School Board Meeting May 17, 2017 Pt. 4

Director Geary is elsewhere.

We will give her an opportunity to add comments.

Director Blanford your comments please.

Director Blanford Thank you.

Much emptier room.

I should have tried to make my remarks before the break.

I also want to thank Daga Mooman for being on the dais today.

I think she added a great tone to the conversation.

We always love to hear what our students have to say.

And congratulations to whomever was responsible for asking Noah Purcell to present to our valedictorians.

I thought that was incredibly thoughtful.

idea and obviously he's kind of a superstar these days so it was nice to see Seattle schools product going to such great things and I expect that our valedictorians and the other students who were recognized this evening will go on to similar great accomplishments in their lives.

I also want to thank the shoreline, or South Shore, it's getting late, South Shore K8 students who performed for us today.

They did a fabulous job and again that was a warm presentation that warmed all of our hearts.

Our partners the Seattle Housing Authority and also the recognition that our school nurses are nationally board certified school nurses.

They do fabulous work and I'm glad that we have the opportunity to recognize that work.

As has been shared before I was blessed to have the opportunity to give some remarks at the Naramore art show a week and a half ago.

And it was truly an honor to get the chance to one, see the fabulous artwork that our students have created and two, to participate in recognizing them.

A big shout out needs to go out to Gail Sellhorst who was the organizer of that event for putting together a fabulous event at the Seattle Art Museum.

I also want to recognize the folks who presented from Denny middle school, Jeff Clark has been an outstanding principal in our district for a long time and I heard him speak about the instructional leadership that happens at that school, the collaborations and relationships and the standards-based grading.

that are all best practices on both closing achievement and opportunity gaps as well as improving instruction for all students and so it's a great opportunity for us to hear from one of our acknowledged leaders around what they are doing at school and hopefully it can be replicated more widely to the other schools in the district.

And I also want to appreciate though there are not very many of them in the audience anymore, those who presented to us today on the issues that they care about.

I have been a school board director long enough now to know that many of these issues are interrelated and all come from one source.

And that is the fact that we are struggling with a $50 million budget deficit and there is just not enough money in our system.

It is in some ways it's bittersweet to hear the presentations and the performances of our students on one hand and then to see schools fighting against one another though it's not you know hand-to-hand combat or anything.

In many cases many of the arguments that have been made In order for us to actually give to the presenters what they want we would potentially have to take from other students.

And that's not something that anyone looks at lightly and does without a lot of regard.

as elected officials and school board directors you know have to run for office by reaching out to people across the city and we get to know school communities and individuals who care very deeply about their children.

and we want to honor that care and concern and so it's difficult to be in a place where we would have to pit one school against another and we are looking for solutions that are bigger and bolder than that.

And so I hope those who are those who presented today and those who are listening can work with us to generate those types of positive outcomes that will work to the benefit of all of our kids.

I also would like to thank Director Geary for a phone call that she made to me a couple weeks ago where she informed me that the outwardly facing public disclosure committee has somehow misplaced a document that I submitted and has me showing to the public that I am running for office again in 2017. I've made the determination that I am not running again and it is very difficult to recruit folks to run for district five, the seat that I've represented when it is perceived that there is an incumbent in the race.

And so though I don't like to do too much campaigning or anything along those lines I think it's important to share with those who are listening tonight that the district 5 seat is wide open and available for anyone who is considering the deadline is Friday at 4 o'clock I believe and it is easy to go to the King County elections website if you are interested in trying to trying to replace me is probably not the right way of saying it but interested in serving in my position after I leave.

also you can also file to run for district 4 or district 7 positions which are also going to be on the ballot in 2017. And then finally I recently got a document that I guess some of the folks that are working on the remodel of Meany junior high school, Meany middle school found as they were doing some construction it was a time capsule document that was put in a time capsule back on June 4, 1963. And they shared it with me because Meany is in the district that I represent.

And it was a fascinating document and I'm going to read part of it if I have the chance here.

It is from C.S.

Barbo who was the principal of Meany junior high school at the time.

And he had been a principal from September of 1959 to the date that he wrote this in June of 1963. He wrote many changes have transpired since I came to Meany junior high school.

At that time we were located mostly in an old wooden long fellow structure.

Now we're moving into a completely new and remodeled plant.

Many changes have evolved in our curriculum.

At the present time we are working towards an improved program for what is called the disadvantaged students.

This means a larger staff so that classes of 20 or less can be maintained for slow learning students.

These slow learning students are, and he uses a term that I'm not willing to use, These Sloan learning students are blank because of cultural, racial and economic disadvantages.

If this box is ever opened I would assume that the problems which we face today in understanding the racial differences will have been resolved.

Personally I trust that this will happen.

Signed C.S. Barbeau principal Meany middle school in June of 1963. When I read that it almost brought me to tears thinking about what they were dealing with in 1963 and that was you know at the height of the civil rights movement, the demographics of that neighborhood which I live not very far from were radically different than they are.

And in that time they were talking about many of the same issues that we are still talking about 54 years later.

And I think that's important because those issues don't go away, they manifest in different ways and we have to redouble and triple our efforts to stay on top of them and to recognize that we have the power to change the trajectories of many students through our focus on equitable outcomes for all of our students.

And so my hope is that in the time that I have left on the board, in the time that we all are working on the board, and with the staff that we have, that we redouble and triple our efforts to address the economic, racial, and ethnic achievement and opportunity gaps that our community demands for us.

Demands that that's what we should be focused on.

I hope that in 2018 2019 we make substantive progress so that a time capsule that is open 50 years from now actually can celebrate, we can look at it and celebrate the progress that we've made.

So thank you.

Director Harris.

I understand you have some additional comments and Director Geary if you weren't finished when we changed the tape.

You're welcome to add to yours as well.

Thank you.

I wanted to continue my list.

Congratulations to our top honor students who we have honored here today and also it's a great honor to have Noah Purcell as the person, the speaker to encourage these students.

I've had the privilege to actually to be with Noah Purcell when Franklin actually awarded him an award and it was actually kind of really it was an advantage and also to be able to accept the same award with him at that particular day so it's great to see him again and it's always wonderful to have people such as Nora Purcell to be part of our presentations here at the Seattle school district.

Thank you to South Shore for their amazing performance.

The kids did a wonderful job and as Director Geary was saying one of our students actually that was on the site there really quietly and then all of a sudden he just became alive.

And I mean it was just amazing the different things that he did.

And so that was a great performance.

Thank you for the teachers that actually work with these students and bringing them here so we can actually be able to enjoy their performance.

Thank you to Danny middle school for a great presentation.

Continue on the success and the great work that you are doing.

And also congratulations to all of our students who are actually all here tonight to speak their mind and be able to tell us exactly what is it that they would like us to do.

I think it's great that we continue to see more and more of our students come out here and share their opinion.

with us on many of our meetings and it's just really a great opportunity to see all these kids come out and be able to talk about what is it that we need to do or how can we actually be able to make Seattle schools a better place for all our kids.

Advanced learners.

I guess my question is how many students of color have we recruited at this point?

I know we met not too long ago about what do we need to do to actually to encourage more kids of color into the advanced learning program and hopefully to change some of the ways that we are able to qualify kids to be able to be part of advanced learning so hopefully that I can be able to see some of those changes take place within as the year goes.

And then I wanted to say that my community meeting will actually be on May 27 and it's from 10 to 12 o'clock and it's at Rock on Tour at Seward Park.

Geary if you've got additional comments please feel free.

Geary only wanted to clarify that my coffee tomorrow is from 730 to 9 at Soka on Blakely and my meeting is on May 30 from 6 to 730 PM at the Northeast branch library and I believe that's a Tuesday night so not a weekend like they often are.

But I was speaking so quickly that I may have jumbled it up.

Thank you.

Okay I guess I'm next up.

Again $64.3 million in $100,000 a day fines by the Washington state Supreme Court to the Washington state legislature.

I like a pregnant pause over that because that's an extraordinary number.

And as my colleagues have said far more eloquently than I can, the problems that we heard testimony about tonight are directly related to the lack of funding.

And I personally believe new revenue sources by our friends in Olympia.

And it's going way too slow and we're going to have a second special session And we need to stand up and get counted along with our labor partners who have done an extraordinary job in the last couple of weeks.

