SPEAKER_08

Good afternoon.

We will be calling the board meeting to order in a moment and SPS TV will begin broadcasting for those joining by phone.

Please remain muted until we reach the testimony portion and your name is called.

All right, this is President Hersey.

I'm now calling the March 1st Rabbit Rabbit 2023 regular board meeting to order at 4.17 p.m.

This meeting is being recorded.

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

Ms. Wilson-Jones, the roll call, please.

SPEAKER_24

Director Harris.

Director Hampson.

Here.

Vice President Rankin.

Here.

Director Song-Moritz.

Here.

Director Sarju.

Present.

Director Rivera-Smith.

Present.

Director Hersey.

That's me.

And Director Hassan.

SPEAKER_00

Present.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you Miss Wilson-Jones.

I will now turn it over to Superintendent Jones for his comments.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you President Hersey and board members.

Good evening.

It's good to see you all again.

I'd like to begin my comments with some updates on our school safety initiative.

I want to thank those of you in the community who have continued to advocate for school safety.

A message went out to the whole district on February 9th regarding our work and the message included a description of our three tiered safety initiative.

We're conducting a safety review of our campuses, we're creating community action teams that include city and community partners, and we're establishing a wellness advisory council comprised of mental health and wellness leaders from our community.

I'm grateful for the work of our partners, our school communities, and we'll continue to provide additional information and updates as this work progresses.

As our safety initiative is an example of how we're living into our guardrails established by our board for our work, I'm excited about the work that's underway to fully implement student outcome focused governance and how we're continuing to align to our systems.

At our next board meeting, March 15th, we'll continue to work on our progress monitoring and look at our progress towards our college and career readiness goal.

I also want to note a couple of events coming up.

There will be a community information session on our budget on March 20th.

More information about the information session as well as the recording of last night's budget work session can be found on our website.

At the board's work session next week, there will also be a recognition of Billy Frank Jr.

Day.

Director Hampson will provide us more information about that and how we're honoring his courageous advocacy and very important legacy.

The month of March is a busy one, and I think we're ready to take it on.

As always, it's a pleasure to work with you together.

And now back to you, President Hersey.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you Superintendent Jones.

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

SPEAKER_00

Good afternoon everyone.

I hope everyone had a great midwinter break.

I'm glad to be back and I hope that break was as refreshing to everyone as it was to me.

I also want to say congrats on concluding the first semester.

It was tough but we made it through.

And for an update on our Instagram me and the student board members have officially made an Instagram and you can follow us at SPS student rep. I'm excited to use this tool to connect with my fellow peers and students within SPS.

And that concludes my student comments.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you so much, Director Hassan.

We have now come to the board comments section of the agenda.

This week, board directors received an updated student outcomes focused governance implementation timeline.

Our ad hoc governance committee recommended to us that this timeline be regularly updated, and Dr. Jones and I will be updating the timeline regularly in conjunction with our agenda setting meetings.

We look forward to soon incorporating this timeline on our public student outcomes focused governance web page.

On the timeline you will see we continue to move several key bodies of work forward.

Just before this meeting we launched the Ad Hoc Community Engagement Committee which will position us towards authentic and consistent partnership with the SPS community.

At next week's work session we'll receive a training on our policy diet to ensure that better alignment between our policies and our goals and guardrails.

And our upcoming retreat excuse me, and at our upcoming retreat we will continue to work with AJ on establishing board norms and building stronger working relationships with one another and with our student members.

We also have additional lifts ahead of us this spring to confirm our governance structure for the upcoming year.

This work includes formalizing changes to our standing committee structure which we have put on hold for the current year and refining any of the other processes and meeting cadences we've implemented.

We'll now move into our other reports.

Do we have a report from our legislative liaison?

SPEAKER_22

We sure do.

Let's see.

Since our last regular board meeting, it's been a few weeks.

And even though we had break for school last week, legislative session was in its full schedule.

We're about halfway through the session now.

And so what typically happens at this point is that bills that have passed out of the caucus where they originated, either the House or the Senate, pass out and then go over to the other caucus to review, and then eventually a final version is approved by both sides and then sent to the governor for signature.

