aside from that I too have been just trying to renew my commitment to community and to outreach and to hearing all the voices that I can.

I I've always believed that one of the most powerful things I can do on the board is to share that power with communities and bring people to the table.

So in that regard I am just starting to work on Hopefully planning another student town hall because we heard from we reached out in the summer Director Hersey and I and other board members who were all there to hear from students about the plans for reopening.

And we got that was very very well attended.

And so I think it'd be great to follow up and hear from students now that they're in it and how it's going.

And we hear a lot from your parents.

I want to hear from you too.

And so I've just begun some outreach on that.

I had a good conversation today with the principal at one of my schools is Cascadia and I understand that Cascadia has a student council because my fear would be that elementary school students would not be as involved on an online meeting like that.

I know high school and middle school are more adept to Zoom or Teams or whatever meetings.

So I wanted to find out how elementary school children could also be involved and I know they hear that they have a student council of the older students who could possibly go around and gather input from the younger grades.

It would be a great opportunity for them to develop some leadership skills there and raise student voices from all grade levels.

So I'm going to be reaching out to more schools about that.

I don't know how far I'll get because we have 102 or 104 schools but I definitely want to have another opportunity to hear from our students.

to share your voice and use that in our in our work.

So I think that's everything.

Thank you so much everybody who's still with us tonight.

And I will pass the mic.

Thank you.

Thank you Director Rivera-Smith.

We'll go back to Director Harris then Director Hampson then I'll close out.

So Director Harris.

Thanks so much.

Several things please.

DREA put on a symposium Saturday morning and it was beyond awesome thought.

I learned more in those three hours than I have in years and it's my hope that DREA will report out and send all the PowerPoints for the different initiatives out to the entire board and update the website and also start doing Friday memos so that we know about this extraordinary work.

It needs to be daylighted and enhanced.

It needs to be on SPS-TV.

It needs to be part of School Beat.

And again I think my number one issue since day one has been communication.

On communication in social media which I read religiously and I triangulate and I sift And I learned I am still seeing a great many comments about teachers asking and or requiring to keep the cameras on.

There are good reasons not to do so.

And it was my understanding that policy is that the cameras are not required to be on.

I've even seen some principal feedback that asks for cameras to be on.

And we need to be ever so clear about that and consistent in all 104 of our schools.

Also I think there is a place for all assignments to be in one place for all parents and all students to go to one place and to synthesize all the different platforms and programs So that online learning which is difficult at best given our technology issues we we got to figure that piece out.

I meant what I said when I referenced having an ableist resolution very much just like the LGBTQ resolution.

I think that makes a lot of sense and I think we need to put our pens in our policies where our mouths are.

Huge props to Janice White who is doing extraordinary work and her team.

With respect to Friday memos again communication.

And when folks say things like I met with X Y and Z and not telling us who they were what was discussed what action plans came out of it.

Might as well not take the time to put that on paper because it's just too vague.

And and it's not clear.

It's not transparent.

It's not accountability.

So I would beg for more detail on that.

Who what when and where.

And and for the departments and the chiefs that are not reporting out what's going on please do so.

It's a hugely valuable communication tool.

With respect to committee meetings and work sessions we do not publish those.

And when we do publish minutes they're 30 days late.

Tonight we were talking about the CSEPs and it went through C&I.

Well if I'm getting the minutes 30 days late as opposed to an audio recording and I well appreciate the staff time and I well appreciate the ADA consideration But unless every board director attends every committee meeting yet can't keep up.

And and there's there's something there that needs to be fine-tuned.

And again this board is absolutely I believe every darn one of us committed to accountability and transparency but we have pieces that are missing.

Lots of social media lately about fire the superintendent.

I am on record as saying I don't believe in the nuclear option.

This district has had issues with its superintendents for the last 20 years.

Unless somebody is going to tell me what the plan B C D and E is I'm not in favor of it.

On the other hand I think that we need a hell of a lot more apologies for the language.

clear consistent and to the extent that we can face-to-face communication.

I'm missing people's sparkling eyes.

I'm missing the the body language.

But but if ever there was a time to be both brutally and elegantly honest with each other that time is in fact now.

And and I think the phrase that I used the other day was let's take off our jacket and have the courage to talk to each other because I don't think conflict is a bad thing.

I think it is an invitation to collaboration.

Last and I'll leave with this and thank you President Manuela Slye the Seattle SPTSA for bringing it up and the Concord International Elementary School.

Painful painful last several weeks.

And then I heard in a meeting from a director of schools I didn't know that I could contact a school board member.

Well I am here to say that this school board member expects such contact and collaboration and a heads up if there is a problem.

And a problem is when we've got fully 25 percent of a school that doesn't have the tech equipment to give education And we're dumping on our teachers because they don't have enough hot spots etc.

Something is terribly terribly wrong with the system.

And it's my hope that we trust each other enough to give each other a call and say yo heads up.

Those fine children at Concord International School because of a choice made by the school until everyone was ready to go we weren't doing Education.

We're doing social-emotional and those teachers and the principal we're busting their backsides.

But but there are a lot of things broken and I think we need to belly up to the table and tell our truth and and remember that we're here for the kids not for adult issues.

And last I'll leave with I could not be more heartbroken about the national leader supposedly of this country and his response to COVID-19.

My daughter works in health care.

My daughter was affected by COVID.

And once in a lifetime indeed but these are terrifying times and we need to be kinder and more open with each other.

And with that I will stop.

It is an honor and a privilege and the most frustrating job I've ever had in my life.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Hampson.