They have had a rotating crew of folks in the Capitol tagging every legislator that walks by and telling their stories.

And it's a big lift.

And these are people that are taking their personal vacation time to do it.

So I say thank you especially to SEA, Michael Tamayo the vice president of SEA, thank you, thank Phyllis as well.

It's not okay.

And you know it's not just school board positions that folks are filing for before 4 o'clock on Friday.

We've got some races out there that would change the balance of power in Olympia.

So like they say in your community it's time to walk your talk and walking your talk probably means knocking on doors.

I hope so anyway.

Noah Purcell what a hero.

But I have to tell you that Rick Nagel his teacher Ed Franklin of many many years is responsible for launching an enormous group of very talented lawyers, many judges, I believe a couple of justices in there as well as former Governor Gary Locke.

So he's got a rockstar farm team I guess is how you say it.

And when you think about the difference a teacher can make it's humbling and it's profound.

Nurses almost felt like we should have drug Peggy McEvoy up here our assistant superintendent because she started her career as a nurse.

And she's proud of it as well she should be.

Thank you Peggy.

SHA a couple of things that came to mind with SHA when they were presenting.

There was an SHA property the Benbow apartments that burned this last year.

And I am so proud to report to you that our community engagement director Carrie Campbell, wave please.

Thank you.

got on the phone at 1130 at night, worked with her partners at SHA, they triangulated and dragnetted other folks into this as well as school principals of six schools I believe with the children living in the SHA Benbow apartments and made sure folks had a place to sleep, made sure that they were being fed and it was one of the most beautiful demonstrations of cooperation and leveraging off of each folk.

I just I needed to share that with you.

I know some of those kids in that apartment and a couple of them very very closely.

Former boyfriend of the daughter.

She'll kill me for that.

But we really did ourselves proud and made a difference.

And It has been condemned.

So that means that a number of families have had to move and live elsewhere.

And we all know the price of admission in Seattle real estate and what an extraordinary job that SHA has with respect to homelessness and our 3000 homeless kids that they're helping and keeping their eyes on as well as we are.

The other is that out at Sandpoint SHA worked really closely with then principal, planning principal DeeDee Fauntleroy with respect to opening up Cedar Park options school which hugely appreciated.

Again that collaboration leverages us and just makes us a whole lot stronger.

The scholarship event last Thursday was This room was packed and it was just the most extraordinary coolest thing you've ever seen.

We'll have photographs up soon.

And thank you to Michael Tolley who spent time upstairs looking for video cameras.

God bless you.

That was funny.

And then we realized both Michael and I.

Oh hello.

We don't need a video camera.

We're old school.

Let's use the iPads that are in our hands.

It was hysterically funny but I really appreciate your willingness.

And then Kerry Campbell says on the phone Leslie this is like working in a nonprofit again.

And I said to her on the phone I said darling what are you talking about?

If we're not the original nonprofit tell me what is.

It was it had such a joy to this event and every one of the recipients and their counselors had a bond it made it made a great many folks cry and rightly so.

Denny middle school international middle school district 6 four blocks from the house maybe three.

What a team that they have established out there.

And they've done extraordinary things and then I get excited about how they have define new practices that we can use to replicate.

Now they have been blessed with nestle money.

That makes a difference.

Longer school days more PLC time etc.

So let's not forget that they've been blessed and rightly so.

very deserving and have made very good use of the nestle money.

And it's getting better because the Satterberg foundation is giving us money for the feeder schools to the three middle schools.

Denny Aki and Mercer so that the kids will come in even more prepared.

But without the generosity of those folks because we know the folks in Olympia don't have any generosity.

We we can't leverage like we've been able to do.

And when people say to you, well folks just aren't spending the money wisely, please point them at these three schools.

Because that's results.

That's absolutely results.

But that's private money.

That's not government money.

Makes me a little crazier than I am already.

Fauntleroy 100 elementary school of which I am a proud graduate.

100th anniversary is this Sunday at the school at 130 PM.

Please come on down.

It will be it will be rocking.

We hear you.

We hear you regarding the waitlist.

Where do we hear you?

I think I counted 300 emails.

I know there is an outstanding public disclosure request.

I am so looking forward to seeing that data as I'm sure many folks are.

And I am confused and I have spent a great deal of time with associate superintendent Herndon discussing these issues as well as with superintendent Nyland.

And I honestly cannot figure out why we cannot move the Ingram waitlist whose principal says we have room and we'll take them all to relieve the overcrowding at Garfield and Roosevelt and Ballard.

Maybe I'm just quote not getting it but I don't I don't get it.

And I'm very frustrated by it.

I'm also frustrated that we went to neighborhood schools several years ago with the thought that we would raise all boats.

That we would make those quote underperforming schools and I hate that term because I don't like the data and the lenses used in that.

So that all of our schools would be good schools.

And I keep thinking well if we harm a school Can we can we fix that underlying issues at that school and still move those wait lists?

Do I appreciate that it's connected to money?

I absolutely do.

Do I appreciate that some schools have long standing over decades of problems and not of their own making and not of the community's making not suggesting that by any stretch.

But there's got to be a better way.

And when you look at the student assignment transition plan, please keep the T in there because it still belongs there, it does not say anything about blocking the waitlist based on the harm to other schools.

Does not say it.

Now do I think that that's the best written piece of prose on the planet?

No I find it highly confusing.

And I'm supposed to be an insider.

So maybe there's a way we can do more pictures in the future.

or graphs or charts or not make promises that our wallet cannot keep.

And getting folks hopes up.

Because it's not transparent.

And it violates trust.

And it's very problematic when that's one of our smart goals.

And a whole lot of fabulous people are working really hard on this.

And it's not so easy folks.

And when someone says.

There was a quote that I heard tonight when the board is quote sitting back end quote.

Oh I highly disagree with you on a whole list of issues when you say that about this issue.

Do you see what we do every day?

You really don't.

We are working really hard on this and these are really tough conversations to have.

But a great many of us on this dais are having those conversations.

And please feel free to come to committee meetings.

That's where a lot of the stuff is being done.

So I hear your frustration.

We on the dais hear your frustration.

The folks on the walls hear your frustration.

I'm told some of these lists are going to move soon.

The concept of waiting until the end of May for folks to make their choices about highly capable placement.

When those decisions are made in February is crazy making to me and I hope to be able to change that piece of the student assignment plan next fall.

Director Burke who is sleeping in China has some of the same frustrations and same goals and aims and I believe that a great many senior staff do as well because I know that they don't appreciate how difficult this is.

CTE issues I want you to know that principal Goldsman is at a child school event this evening otherwise he would be here to talk about CTE.

I'm a huge fan.

I believe in CTE.

15 years on the work retraining task force at Highline College.

This stuff makes a huge difference in people's lives to make a living wage.

and a great many folks that go through career technical education end up in college as well.

So it's interconnected.

Other hot issues.

The assessment policy and ethnic studies are very hot issues.

The curriculum and instruction committee is a fairly provocative place these days.

But I learned something and spending some time with my good friend Phyllis Campano recently.

The Seattle education Association president their resident assembly or their RA meetings are the same nights that our curriculum and instruction meetings are at.

How did with all the brains in the SEA and in the Seattle school district how did we not match that up?

So I think that just means we need to talk to each other more so why weren't you there?

Well don't you know I'm at RA.

So we are going to fix that I hope, really soon.

And there is a good bit of work to be done on assessment policies and ethnic studies, and we've got some really good partners to do that work with.

But our partners don't own that, unfortunately the buck stops with us here on the dais.

Will we listen to you?

Absolutely.

Do we need to create better ways to hear from you?

Absolutely.

But we get to carry the heavy burden on the vote on the policy we get to send back to staff and say not working for me you need this is my feeling anyway see if we can come to an agreement and move forward.

And hopefully we do that in a really elegant and collaborative way.

I do not have a community meeting scheduled.

And I am sorry about that because I love them.

My hope is I can find a place in West Seattle next Saturday the 27th to do that or I may take up a couple of principal offers to open up their building and we can do it there.

I don't like the idea of incurring more costs because of custodians or janitors maybe we can figure out a time when another event is going on so it doesn't incur costs.

But it's a bear to schedule these meetings.

And I want to do it before we get to the end of school and and that.

Let me wrap it up I'm talking way too long I apologize.