So some bills, there have been a couple bill cutoffs.

There's a policy cutoff and there's a fiscal cutoff and those just happened last week and the week before.

The bills that we have been watching the most closely to do with funding for special education and for transportation are still I was going to say alive and well.

They're still alive.

There have been some significant changes since some of their policy committee origins.

I shared some about the transportation bill yesterday.

That's still kind of a question mark as to where that's going to end up.

My understanding is that the budgetary outlook or projection for the state comes within the next two weeks.

And then legislators will have a more firm idea on what their total revenue is to put towards different, to budget for all these different bills that they have in front of them.

So that will hopefully yield some good news and hopefully maybe increase that transportation bill funding.

As of right now, it is not going to produce the hoped for revenue for transportation that the bill started with.

In special education that also we had a bill 1436 from the House that would have met all of the recommendations from OSPI, from the state superintendent's office to fully fund special education at Washington State.

It was a very high bar.

It was reduced significantly over even coming out of that policy committee actually and then through fiscal committees in the house.

What it does still have going for it that we like is the eventual removal of the cap And I can't remember if I've talked about it here before or not, but the cap is a lid that our state places on what percentage of a district's population they will provide funding for for students with IEPs.

So every student regardless of what special services they may qualify for and receive.

Every single student has a basic per pupil allocation from the state.

That's how the foundational funding works for school districts from the state.

And then for every student who qualifies for an IEP there is an additional kind of figure of money that's called the multiplier.

And it's a multiplier on top of the basic student allocation.

The cap means that regardless of the number of students who qualify for an IEP, which as a reminder, a student qualifies under a category of disability that's defined by the federal government.

There are 13 categories.

And this is a civil right.

If you qualify, under one of those categories as protection for students and guarantee to a free and appropriate public education under federal IDEA law, Individuals with Disabilities and Education Act.

It is the civil right.

It is the right of that student.

The student is entitled to those services.

Districts are required to provide those services.

In our state, the cap means that if, let's see, right now it's 13.5.

So if a district has more than 13.5% of their students that qualify for an IEP, they do not fund above, they do not add the multiplier for students above the threshold of 13.5.

So the House bill still has in it the eventual removal of the cap, so it would be at 14% next year, then 14.5, then 15, and then in the fourth year, the cap would be gone.

By the way, we're only one of about 15 states that even has a cap.

In the Senate bill, which is looking like the more likely vehicle for the funding for special education, it's Senate Bill 5311, that also faced some changes from where it was when it came out of the policy committee.

Coming out of the policy committee, the first substitute bill would have increased that multiplier over the course of several years to eventually a very substantial increase.

That has changed now to where the increase will be higher.

I know this is a lot of information.

Higher in year one than it had been, but it doesn't subsequently increase as it goes on.

So it will do one increase, and then that increase will be maintained.

So districts will benefit by getting more of that increase in the first year, which will be next school year, but it doesn't reach the level of the first substitute in the out years.

Something that I talked about with legislators.

I was in Olympia on our behalf and as a WSSDA representative on Sunday and Monday.

Something that helped me think about this and not just being frustrated and disappointed honestly was that we districts really do need that relief and that support to cover this basic education cost.

now, so it's really positive that that first year increase is higher, and it just means that we will have more work ahead of us to continue to push to increase that multiplier.

And something that one senator said to me was that even in the first substitute, that fourth year really was somewhat imaginary because the bill can change you know in the next biennium.

So I'm I'm trying not to think of it as a loss.

Thinking of this as a really good first step that we definitely appreciate and will benefit our students and we will need to keep.

keep defining what our expenses are, helping legislators understand why this funding is so important, and push for continual increases to the multiplier in the future.

The Senate bill doesn't eliminate the cap but it does raise it to 15 percent.

And that's better than what we have now which is 13.5.

But as districts are seeing enrollment decline across the boards across the state.

The percentage of students who receive special education services is actually increasing as the general population general education population reduces.

And so that multiplier is actually going to come into play a lot more strongly for districts.

And what I have been.

saying to people is that that cap doesn't keep us from identifying students who have these needs.

They qualify under federal law.