So I guess I'll just go with a high point this week and a shout out to my daughter's teacher for this was when my daughter came yell running out of her room to while her staff was still her staff her class was still going on because our cat had decided to pee on her bed which was I was not happy about and I came running in with spray and getting the cat out.

But the good news is and this is a high point I swear to listen to my daughter's 5th grade teacher describing what tribal sovereignty is how it's defined how it works.

In an extended conversation with her students I was able to take a breath and actually feel a moment of peace and inclusion as part of our education system.

And I think that So much of what we work toward as board members and what drives us is that there are too few of those moments for too many of our families.

And one of the stressful things about this remote environment that we're in right now is that if you are paying attention to the things that you're your child is learning I'm hearing or not learning I'm hearing from from parents you know families throughout the district who are not feeling included where the curriculum doesn't represent them or in other cases where their particular ability to learn via technology which is non-existent isn't isn't respected.

And when you're when you go without for so long you sort of get used to it.

But then when you have that moment like I did on that day even when I was so frustrated with my my 15-year-old cat it it then you see that there okay there is hope we can do this and it does make a difference and it will have an impact on our kids.

And so that was that was a good moment.

I think the the low moments have been the calls and the questions having to do with the situation that we're that we're in.

The situation at Concord.

How that was allowed to go.

You know as long as it is it did.

Our ability as a district to hear mistakes and that we're making and acknowledge them and do better.

That's one of the things that I really am pretty focused on right now is that we as a school district have to learn how to acknowledge with with full hearts and accountability the ways in which we are failing and then wake up every day and look for those moments when we can provide those that actual acknowledgement and inclusion and and you know a sense of of identity and welcoming environments for our kids.

So there's a lot a lot more that I that I could talk about but I'm going to let Director DeWolf talk about Indigenous Peoples Day and which most of the time you know we we really don't it always comes around and we end up always sort of being on on defense and I'll let him talk a little bit about that.

But I I just want to acknowledge all the families and the that have have contacted me in recent months that you're you all remain on my on my mind and that your struggles are relevant and they are heard and and we're working very very hard to try to get to a new place of acknowledging the ways in which things are difficult for you.

That's all for me from for now.

Thanks.

Thank you Director Hampson.

And I'll be brief here.

I know we've we're hitting about three hours at this point so I thank you all for sticking through it.

I want to first just again thanks for our public testimony speakers and also wanted to do a special shout out to the principal leaders in my district.

Principal Talbot.

Principal Liu.

Principal Hunt.

Principal May.

Principal Bell.

Principal Princess Sharif.

Principal Otis.

Principal Winnette.

Principal Cross.

Principal McDaniel.

Principal McFarland.

And Principal Sammons.

Thank you for your service to our students and this district and our city as school leaders in District 5. I also I follow the news pretty pretty closely and get updates pretty much any time anybody mentions Seattle schools and was really happy to hear today through the media in the news that the African-American male achievement team and department which is headed by Dr. Mia Williams received a $10,000 gift from the I believe it's called the players found the The Players Coalition and NFL group.

So thank you for supporting our work here in the district.

Again we'd love to make sure we hear those from the district and the superintendent as opposed to the media.

Want to also highlight I think this is one thing that Director Rivera-Smith mentioned.

You know one of my primary customers in my thinking is our students and so have been really really grateful over the course the last few months to be able to work with some students on some exciting projects that we'll hopefully be able to be introducing here in the coming weeks.

And so just wanted to kind of share with my colleagues here in our open meeting that I have been working with NAACP Youth Council as well as other students and educators on preparing or at least bringing forward policy and I cannot remember the number off the top of my head I do apologize.

about elevating a student representative to the board.

The Tukwila School District does this Riverview School District does this.

It's on a voting number but it is to have a formal representative from our student body on the board as well as what I would what I believe and I don't I don't want to speak for Director Rivera-Smith but we've been working on a climate resolution since probably January February as two directors and started basically collaborating with an external group of community folks that organically came together students teachers families.

And so we'll be introducing that in the coming I think probably next month.

I hope we'll hear some more from the outdoor school task force.

I understand the Curriculum and Instruction Committee will hopefully have some updates in the Friday Memo and I'll be watching for those.

I think as we just approved our remote learning task force it reminded me that we need to get working on the outdoor school task force as well.

And I wanted to just elevate too you know I heard certainly an interest in disability you know curriculum or some sort of a policy or awareness or from from Director Harris and by all means Director Harris if you want to create something that's within your purview just for context I created the LGBTQI plus resolution myself from scratch.

So that's something you want to work on there's model policies on WASDO's website.

We do all have access to that as directors.

And so we'd be happy to direct you that way.

And the only other final thing I'll say is if you have a chance the Washington State NAACP Youth Council hosted a really really exciting conversation on Monday where they were launching their 2020 through 2021 year of racial justice.

And so that video from their conversation is online on YouTube.

Please check it out.

They have a ton of demands just kind of globally whether it's school board state level around how to improve public education for them as students.

And I'll just finally end by saying as Director Hampson mentioned Monday is Indigenous Peoples Day and I know Director Harris can probably speak a little bit to it in the sense that she was here when they passed a resolution and a proclamation to officially declare the Monday in October that's a holiday to be Indigenous Peoples Day as opposed to the other name that shall not be named.

And so I will be interested to hear and see how our districts responding and celebrating that.

It is an incredibly important day for our community.

I'm really grateful in the ways that it highlights both that we are still here as Native people.

We are not in the past.

We are not locked in amber but that we are here today serving our people and our communities in the ways that we can.

I think with that.

We have come to the end of today's regular board meeting.

So there being no further business to come before the board tonight this regular board meeting is now adjourned at 6 0 5 p.m.

Thank you all for being here and I will speak with you all very soon.