Stay tuned stay tuned for some of the news coming out of middle college high school.

We had a lengthy and terrific meeting with director associate superintendent Tolley, executive director Helen Young who middle college high school is under her umbrella and with the principal Jennifer Knisley.

And they get it and we are working together and Stay tuned because each of these three middle college sites presently will kind of have their own unique program.

But social justice is absolutely going back to the University of Washington.

It may look a little different than it looked in the past but there will be more linkage I think is the way to say that with the University of Washington and that's really exciting.

And we have not given up on having a West Seattle site for middle college not by any stretch.

So League of Women voters Friday night it was a good time.

except then I heard that we between city council member and good well-meaning people managed to drop the ball on communication.

So you are having a lovely evening and then you find out that why haven't you X, Y, or Z?

Speechless, not often.

We are fixing it this week.

And our relationships and getting back with folks are critical.

and this is a situation where there is $600,000 worth of money on the table.

So we aim to go get it and we aim to repair that and move on and figure out better ways to communicate.

Again it is my privilege and my honor to serve this work for the folks that are thinking about running you will never be the same.

and it will be a long hot summer.

You will find out who your friends are.

You will have to figure out what really matters to you in terms of priorities.

But it's some of the most gratifying work.

And if you can see your fingerprints on some small incremental change it feels so good.

On the other hand it'll drive you crazy because of the pace of the change is too slow.

At least it's working on me on that.

So I will stop and go to action items.

First I'm sorry I apologize superintendent.

A brief brain break.

I found my quote for my student.

This is the next Noah Purcell.

This is from an opinion writing class at Madison.

Dear Dr. Nyland when you imagine a lunchtime in middle school or elementary school you probably imagine having milk.

Most kids in that line just want lunch and a few if any in the cafeteria want the milk provided.

Is this what you want?

For the white milk to waste away in lunchrooms and have wasted the money on milk?

Having children not receive milk's nutritional benefits?

Serving chocolate milk will change this.

goes on with three citations.

Chocolate milk should be available in cafeterias because more kids will get milk's health benefits, cafeteria sales will increase and kids may be more agreeable.

So go far.

Director Harris.

Action items number one amending policy number 6 0 2 2 referred at the audit and finance committee on April 18 for consideration.

Do I have a motion?

Pinkham Yes I move the school board amend policy number 6 0 2 2 economic stabilization account as attached to the board action report.

Harris second the motion.

Would you be so kind as to school us up on this please?

So assistant superintendent for business and finance.

Sorry I wasn't prepared to go over it again.

So this policy is coming before you to make changes to how the economic stabilization account could be used.

This policy is necessary to align with the budget decisions that the board had reached consensus on in November.

Harris questions comments concerns from my fellow directors.

Roll call please.

Director Blanford aye Director Geary aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Harris aye this motion has passed unanimously.

Number two.

of two action items tonight.

Purchase of student and staff computers for new BEX IV schools and BTA III projects opening summer 2017. This came to Ops 4. Before I'm sorry please second the motion.

I will make the motion first here.

I move that the school board authorize the superintendent to execute purchase orders through bid number 06691 with Thornburg for a total not to exceed $1.6 million plus Washington state sales tax over fiscal years 2016-2017 in the form of the draft purchase orders attached to the board action report with any minor additions, deletions and modifications deemed necessary by the superintendent and take any necessary actions to implement the purchase orders.

I second the motion.

This item was heard by the ops committee on April 20 and moved forward for approval.

Would you like to give us a thumbnail of this please sir?

Sure.

John Kroll chief information officer.

I'm bringing this forward for the purchase of computers for teachers and students for the schools that are opening in fall 2017. I'd like to bring to your attention an addendum since it was introduced.

I had associate superintendent Michael Tully reach out to his staff because the computers for the students and the teachers are actually a teaching and learning purchase.

We included a letter from two of our principals at the schools and we also included the survey which was some of our engagement on what the schools wanted.

So the board action report between introduction and action by the addition of this addendum.

This addendum of course as was just mentioned is a letter from the EGLE staff and Meany design teams and basically they are indicating that the flexibility provided by having laptop computers it will definitely increase the opportunities to expand learning outside the classroom and increased student collaboration efforts.

That's the focus of that.

There was also a survey that was conducted of the acting principals for the schools opening and they are all in support of laptop computers.

questions concerns comments Director Patu.

So are these laptops for all the new schools for all the teachers and then also computers for the kids?

Yes it's going to be a cart with 16 computers for each classroom with laptops for the students and the teachers are actually going to have desktops.

So is this happening with all the other schools?

Our other schools?

Do they all have laptops also for the teachers and for the kids?

Or is this just for the new schools?

This is just for the new schools.

This purchase is just for the new schools.

So why is that?

Why do we only have it for new schools and not for all the rest of the other schools?

This is a question that actually was addressed to me by many teachers in the various schools.

Why don't we have laptops?

Tacoma school district has laptops for every teacher.

And I think that that's something that we need to look at.

Yes we don't have any money but it's something we need to look at because we are outdated in terms of technology.

Thanks for bringing that up.

We are working on an RFP to bring laptops to all the teachers districtwide.

That's why we are doing that separately.

I anticipate that coming to the board hopefully in June.

So that will be laptops for all teachers, all members of SEA so that would include counselors etc.

Thank you.

Blanford.

Is my understanding correct that because this is BEX and BTA funding that it would just be directed at the schools that are opening in 2017?

This particular purchase and the timing of it is that's why it's for the schools.

We have a separate item as I mentioned for the teachers and we actually have BTA for money for more technology for all schools.

We are going to be doing a getting the board up to speed with a.

Work session?

Board work session thank you.

We are going to do a board work session coming up that will be focused on student devices and how the technology is in support of teaching and learning so the board will sit down with associate superintendent Tully, chief of instruction curriculum and instruction Kyle Kinoshita and myself perhaps some others to go over how it'll be the instruction that will drive the technology or the curriculum will drive, if there's digital curriculum, it'll come approved from the Curriculum Instruction Department.

It won't be the Department of Technology deciding what's needed in the classrooms.

I will finish my comment by just remarking on the fact that the attachments that are provided here actually do a really good job of helping us to understand how curriculum works in service or how technology works in service of the curriculum and not the other way around.

I look forward to the work session where we will have a chance to go deeper into that subject and get a more clear understanding of kind of the philosophy around technology and how it dovetails or works really closely with curriculum and instruction to improve outcomes for our students.

So I appreciate that.

and I hope that in the future when it makes sense to include statements from our educators about how this will benefit them that's really useful information for us particularly as we are struggling with budget challenges and trying to figure out how to prioritize and allocate resources to increase instruction in this time of need.

So thank you for that.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Other comments questions or concerns.

My turn then.

I'd like to channel Director Burke who is not here tonight and I feel very much again like we're putting The cart before the horse because of time.

We heard this exact same conversation a year ago when we opened up the last schools.

And the concern we're going to get to the point of where we define a technology educational policy.

How do we choose this?

I appreciate very much that everyone's plates are very full but this is a rich and deep and lengthy conversation.

Now, am I going to tell the new schools no you can't have computers?

No I'm not going to do that.

But this is the second time in two years where I've made votes in order not to stop new schools opening with righteous equipment.

Where we have not done the hard work of figuring out where the overlays are.

And there are very cynical folks out there that would suggest that if we just give all the kids computers and then we don't need that many teachers and I couldn't disagree more vehemently.

I also think that we don't buy things off the shelf because it's quote technology if it has some of the issues in it that we address in our curriculum.

system to look at things like racial bias.

To look at whether or not that's the best program out there.

You know we've got 10 sets of middle school math books upstairs.

But our technology is not being vetted the same way and it's every bit curriculum.

So.

I really hope we are not going to have the same conversation next year.

We got to put it on our plate and we got to raise it to the top.

And as you know Mr. Krull we have been very very candid with you about your predecessor and his desire for a one-to-one program.

But that's not policymaking.

That's not okay.

We don't want to make policy because of deadlines and budgets.

Thank you.

Call please.

Director Geary aye Director Patu aye Director Pinkham aye Director Blanford aye Director Harris aye.

This motion has passed unanimously.

Thank you.

We are now to introduction.

One approval of the 2017 2018 school year calendar.