What it does do is prevents districts from accessing from receiving state funding for those students who are identified.

And because it is our moral legal obligation to serve those students districts will find ways to find the funding.

It just is coming from sources other than basic education allocation provided by the state.

So that was a ton of information.

But those are sort of the really critical things that were.

Oh didn't I talk about that.

Oh I talked about transportation.

Well yeah.

Those were our two of our top priorities.

There were also top priorities for WASDA which is the Washington State School Director Association and pretty much every district in Washington that I have talked to is you know our our representative body as a whole through WASDA top priority for transportation and special education and then individual districts also.

That's this is really having a big impact on students and districts all across Washington.

So I will obviously keep.

keep following those things and updating you all.

And I just want to thank the legislators who took the time to meet with me and other members of WASDA.

And I wanted to share with you all that even though it was you know, somewhat to find out on Friday where these things were standing fiscally and then to go down on Monday was a little bit of like a bummer to put it lightly.

But what I did hear from legislators was a lot of really positive comments about our board and about our superintendent and when I go down there on behalf of all of us and when I talk to legislators I try really hard to put to the forefront that we're available as partners in this work and that we want to be We want them to know that we are responsible.

We are accountable.

We're holding the district accountable for student outcomes.

And I think that the positive feedback that I got is sort of a not sort of is a testament to the efforts that we have made to really focus on best practices and governance.

So that was something positive that I wanted to share.

And I just I guess I'll just add also thank you to WEA, SEA, Seattle Council PTSA, Washington State PTSA, parents, community members, everyone who takes the time to go down to Olympia, shares their stories with legislators.

The stories make a really big difference.

There were something like 100 students in Olympia today advocating for gun violence prevention measures and that's just so critical and thank you to everyone who made that possible.

I guess I will add two for District 1. I've had a couple PTAs reach out to me to ask, can you come to a PTA meeting to talk about legislative issues or the budget?

And so I've done that with a couple PTAs in District 1 and have some scheduled.

And anybody out there from D1 who may be listening who is interested in that, please let me know.

Also if any of my colleagues I would be happy to have a broader meeting open to more people with one or more of colleagues up here.

So please let's let's talk about that because I know people just have a lot of there's so much information and so many things to follow.

And yeah so I guess let me know if anyone is interested in that.

I think that's it.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you Director Rankin.

Any additional liaison reports.

Director Samaritz.

SPEAKER_20

Yes I have two liaison reports for the capital projects capital levy oversight committee.

The committee last met on Friday February 10th.

What was interesting about that meeting was that we got a presentation from the consultants around our enrollment projections their 10 year enrollment projections and I did ask for the slides and I did send them to my colleagues.

I hope you take some time to look at them and we should compile a list of questions that we have and reach out to the consultants with those.

The next meeting for the committee will be Friday March 10th at 830 right here in this room.

In terms of the city, the next meeting for the Family Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee is actually tomorrow, Thursday, March 2nd.

It will be held virtually at 4.30 p.m., and if there is an update from that committee, I will share that at our next board meeting, but there's no planned committee action on that agenda, so I'm not expecting a significant update.

And I also like to take just a moment to express my condolences to the wife, daughters, and extended family of Malik Davis, as well to Councilmember Alex Peterson and his team.

Malik was an aide in Councilmember Peterson's office and last week he very tragically passed away.

He was a really beloved public servant.

Very well known for his responsiveness his ability to listen and above all his love for his hometown.

He was a Seattle Public School graduate.

He attended Montlake Elementary School, Meany Middle School and graduated from Garfield High School.

And I just so appreciated the care and attention that he gave to this district that he cared so much about.

And I will just truly miss working with him.

So rest in peace Malik.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you for that director Samaritz.

Finally any additional board engagement for us to discuss tonight or any other liaison reports.

Go ahead director Harris.

SPEAKER_19

I just wanted to announce District 6 community meeting Delridge Public Library.

It's on the bus line number 120 2 to 5 and lasagna.

Please come.

They're rowdy.

They're thoughtful and.

It's an opportunity to hear each other and ask lots of questions.

And if we don't know we'll find out for you.

Thanks.

And hopefully two of my colleagues will join me.