This came out of the executive committee on May 4th for consideration.

Dr. Codd the floor is yours.

Thank you good evening Clover Goddess superintendent of human resources.

So we are here tonight to present to the full board the proposed calendar for the 2017-2018 school year.

The development of this school year calendar is a subject of bargaining with our Seattle education Association partners and others.

Additionally it's important to remember that in the 2015-2018 collective bargaining agreement that we came to an agreement with SEA we specifically added 20 minutes to the school day and that we would have a weekly early release for next school year.

We agreed to negotiate the implementation and the effects of those changes in an interest-based bargaining manner.

Meaning we would work with SCA to determine our common interests and goals for the time and find options and solutions that would best meet the needs of our students and our educators.

We spent a significant portion of the winter and spring doing just that.

The negotiations resulted in the proposed calendar which provides for a 75 minute early release weekly to occur on Wednesdays and an elimination of the five half day early releases that we have previously had in the past.

Several questions have been raised regarding the level of community engagement our process and rationale for the time and day of the week.

I'm hoping to be able to provide some additional context here tonight and then of course we'll be happy to answer any questions once we've done so.

So we began the process thinking about our shared interests for the additional student time as well as the teacher collaboration time.

And the district and the union have a shared interest in finding additional time for teachers to collaborate.

Effective collaboration improves teacher and student performance.

The professional culture of collaboration requires educators to share thoughts, strategies, provide support to each other and explore together.

Collaboration time also allows for staff to plan rigorous and appropriate lessons for students.

We heard from Denny international middle school what an important strategy that was to meeting their school goals.

In addition to the shared interests we also looked at data to inform the options and solutions that we would come up with.

We did survey community educators and family members early in the fall and collected that data asking them their preferred day of the week for an early release, whether or not the teacher collaboration time should occur at the beginning of the day, the end of the day, and should we have, we did also ask them about how we should split up the 20 minutes at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day, split between the two.

We did look at that data along with other multiple data points.

We looked at data on teacher absenteeism throughout the week.

We looked at data on fail to fill rates, which is basically a fancy word for we can't find substitutes to fill the openings on certain days.

And we looked across these data points along with our collective bargaining agreement provisions, other system constraints and made the decision in collaboration with SEA at the table and determined to make the best use of teacher collaboration time Wednesday early release would be the best option for our context in Seattle Public Schools.

So where did the 75 minutes come from?

How did we get there?

We sort of heard about this one hour early release earlier on in the year.

So in addition to these weekly early releases that we had bargained, we had these five half-day early releases still sitting inside our collective bargaining agreement that we have traditionally had and those hours, 10 hours essentially were aimed at teacher professional development, whole school professional development.

The time which is sitting inside the CBA must be negotiated if we are going to make changes to that time.

So the educators in the room both sides of the table felt that the 10 hours of professional development time was essential but that instead of having these additional five half day early releases in addition to the weekly early releases that we would get rid of the five half days and we would take that time and split it apart across the year.

coming up with 15 minutes spread across 36 weeks getting to our professional development time.

Some people have asked so you're adding 20 minutes a day but you're taking away 75 minutes a week kind of what's the point?

Why are you doing that?

Isn't that just five minutes a day?

But when you add that time up throughout the school year we're actually adding a little more than two additional student days of learning time and 35 hours of teacher professional development and collaboration time within the teacher educator workday.

That's significant.

At this time, I'd like to open it up for my SEA partners to say a few words, my teaching and learning colleagues, if they have anything to add, and then we'll have you ask your questions.

Do our best to answer them.

I would like to thank Clover for giving SCA the opportunity to speak to our perspective of the negotiations.

Michael Tmayo I am an elementary educator and vice president of SCA.

So as you are aware SCA and SPS have been engaged in this interest-based bargain over the past six months.

It's truly been a collaborative and interfaith process.

Both sides struggled through the process.

Both sides had challenges.

We problem solved together and celebrated together what we were able to get through.

Throughout the process we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things but in the end both sides did come to an agreement that was ratified by our membership.

But then I think more importantly we came to mutual respect for the process.

I was served on the bargaining team for SE in 2015 sitting across the table from many people in the room here and I can tell you there are many lessons learned and opportunities to take advantage of through this process and so we are looking to further that with the district.

There are two things that we want to specifically address, you know there was an issue that educators and central staff came out on Wednesdays and families who were surveyed came out on Fridays.

One thing that I wanted to address is that educators are the front line communicators with families every single day.

throughout the school year and one could assume that educators advocating for MCAs were advocating purely based on personal interest.

I think that's a misconception.

We speak to families every single day.

We hear their concerns.

Educators are the first people that families go to when they have questions around why are we doing 20 minutes?

Why are we talking about doing an early release?

And so if people are pitting people against each other, I'd just like to say that educators are the ones who listen to families who can't come to school board meetings, who can't come to weekend listening sessions.

And so when educators advocate, we advocate first and foremost for the educational interest of our families and our students.

And so I think that's, I wanted to put that out there for the board to recognize is that it was, Wednesday's wasn't just for teachers, it was, we were advocating for our families and students and for the educational interest.

There's a natural ebb and flow of, if you work every day in a school there's a natural ebb and flow of energy.

Monday through Friday.

It kind of goes like this.

Everybody starts Monday here excited for the school week and then it ramps up.

Wednesday teachers and students are hitting their groove.

You know we're not thinking about the weekend we're thinking about school.

We're in that group as Thursday and Friday you know.

Students get tired.

Educators get tired.

People look forward to the weekends.

True collaboration.

We've been doing this on Wednesdays ever since I've been in the district.

And so for true collaboration to happen for true energy around that collaboration PD to happen Wednesdays is the ideal time for staff to be able to come together and do this critical work.

It's for the benefit of the students, it's for the benefit of educators and so I wanted to put that out there as you know we struggled through it, that's the agreement we came to.

I'll be happy to stay and stick around and answer any questions that you may have but I thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you Michael.

So I guess we'll answer, we'll open it up for questions that you may still have.

Comments, questions, concerns?

Fellow colleagues?

Please Director Blanford.

I'll just say that I appreciate the explanation because in many of our community meetings and in many conversations that we have with constituents, parents and families There is always a wondering and a need for explanation for why professional development keeps kids out of classrooms and you know I know enough about education theory to know that collaboration is critically important for us to improve instruction for all students and particularly to resolve our achievement and opportunity gaps.

So my hope is that We'll figure out a way to as we're announcing this that we'll figure out a way to share our findings and how we got to this point so that people out in the community who are affected by it know the rationale and have a deep understanding of the rationale which will make it easier for them folks to buy in.

Thank you.

Associate Superintendent Tolley did you have something to add sir?

Yeah in response to that, and this is truly a collaboration because as you are indicating there was competing priorities.

There was a desire for increased teacher collaboration, example being what was presented this evening by Denny middle school.

But also understanding that instructional time is critically important as well.

So the work of our partnership with SEA and the district to say okay then we need to increase the amount of instructional time to benefit both goals was a real success story here.

And we need to look at through those lens.

Director Geary.

In terms of communication I think this is also an excellent opportunity to get down to that MTSS elevator speech in terms of this being that data review collaboration and being consistent in our messaging around that.

Because I think I've mentioned in some of the committees that People still are unclear.

And so this is just another opportunity to say we are moving forward with this strategy.

And this is a really critical piece of it to make it work and reinforcing that we're we're working in sync not just sort of scattershot.

Harris anybody else wants to address this.

I'm up.

Dr. Codd thank you for your candor.

Thank you for your willingness to have thoughtful sometimes testy conversations.

It's very much appreciated.

And I think that conflict doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

I think sometimes it brings up different viewpoints and we can do better next time.

would you suggest that the messaging and the community engagement on this was our best job?

Well I don't know if I can speak to that.

What I do know is that we were asked I believe by the board early in the fall to go out and do a survey far and wide to collect and gather data around people's preferences with respect to these issues.

Beyond that I do not know what our community engagement strategy was around this because I'm particularly interested in going to the negotiating table and my focus is on building that relationship with our labor partners and coming to a conclusion around that.

So looks like our chief engagement strategy officer is

here to talk about that.

Campbell Chief engagement officer so I think that so as you know we've been rolling out a new community engagement model and I worked with Michael's team to help to determine the level of that model that we would engage the community in which is level two which is consult.

I think the thing that we could have improved is making the decision-making process clear for families.

So if the calendar and the 20 minutes and early release are all part of the negotiated conversation we needed to make that clear clearer and the communication to our families that they were sharing their preference but that we had to weigh that preference against multiple data points.

So that's an area that I think we can improve in the future.

And perhaps we could add into that the role that our labor partners play in this.

and why they have a voice.

Again the why.

And I just I'm saddened by the lack of trust that some people feel for us.

And we've made some real progress.

I don't want to backslide on that.

The other is.

How many of our surrounding school districts have Wednesday early releases?

And did those districts survive that transition?

Whether it was not pleasant the transition?

Come on up.

Michael can answer something.

So currently Lake Washington, Bellevue and North Shore school districts have Wednesday early releases.

The combined total of their student populations is about 68,000 so Seattle's roughly 55,000 students wouldn't be alone in having Wednesday early releases.

Highline does have a Friday early release, they have about 15,000 students.

Those are the surrounding districts that SEA researched when we were advocating for this with our membership.

Could you share your research with our community engagement team and whoever is going to write the one or two pager for the Friday memo that makes it simple?

And we absolutely will give you credit for it.

Thank you.

All credit to Carrie.

Any other comments concerns.

Director Blanford.

Without opening up a big can of worms I'm just wondering if there are any metrics around who we engaged with in getting feedback about this process meaning out in the community.

Is there anything you can tell us about.

I always go under the assumption that we frequently are talking to the people who have the time and the wherewithal to be engaged with us and I always wonder if those who are affected by the decisions are involved in that process, involved in the process of decision-making or if we are relying on a small segment of our total population to speak for all.

And particularly on an issue like this that has implications for before and after school time, if we've engaged with a broad enough segment of the population to be able to to represent that we've talked to the universe.

So that's a great question.

So 11,000 families responded which is a pretty good percentage for the short time period that we had.

And we also sent it to all of our community-based organizations and I'd have to get you the raw number on that but it was a number of them that responded to and the family and the partner responses were very similar but one thing that I asked for Sherry and Misa to do is disaggregate the data by demographics so we could see if there were differences in the types of responses we were getting and there weren't between subgroups of families and so that's something that we can share in the Friday board memo.

Just for future reference I think it would be really helpful when we are celebrating the fact that we have done community engagement that it just be part of the presentation that we get some sense of how representative the sample is.

Because I hear 11,000 I think that's great.

That's you know that's one-fifth of our families but it would be, we might be, we might not get what we need if that one-fifth were very concentrated by neighborhood, by racial or ethnic group, by income level, by you know so many other measures.

And we have seen in the past where we've done community engagement and then later on we've discovered that there were communities that felt like they didn't have any say in the matter.

And I think as we attenuate and we get stronger in our community engagement that will just become part of the presentation but my hope is to kind of see that and say that's the kind of data that I want to see.

is how representative the group is when we are patting ourselves on the back around our community engagement.

Director Harris Director Geary Director Geary Just a thought that occurred to me around this idea of community engagement is that we have to acknowledge that it's going to be so hard to gather the information that no survey is ever going to be perfect.

Because when you give somebody the choice to say what's best for you they will say what is best for you in a bubble.

And if you say considering that you could maximize you know teacher collaboration time if it is done on X or Y or Z which would be your preference?

How would you weigh that against your own needs?

what you know and so I just think well it's impossible to ever draft the perfect tool.

I just throw that out.

We just need to be mindful of that because there will always be that question that went unasked.

that we then have to explain after the fact.

And so I just acknowledge that that your job is incredibly hard and I appreciate that you do it with a smile Kerry over and over again.

And I think our families appreciate that as well.

So thank you.

I might just add to that not only is that a really good point but how we frame what we are asking, why we are asking is really important.

Dr. Nyland talks to us about that every day.

But I also just want to add what a great success this proposed calendar is for our students and for our educators.

We just found 35 additional hours for our educators not just our teachers but our paraprofessionals, our office professionals to be engaged in professional learning opportunities during their contracted workday, which is really, really important.

And we've added two whole student learning days throughout the year, which we should all be celebrating.

So this is an opportunity for people to not just engage in professional development and but have common planning time, we've got job alike days where if you are an art specialist you can meet with other art specialists etc.

So this was a lot of good work and good thinking and I don't want that to get lost in the things that may not have gone as well.

Director Harris.

I appreciate that very much and I hope you highlight that in your Friday memo.

Thank you.

Number two.

Approval of the city of Seattle project services contract office of the superintendent of public instruction slash United States Department of Agriculture OSPI USDA 2017 summer food services program.

And that went to ops on April 20 for consideration.

Thank you.

Good evening Teresa Fields director for nutrition services.

This is our longstanding contract that we've had with the city of Seattle to provide meals throughout the city along with our separate learning programs.

The contract is for nine weeks starting June 28 through August 25 in the amount of $646,949.

accepting this contract will generate revenue for the district and also provide summer employment opportunities for nutrition services staff.

Harris questions comments concerns.

May I just say from the advantage of the podium on the record congratulations on your promotion.

Thank you.

OK 3 accepting transportation and crossing guard grants from the city of Seattle.

This came before A&F May 11th for approval.

Thank you.

We are introducing this board action report for the school board to consider accepting funds from the city for two transportation related programs.

The first one is the crossing guard program.

For about 40 years and until six years ago the city managed and funded the crossing guard program.

When the city eliminated their program the district continued to believe in its importance and began managing and funding the program.

At this time and due to the $50 million budget deficit the district has asked the city to begin funding this program again while the district continues to manage the program.

The estimated revenue to support this program is about $400,000.

The next program is the two-tier bell time schedule.

After several years of study recommendations from two bell times task force and community engagement last year the school board approved adjusting start times to the times that research shows aligns best to students circadian rhythms also known as their body clocks.

This new schedule promotes an increase in student sleep and our most recent healthy youth survey confirms these results.

While most of our state adolescents were reporting less sleep as compared to 2014, many more of our Seattle school teens indicated that they were getting much more sleep.

That is that they were sleeping more than eight hours a night.

This school year secondary schools began starting school later in the second tier and most elementary schools were moved to the first tier.

But because of funding the district was unable to move the final 12 schools left in the third tier into the earlier tiers.

After much conversations this fall and with the addition of the 20 minutes to the instructional day the board continued to believe that the district should attempt to move all schools into the first two tiers.

Since the state funds transportation on a reimbursement basis and given the budget constraints the school board asked the superintendent to seek one time external funding by May 1 to support this change.

As the superintendent indicated earlier tonight on April 24 Mayor Murray announced that he would recommend to the city council that the city fund the crossing guard program and this one time $2.3 million asked to support the bell times changes.

As with all major decisions the city has its own process for approval.

The City Council is considering the mayor's request with the proposed vote before June 15. In anticipation of this vote and so that we can notify schools and families no later than June 16 we are asking the school board concurrently approve acceptance of these funds if the council approves either or both of these transportation items.

As with most board action reports the board authorizes the superintendent to implement the programs with any minor adjustments that are necessary.

The school board approved this language in January in the transportation standards where it approved both the three tiers and two tiers if we found sufficient funding.

In review of that bar, that January bar it's been determined that we should ensure clarity and adjust the current board action report so I'll be bringing forward a little bit of modifications to ensure that we have clarity there.

This language then would allow the superintendent to respond to community feedback on two tiers which includes the placement of the schools within the two tiers, start times and times that are impacting student schedules due to the addition of the 20 minutes instructional time.

As we consider this feedback we are also going to continue to consider the two recommendations that have been guiding our thinking which are based on professional recommendations for student health and safety.

These are the first recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics and local sleep experts who recommend that adolescents should start school after 830 AM.

And the second recommendation was made by the city's committee called the Seattle school traffic safety committee which recommended that elementary schools begin after 759 AM to maximize safe walking to schools.

Particularly during the shortened days of late fall and winter.

Some of the options that are being considered include starting the first tier at 755 and the second tier at 855 which is a five minute earlier shift from what was approved in January.

Moving those five high schools without sports complexes to a starting time of 845 AM this would include Ballard, Cleveland, Garfield, Roosevelt and West Seattle high schools.

Moving T. Marshall and Adams elementary schools to the second tier and Loyal Heights to the first tier.