This Saturday.

SPEAKER_08

Right on.

Any other engagement liaison reports that I'm missing.

Director Smith I want to make sure that we see your hand if it's up.

OK.

Okay, before we move on to public testimony, I'm going to hand it over to Director Hampson.

SPEAKER_21

Thank you, President Hersey.

I would like to ask as many of you know we have a practice a practice that we are continuing to improve upon of centering students and bringing student voice front and center.

And I would like to ask if there are Native American Alaska Native Pacific Islander Hawaiian students that are here that are planning to speak and if so I would ask that you come forward at this time.

Yeah.

Thank you for coming up.

And I'm going to give you plenty of time to prep so that you can have your time and your space to speak your words.

Hini kati giwin.

My name is Chandra Hampson.

I'm Ho-Chunk from the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska and Ojibwe from White Earth.

And I wanted to ask you to come up first because I understand what it's like to feel invisible as a native person.

I've spoken to my fellow board members about feeling invisible on this board about feeling invisible as a parent in this district about of three native students and about feeling invisible in the work that we do as boards and in this district as a whole.

And I know our native staff throughout Seattle Public Schools have that same experience and share that with you.

And I want you to feel seen and heard today.

I'm so grateful to you for being here just to.

bring attention to such critical issues.

And I want to give you that space and time separate from our testimony to provide the words that you have to offer.

So I just will ask you at the appropriate time to introduce yourselves and include your tribal or village affiliation.

And but I want to let you know and just to give you some time and space to also hear these things because sometimes when we don't get a chance to speak directly to you the testimony happens and then folks leave.

And I want to make sure that you you students know that if you are interested in providing testimonial regarding the leadership and the legacy of Billy Frank Jr. at our meeting next week when we will be honoring him please let me know and I'll be more than happy to.

That's at 430. March 8th, whether you're here in person or whether you want to do virtually.

I would love to have you provide testimonial if that's something that you're interested in doing.

We will be having staff do remarks about Billy Frank Jr. as well.

I believe it was two years ago that we passed that resolution with thanks to initial leadership from UNEA and the students there.

And I also understand there's interest in working on a proclamation related to murdering and missing indigenous women and people which is fantastic.

I invite you to join me at 430 on March 29th and we will make sure that you don't have to remember this we'll get you this information separately to collaborate on moving said proclamation forward in collaboration with other student groups other native student groups and some of the work that native ed staff is doing.

There's also some really important work happening around sexual harassment and assault that's very deeply connected to this and it's been almost impossible to get native student and native adult representation on either the task force or on the well either adult or student representation from families or community members on that task force.

And so I'm really interested in highlighting your advocacy tonight and just want to note that you have so many great organizations and people behind you from UNEA to United Indians of All Tribes to Mother Nation, Na'ai Lahi Fund, Native Action Network, so many hardworking people including your staff here at SPS who always come with the best intentions to try to hold up the world for you so that you don't have some of the same negative experiences that your ancestors have.

And we don't always agree on how to do that work.

I don't always agree with how our SPS staff does their work but we work very hard to come together and try to do better every time.

And it's imperative that you continue to share with us the ways in which we fail.

to serve you and fail to make you feel seen and heard in your classrooms and in your buildings and know that we are all striving and obligated to collaborate and work together to make sure that it's not just our own people and our own families and our own children telling these stories but everybody knows these stories that everybody here on the dais is as informed as you are about why it's so important to bring attention to murdered missing indigenous women and people among many other issues that we have to address and to make sure the real and true history of this United States that includes us as Native people as told.

So with that, I'm going to ask you to each go ahead and introduce yourselves and have the time to give your statements.

SPEAKER_28

We can do that.

Or if you want us to all come up with you right now.

But, you know, it's kind of out of our plan.

SPEAKER_33

Ang ang, a song, Giselle Jenkins, a cook.

Hello, my name is Giselle Jenkins.

I am a Nunuk from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and I come from the Chubutnoi family.

My ancestors, my lineage extends from Angelina Miller, Rosie Ludvig, and Irene Chubutnoi.

I'm here today with UNEA and the youth of UNEA and I am happy to be here and I thank you.