Our goal is to respond to our community feedback whenever possible while still meeting the requirements identified by our master use permits, budget constraints and recommendations from professional groups.

We understand that these decisions impact our families lives and schools and we want to mitigate impacts whenever possible.

If external funding is received so that the district can change to two tiers and the board approves receipt of the funding then this will complete the major changes that the school board has requested in relation to bell times.

Thank you very much.

Comments questions concerns.

Director Patu and then Director Blanford.

So if we get the 2.3 million that means that all the schools will be at tier 1 and 2?

Yes we will collapse all the tier 3 schools into either tier 1 or tier 2 so we will be a two tier system.

Okay thank you.

My question has to do with city council.

Has the final vote on this the allocation of funds been scheduled?

Well we're working on that.

They did have an education committee meeting that was scheduled for today and canceled.

So we are working through what's the process that the council is going to be using to move this forward.

And they're very aware that we have a tight deadline.

Absolutely.

Yes.

OK great thanks.

Gary.

I'm looking at the bar and I would just say in terms of the equity analysis it's not clear whether or not we ran this through the equity tool.

And I think that for a while at least until we we know we're doing that consistently I think it's good to be transparent about how this language came about.

And I do this in all the different committee meetings so I would I would appreciate.

We'll provide some updates there.

And then the other piece is clearly around the transportation we are getting a lot of feedback from families about concern over the impact on our athletes.

And I know this is something that we all considered when we made the vote in January so I'm not saying you know that we need to relitigate that decision but it would be helpful when we are presenting on this issue and this is not to you but that we have somebody present I think that would have been an important part of this introductory conversation because as this is being introduced we have a lot of people who are listening to whether or not we have heard and are going And what we are doing to address that and that has pieces of transportation and the availability of fields and whether or not we have any flexibility to adjust that next year as well.

Because I think everyone is concerned that while this may meet some higher academic needs we are certainly creating some academic problems for our athletes.

I don't know if you want to speak to that right now or if we can be sure that when this comes up we have somebody who can provide more details about that.

Well I think we can provide somebody at action but one of the things that we have done is we have talked to all the high school principals we are reading absolutely every email that comes in and part of the reason that we are looking strongly at making the recommendation to move five of our high schools earlier because they don't have sports complex that was just because of this particular feedback.

So yes we are definitely listening to this and we are trying to manage all of these adjustments within all of the constraints that we have.

We've had some high school feedback saying well okay why can't you just move the elementary schools earlier 15-20 minutes earlier and we have to work through the school safety recommendations about how early we can to have our first-tier schools.

So it is a complex problem that we are trying to solve.

We are listening to everybody and we are looking at both the recommendations that the community is making to see if they are viable and feasible and can we do them but we are listening to that feedback.

Director Harris.

Other comments questions concerns?

Director Pinkham.

So how does this impact other funding that we're getting from the city of Seattle as far as Metro bus passes?

And I'm just curious why this went through audit and finance versus operations?

It seems like this is more also an operations kind of issue.

So the reason it went through audit and finance was because that meeting happened before this meeting.

So we will be able to talk about it at operations but it was simply a timing issue and because we are just receiving funds from the city that was we decided that that would be an appropriate place to move it forward to this board.

As far as Metro cards and Orca cards it really is unrelated to that.

It has no impact on any of the prop one funding or any of the Metro cards that we are using.

Please go ahead.

Director Blanford.

I was given the fact that there is a lot of concern out in the community as well as school board director concern and I would suggest to my colleagues that are particularly on the executive committee that this not be an item that ends up on the consent agenda.

It seems to me to be one that requires quite a bit more conversation before we take it to a vote.

So that would be my request.

I could not agree with you more, sir.

I have some- Thank you.

I have some concerns that I wanted to have vetted out in the future for action.

Don't need to do it now but we need to address them.

We heard in one work session or committee that the guarantee of school bus funding by the state retroactively is no longer a guarantee that some of the rules have changed.

That needs to be vetted and discussed.

Second we had a rich conversation I thought that A&F and audit and finance about how with the two tiers We may not have as many students leaving school as early to get to their games and that we could also reduce our reliance on private bus systems to get our athletes across town.

If you could address those two I think that would be very very helpful.

And again as you stated appropriately the concern on this is high.

And the devil's in the details.

Could you also address the fact that this went before the levy committee and of those attending the committee the majority was to deny this use of funds.

So and what what the next steps are.

Yeah.

uh...

so this was uh...

discussed at the levy oversight committee uh...

there were seven members who were there who were voting on this uh...

at a vote of four to three uh...

they uh...

decided to uh...

recommend to the city that uh...

the city finds some funding for two tiers but that they don't use levy funds uh...

they wanted to keep the levy funds focused on eliminating the opportunity gap and They thought that other departments such as transportation also had underspend and that they should be looking at those funding sources to fund this.

Director Harris I look forward to hearing the feedback.

Excuse me Director Blanford please.

Director Blanford Was there testimony regarding the legality of using families and ed levy funds?

Was that the crux of the issue?

I think that there were some people who were questioning the legality.

There were people from the city that were saying, yes, it was legal and we could do it and there was a way to do it legally.

So there was a lack of clarity as to whether or not it's legal.

My understanding is that the legal staff of the city had reviewed and said it was appropriate to draw funds from the families and ed levy.

But there are members of that committee who in spite of the fact that they received that legal advice didn't believe it was an appropriate use of families and ed levy dollars.

Is that correct?

I think that's a good description of what happened there.

Thank you.

Superintendent Nyland your comments concerns and questions.

City staff recommended a change to the ordinance I believe that would have permitted it.

Somewhere kind of in the middle.

Yes the city thought there was a way to get to legal but didn't think that it was quite legal the way that the current ordinance was written.

So would it have had to with the ordinance have had to be changed?

And that's what the city council would have to vote on.

Would vote on to make the change which would then allow the funds to flow.

Got it.

Perfect.

Thank you for that clarification.

Any other comments concerns questions.

Director Pinkham.

I guess I have a slight concern that maybe when this sounds like it went to audit and finance because they met before our meeting here.

Did our audit and finance people feel like they were informed enough to make a recommendation whereas maybe the operations committee is more familiar with this kind of process.

So it just seems kind of weird that we would do that when we have another team that's a little bit more in tune with what this is asking.

So is that a common practice that will do again that maybe a C&I issue will go to the operations because operations is meeting.

Seems like there should be some other venue to vet that so it gets on the agenda for a regular board meeting.

So it's not unusual practice as far as what I have seen to go to another committee as long as it's aligned to the work that they're doing.

And certainly Director Harris can speak to the feelings of the committee whether they had enough information to make a recommendation.

that does not preclude it coming to operations committee this week we can adjust so that we can have a conversation and make a recommendation out of operations committee also.

Director Blanford your comments please.

So as you well know I chair the operations committee and serve on the audit and finance committee.

And when I first saw this I thought oh that's kind of interesting but ultimately it has to do with the acceptance of funds from the city and so I thought it was appropriate to have it routed through the audit and finance committee and feel reasonably comfortable I have my concerns about the legality or illegality of having funds come from the families in Ed Levy but I wasn't terribly bothered by the fact that it went to audit and finance.

I think if there needs to be another set of eyes looking at it in the operations committee we have a pretty full agenda tomorrow.

But if it needs to come there as well then I think it would be appropriate.

Before that I just wanted to just put that out there just some little concerns I was thinking about.

Appreciate it.

Harris Thank you very much.

Number five resolution 2016 17-23 excuse me.

Summer learning excuse me.

Number four city of Seattle families and ed levy funding for Seattle public schools for summer learning 2017 and 2017-18 school year.

This came before the audit and finance committee May 11 for consideration.

Thank you Mr. Stone.

Good evening I'm Michael Stone director of grants and fiscal compliance.

bringing to you tonight $16.9 million from the city of Seattle families and education levy for their annual funding.

As you know this was passed in 2011 by the voters of Seattle.

The city of Seattle Department of Education early learning conducted a thorough RFI to allocate these dollars out to buildings.

This year we added two more elementary schools for 17-18 I should say and they actually put additional funding out for one high school.

That will be awarded to Cleveland high school.

So that is in addition to the funding they had.

That brings us up to having 43 schools, 21 elementary schools, 17 middle schools and five high schools that receive the funding plus our family support worker program and health education or health clinics at, let me jump to that page, at our nine comprehensive high schools, middle schools and elementary schools.

Director Harris questions comments and concerns from my colleagues?

Thank you sir.

Now we are on number five.

Resolution 2016 17 dash 23 allowing usage of a portion of the economic stabilization account which went through Audit and Finance May 11th for approval.

Thank you Assistant Superintendent Berge.

JoLynn Berge assistant superintendent for business and finance.

So this board action report is necessary to allow the usage of $11.5 million of the economic stabilization account to balance the 17-18 budget.

Directors were made aware of the recommendation and reached consensus to use this account to help balance the budget as part of the November 22, 2016 budget work session.

This follows the action item you have approved tonight regarding the change to the board policy on allowable uses of this account.

It was necessary to first approve the policy change and then bring this item forward.

Attached to the bar is the resolution required to approve this action.

Also attached is a repayment plan for restoring the $11.5 million starting with school year 18-19.

and attached is the earlier approved board policy 6022 economic stabilization account.

The repayment plan maps out a minimum annual repayment amount.

This plan would be reviewed and updated annually as now required by this new board policy.

Currently the plan is to repay the economic stabilization account beginning in school year 2018-19 with payments of $2.3 million per year for five years.

That concludes my remarks.

Colleagues have questions concerns or comments?

My comment is I was beyond shocked that we didn't have a repayment plan on the earlier resolution.

So to me this is very much progress.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Number six approval of the annual head start grant.

This came before Audit and Finance May 11 for approval.

Gene Guzzi program manager Head Start.

Good evening.

This is the annual Head Start the annual application for the Head Start grant that comes before the board each year and this year we are looking to access funds from the administration for children and families of a little over 4.5 million to serve 360 children and families in nine of our elementary schools throughout the district next year.

The this application was developed in partnership with the Head Start policy council and was approved by the policy council last week and then as noted we presented at the audit and finance committee as well.

Harris Do my colleagues have questions comments or concerns?

Thank you very much.

You can go home.

Number seven approval of the 2017 18 student rights and responsibilities.

This came before C&I May 8.

Thank you.

Good evening Erin Romanek program manager discipline.

I am proud to stand here in front of you tonight to present the draft of the 2017-18 student rights and responsibilities document.

First I want to acknowledge the school leaders who met monthly to provide input to the revisions you have in front of you.

Without their dedication and support I have no doubt the revisions would not have been as thoughtful as they are today.

Katie May and Sabrina Kovacs-Storley from Thurgood Marshall Elementary.

Lori Kazanjian and Dr. Chris Thomas from Martin Luther King Jr.

Elementary.

Monique Manuel from Van Asselt Elementary.

Lisa Clayton, Pathfinder K8.

Nikisha Holmes, Lowell Elementary.

Drew O'Connell, Annie Patu and Jeff Lamb from Franklin High School.

Andrew Mon from Old Van Asselt.

Anita Roberson, Madison Middle School.

Garth Reeves, West Seattle High School.

And Elena Sanchez from Maple Elementary School.

In addition we engaged internal stakeholders within our school district, special education, our legal department, office of student civil rights, safety and security, behavioral health, health education, prevention and intervention, social-emotional learning.

In addition to PASS we were able to present these documents to all of our assistant principals at a leadership learning day as well as at the AP LLD day a month ago.

And in addition we also after recommendation from the policy committee last week.

sent the documents to the directors and I had a meeting today with one of the directors for feedback as well.

In addition we partnered with the SEA partnership committee and presented documents to them last week and also worked with staff at Lowell elementary, Thurgood Marshall elementary and Madison middle school.

We also engaged students at Lowell elementary, Thurgood Marshall elementary and Hamilton middle school.

And we also had external stakeholders from team child, the Washington state governor's office of education ombuds, the city of Seattle's race and social justice community roundtable committee on racial disproportionality and discipline, the Seattle alliance for black school educators, my brother's keeper a White House initiative event in January, and the Iraq equity and race advisory committee to the superintendent.

What you have in front of you there is an overview of changes.

We actually made 854 revisions to the documents you have in front of you.

We had cut pages from 54 pages down to 39 pages as a recommendation out of last year as well.

We changed some titles within the table of contents revised to reflect the revised content.

In addition we added some commitments from Seattle Public Schools that we heard from all of our engagement that we did regarding discipline situations are complex with underlying factors that we need to take into consideration.

We need to also be committed to looking at mitigating and aggravating factors when determining the use of exclusionary practices.

Also wanting to understand the impact that we actually do have on students when we do use exclusionary practices.

And also that disciplinary responses should be least disruptive to the student and school relationship.

In addition we simplified the definitions again recommendation that came from last year and we removed a lot of the labeling and coding just to make it a strict alphabetized list of student behaviors as well.

We simplified some definitions and we revised and mirrored some appeal language as well to make it more easily readable for community and parents as well.

I also do want to respond to some of the directors comments from last week when we met at the policy committee.

So Director Geary we did add in the table of contents there was a question about the student behavior and so we added a piece to tie in formally student code of conduct so there wasn't confusion as we are transitioning to kind of using different language.

In addition the definition we had called out positive behavior interventions and supports and what we did is we really highlighted the definition and put in parens the PBIS understanding that the common expectations language in the interactions we have with families is really what it is.

Recognizing that that is also PBIS but we led with the definition first.

In addition we also added under the commitments holding all students to high expectations and providing quality and effective instruction as well.

I also wanted to comment, Director Harris had brought up the question about we have some legal RCW language regarding the teacher's ability to remove students from class.

And we do recognize that that is what the law states and what teachers are able to do.

However, we recognize that we need to help build that skill set and confidence in teachers to be able to use classroom responses and school-based responses to help shape behavior.

And we are doing that in ways that are more preventative and proactive to hopefully minimize the use of those removals if they need to.

And we offer that through professional development, through consultations and also on-site visits with our schools as well.

And lastly I did want to share, I wanted to leave before we make some comments.

I have some statements due to the late nature on the agenda item tonight.

school leaders were not able to be here but I had a couple of them send me some summaries and I just wanted to read those to you because they capture it much better than I ever could.

So from Dr. Chris Thomas and Lori Kazanjian at Martin Luther King Elementary.

They state the alternatives to suspension work group led by Aaron Romanek has allowed us to respond effectively to student behaviors that disrupt the learning environment.

Aaron has supplemented monthly meetings with ongoing support in deepening our understanding and application of SPS discipline matrix.

Given the student behavior is an expression of needs, Kerry Severson who works in behavioral health then augments our discipline response by helping us develop a plan that addresses those unmet needs.

The result has been a significant decrease in loss of instructional time in a school climate that is shifting away from punishment towards appropriate discipline.

From Anita Roberson at Madison Middle School, I'm so happy to be a part of this committee working towards ensuring more equitable discipline processes for our students and families.

I learned a lot from my colleagues and from the experience in general.

We researched other school districts both in Washington and nationally and we attempted to create a process that would allow leaders to apply both mitigating and aggravating factors to all situations to ensure we could both individualize and humanize the process.

We also attempted to streamline and simplify the process for all.

We look forward to your feedback so we can make more improvements.

And the last one I have is from Garth Reeves assistant, actually co-leader, co-principal at West Seattle high school.

I've been proud to be a part of the secondary administrators discipline workgroup and the development of the proposed changes before you tonight.

This is work that I and the team at West Seattle high school take very seriously and is directly connected to addressing the opportunity and achievement gaps that Dr. Nyland has identified as the issue of our time.

These changes before you reflect two very important themes related to our work to close our opportunity gaps.

First, they recognize the need for and the power of subjective and professional site and context based decisions around discipline.

They achieve this by identifying ranges of sanctions and the application of mitigating aggravating circumstance.

One student at a time with a balance of interest between the individual and the community.

Second they address the need to have these decisions be transparent and collaborative with effective students, families and the larger community.

They achieve this in at least two ways.

First through identification and support of alternatives to suspension.

At West Seattle for instance we have piloted a restorative approach to behavior this year and reduced our out of school suspension and our disproportionality index dramatically.

These types of approaches will now be codified and support the district and board direction.