SPEAKER_31

Hello I'm Elijah.

I'm young and I.

I go to Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and I'm in sixth grade.

SPEAKER_35

Hello, I'm Isabella Hawkinson.

I'm also an intern here at UNEA.

I go to Roosevelt and Koreana.

SPEAKER_43

I am Landon Brewer and I am a confederated Salish and Kootenai or excuse me I'm a student at Nathan Hale High School and I am from the confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes as well as Shawnee, Chippewa, Spokane and Colville.

SPEAKER_14

Oki Sanatapi and Sokoya Sakaya Savannah.

Hello I'm Savannah Briggs VL.

I am from the Blackfeet tribe and I go to Ballard High School.

SPEAKER_40

Hi my name is Landon.

I am an enrolled member of the Siligwamish tribe.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_21

Pinagigi that's thank you in my language.

I don't know.

LaChute seed.

Unfortunately someday folks like myself and everybody here might have the opportunity to learn it in school.

One of the many here in Seattle Pueblo schools as among along with many of your languages.

That's something that our native ed staff work very hard on.

I wanted to make sure that and yet we still have progress to go there.

I did neglect to mention that on April 5th At 245, there is actually a training on the history of murdered and missing indigenous people's movement.

So for folks that are interested in that and want to share that, again, I gave you a whole bunch of information, and so it's my job to make sure that You get that sent to you.

If for some reason you don't you're not on the testimony list you can give your name over here and they'll make sure that I get your information and we'll get that information to you if you want to come back and work some more on the things that you've you've come to speak to us today.

So Pįnagigi again I look forward to hearing as I know my fellow board directors and the superintendent do from you about what you've brought to us today.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you very much.

We have now reached the public testimony portion of the agenda.

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

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

I will summarize some important parts of the procedure.

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

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

Speakers from the list may cede their time to another person when the list of speakers' name is called.

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

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

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

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

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

As Board President, I have the right and will interrupt any speaker who fails to observe the standard of civility required by Board Procedure 1430BP.

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

Ms. Koo will read off the testimony speakers.

SPEAKER_36

Thank you President Hersey.

A logistical note.

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

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

Each speaker will have a two minute speaking time.

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

The first speaker on the list is our West Seattle high school student speaker Lily Sabine Ingram.

Lily if you're on the line please press star 6 to unmute.

Moving on to next on the list.

We have Teresa Castro.

SPEAKER_39

Hold the signs up.

SPEAKER_16

You're not drumming or singing.

Thank you.

Hold the posters up.

Drummers.

SPEAKER_17

I want to give a little bit of introduction.

We're going to sing the song of missing murdered indigenous women and people.

This song hails from our First Nations grandmothers.

This song was given to the people to honor women.

and honor our people and to remember those that are still missing and those that were murdered.

So this is the Women's Warrior Song, the Women's Honor Song.

We'd like to ask everybody to rise because this is an honor song.

Everybody, please rise, please.

This is an honor song.

And in our way, in our culture, everybody rises.

SPEAKER_99

Thank you.

SPEAKER_37

You all may sit.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_36

Would Teresa Castro like to, does she have any additional comments to make?

Okay thank you.

The next speaker on the list is Chris Jackins.

SPEAKER_12

My name is Chris Jackins box 8 4 0 6 3 Seattle 9 8 1 2 4. Really glad to have this company here today.

Thank you all.

On the personnel report under separations the report lists Rob Gannon deputy superintendent.

I wish to thank Mr. Gannon for his service to the district.

On the grant to the Office of African-American Achievement from the Alliance for Education.

Five points.

Number one district data recently indicated that current district plans to improve academic results were not on track to meet district goals.

But the superintendent and board agreed that they would not change district plans.

Number two the report for 2021 2022 lists the status of four of the five requests as being quote in prep unquote including a year end summary.

It would be poor oversight for both the board and the private alliance to approve further funding without the summary for the previous year.

Number three the grant involves quarterly check ins with these private funders.

Number four taking private money is not a new initiative for the district.

The Alliance for Education previously pushed to close schools which harmed education and which included schools like the African-American Academy and Indian Heritage High School.