Second, they direct the structures and supports that keep the decision-making process transparent and student focused through mediation, reentry, and behavioral intervention planning and tracking.

This is crucial to making discipline decisions grounded in policy, best practice, and the interests of students and community.

I want to thank Erin Romanek and Pat Sander for convening the team and moving the work forward.

Thank you for your support to these needed and strategically aligned revisions.

questions comments concerns.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

The thoroughness of the outreach and letting us know what that was and the breadth of it.

How our comments and committee were heard and addressed before we asked about them or pointed them out.

And just thank you for all this really good work.

And I'm so happy that you're reporting back to us how it's being received in our schools.

Director Blanford.

I second everything that Director Geary said.

I will also add that as I was listening to you present, I think you very clearly articulated the tension around providing clarity to our educators so that they know what in a particular situation what is the appropriate course of action.

Recognizing the context matters.

and that where consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors is really critical.

The thing that I struggle with and you touched on it a little bit but my understanding of the suspensions and expulsions that a prior board we were working on to try to eliminate was that a lot of those disciplined actions were driven by educators who did not have very good classroom management techniques and you talked a little bit about how do we improve our educators ability to manage classrooms so that it doesn't escalate to a discipline place.

And so I appreciate the recognition of the tension between and what do you put first?

Do you mandate that we no longer have suspensions and expulsions?

and then hope that we can educate our educators to know how to manage classrooms, making the assumption of course, and I should say this up front, most of our educators are very skilled in both how to manage classrooms and how to do instruction.

But for those who aren't, what do you do first?

You put the cart first and say we will have no suspensions of our elementary school students and then we work around professional development to make sure that our educators are skilled in classroom management or do you do the professional development first and change the policy afterwards.

It was something I struggled with as someone who was voting on that resolution.

It sounds like good solid progress has been made so that we have both things.

And that's going to be the critical piece.

When I saw the discipline data that we've seen I was really concerned that we were going to see an explosion in things that are not exclusionary but everything else because that would be the only way to manage unruly students.

And it's been nice to see that that didn't manifest to the degree that many of us expected it to.

And so my hope is that as we continue to refine it sounds like we did quite a few revisions in this document that and particularly as we listen to the feedback that we get from our educators who are on the ground and doing the work that we can produce a document that works to the benefit of every educator as well as all the students that are being served by those educators.

That's a whole lot of words.

I was intending to say it a lot faster than that but thank you.

Director Harris Superintendent Nyland.

Great observation.

I think the board did this work really well when they did the moratorium because along with the moratorium and staff recommendation was support.

So when you take away suspensions what do you replace it with?

So I don't know a lot about what Highline has done but they've been more vocal and more out front on the moratorium part.

I don't know about the support part and they've gotten I think more pushback at least that gets to my level.

And I think that's a real tribute to the work that Aaron and Pat and others have done.

So the board funding provided for some staffing support that becomes available to schools to help them figure out what those alternatives are.

And then Pat has continued to do what we call inquiry work.

It's kind of like okay how are we doing?

So a year plus ago looked at the rights and responsibilities so how could we change the tone and tenor of that to at least move in to have better alignment with our EOG work.

Second and I won't get this quite right but found that some principals hadn't had the opportunity to access that document and become familiar with it and use it so they scheduled regional meetings and provided the opportunity to get the training and said by the way sign here for your copy.

And we are now moving forward with the board's more recent request to say where is, I call it a red yellow green report, where is our report that shows green schools that have achieved the moratorium, where is the yellow list of schools that are making pretty good progress and where is the red list of schools that aren't there yet?

And I think that we have, I think I heard recently, oftentimes called an 80-20 list and it's not quite that dramatic but I think 10 of our elementary schools are responsible for half approximately of our suspensions.

You heard about John Muir as being one of the examples when we reported on March 8 of how then the team comes in and provides the supports with this really the tension that Director Blanford was talking about is kind of like we're here to help you.

And we're not going away until we have helped you.

So it is that balance of trying to keep that tension between yes we will get better and no it's not just punitive and no it's not just PD it's trying to find that right mix that says we can do this we must do this it's the right thing to do for our kids.

And it's hard work.

So Aaron and Pat and David and many others are doing good work in helping us figure out school by school sometimes what we can do as a better alternative.

Thank you.

Last up quick comments.

If you all thought about listing your partners that helped you get here on the back cover or on the front cover to call them out to say thank you.

Because this to me is something that we should be extraordinarily proud of and if we have That good a group that you named off I would like to see that printed up with a big old thank you.

I definitely know some of them were embarrassed that I was going to be calling them out here but I said you don't have a choice because you put the time and effort into the work.

So that's a great idea.

Thank you.

We need to celebrate our successes and our partnerships.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next up number eight.

University of Washington experimental education unit in Perens EEU.

McKayla Clanter.

I'm sorry.

So sorry it's late.

Interagency agreement to provide education services to special education students ages three through six.

This went through C&I on May 8th.

Director Geary for?

Thank you.

The floor is yours.

Now it's my turn.

I just want to note that principal Matsumoto and Dr. Schwartz are here with us this evening.

This has been a very collaborative process with the EEU and we appreciate that collaborative process.

So this is our annual interagency agreement.

It is actually three interagency agreements combined.

One is to serve our kindergarten students at the experimental education unit and the other is our 48 preschool students, half of them who may receive extended day services and then also the very exciting now two years old, a year in, two years planning here around our technical assistance that comes from the EU that is increasing our inclusion strategies in our early elementary.

Right now we have three of those.

Building sites we expect to expand those to three more with the increases to this part of the contract so and comments concerns director Geary

just always want to express my thankfulness that we are still in a partnership with the EEU and that it is a relationship of collaboration and I wanted to thank McKayla Clancy In speaking with Eileen Schwartz she certainly made it clear that the tenor of the relationship is so different and she had nothing but appreciation for the work that you brought to this.

So thank you so much and I look forward to us expanding this and then hopefully taking these techniques and rolling them up through our schools beyond preschool, kindergarten and just changing the face of our public education here in Seattle.

So thank you everyone.

Peters Other questions comments concerns?

Director Patu.

Director Patu I also would like to say thank you for it's been a long time this negotiation and partnership and really it's made quite a difference.

So thank you for all the work that you do.

It's been very exciting this year to watch the response of our educators and I just want to call out Beth Carter who is our early learning supervisor who has been really a part of that change in our practice in collaboration with the EU.

We had 100% attendance from our educators in those trainings.

So that shows you where we are.

Director Pinkham please.

Pinkham Yeah again thank you for what you've done my daughter did go to the EU when she was younger I just brought her home from college for the summer.

Do we know what three to five schools we are looking at?

We had a feeling you would ask us this and we've highlighted because the request from committee were to highlight the criterion and so we've done that in those changes from committee and also how the sites were selected.

We're still in process.

We don't have year-end data.

That will be a collaborative process with the EEU team as well.

We did highlight what our expansion plan is in the bar that was also a request from committee.

This is a train-the-trainer model which has been very successful with the EU previously and so far this year.

So we don't know yet.

We are going to look at our data but the criteria are there in the bar.

Last up what a difference a year makes.

Holy smokes.

This is this is a beautiful thing to see.

No several children there now and you have saved their lives and you've saved the lives of their families.

And thank you for that.

Let's make sure we pay special attention to placement and the criteria for and remember that a year ago we work really hard really collaboratively on placement policy and we still have a hot button issue with respect to placement of our special ed programs and we need to be very cognizant of that.

And hopefully you can work with Gary's team and and work on the community engagement piece so that so that we can continue to celebrate the wins and we can get more and faster.

Thank you very much.

Good night.

Director Harris.

Number nine, you're up.

Contract approval for early support for infants and toddlers birth to three intervention service providers.

This came before audit and finance May 11 for approval.

Last item on the agenda.

So since 2009 districts have been required to participate in our early intervention services for our birth to three students.

Last year we conducted a public RFQ, this is an extension of that RFQ.

These are the providers and EEU happens to be one of them that have responded to that RFQ.

These are extensions and the contract has increased because our students have increased.

significantly.

So especially through Boyer services.

So that's exciting.

That shows the overall increase in our population but also that we're getting to more students for early intervention in our partnership with the birth to three agencies.

Harris.

Comments concerns from my colleagues.

Good night.

This meeting is adjourned at 9 20 p.m.