Number five, the district should not be taking the alliance's money and should not be consulting with them.

Please vote no.

On proposed construction projects at Alki, Montlake and John Rogers elementary schools.

Each project is too big for its site, loss of playground space, loss of trees, building height that is over city zoning code.

Distracting electronic changing image signs and zero parking.

Not even for ADA.

Please change these plans.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Isabella Hawkinson.

SPEAKER_29

You guys come all the way forward all the way forward

SPEAKER_35

I'm Isabella Hawkinson, Old Harbor Tribe in Alaska and I'm attending Roosevelt High School.

I want to first thank the Seattle Public School Board for allowing me time to speak.

I'd like to use this time to talk about the history of MMIP, which is Missing and Murdered Indigenous People's Day, which is May 5th.

This day was a response to the murder of Hannah Harris in 2013. that happened on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, many more abductions and killing of Native people happened across the United States.

Harris was born on May 5th, which is why this day was chosen.

More attention has been brought to the day and people have made actions on May 5th to honor MMI people and their families at the local, regional, and national level.

The awareness of this day continues to grow across the U.S. and internationally to this day.

MMIP includes girls, men, women, boys, and two-spirit people who all face high rates of violence because of their heritage.

In order to honor and remember all these indigenous people who have suffered, we wear red clothing because of the red hand over the mouth movement that stands for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard.

Our voices are silenced by the media and law enforcement in this crisis, so it is a small yet powerful way of standing up.

I ask the school board to acknowledge this history and take further action to educate above wearing red on the day of May 5th as MMIP Awareness Day.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Mike Zaskowski.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_36

Yes, we can hear you, Mike.

SPEAKER_12

I cede my time to Roxanne White.

SPEAKER_17

I didn't know you guys started at the time I was told you would start it when I started speaking.

Sorry.

My name is Roxanne White.

My Indian name.

I am Nez Perce, Nuxat, Grovant, and Yakama.

And I presently reside here on the Coast Salish territories of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Tulalip people.

who I honor and raise my hands and acknowledge that I am a guest on their territory.

I am a family member of missing and murdered indigenous women and people.

To my right is my cousin, Rosinda Strong, and to my left is my niece down here.

Eviana Lakota-Cortez.

Eviana was murdered in Berrien by a drive-by shooting, her and another 13-year-old girl in 2018. My cousin, Rosinda, went missing October 18th of 2018. October 2nd of 2018 as well and was found 275 days later in a freezer abandoned.

I also am the founder and executive director of missing murder indigenous women people and families and it's been my honor and privilege to work alongside SPS indigenous students and youth and with UNEA.

You know I just want to touch really quickly on the historical and intergenerational trauma of boarding schools, trafficking, mascots and the sexualization of indigenous people, women and girls.

I want to acknowledge that this is part of this crisis and in systemic ways that our youth stepping up for this moment right now.

OK, is part of why we are here today.

I want to also acknowledge that currently in Washington state, as of this year, we had 393 missing indigenous people just since this year.

This month alone, we had 138 missing, which is a 3% increase from last month.

A total of 22 missing Native Americans, five were adults, two were males.

and three were women.

17 out of those 22 were youth, five male youth and 12 female youth were located and five male youth were located, leaving 75 missing adults and 63 missing youth just for this month alone.

and 40 missing men.

I want to acknowledge that what we're doing here today is going to set the precedence and the security and the visibility of our youth moving forward in the Seattle Public Schools for the justice and for the safety of our youth.

I'm really proud of these youth.

I'm really honored to be a part of this and I want to thank you all for hearing us and for allowing me to have these few words here.

Qeˀciyéẁyéẁ.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Sarah Sense Wilson.

SPEAKER_29

Good evening school board members and Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones.

My name is Sarah Sense Wilson.

I'm Ogallala Lakota.

I'm a grandmother of a 4 year old that will be entering kindergarten in Seattle Public Schools come this fall.

I'm co-founder of UNEA and also elected chair.

UNEA is a grassroots volunteer based student centered native led organization grounded in cultural values and best practices supporting native student success.

UNEA is the largest and longest running Seattle CBO nonprofit promoting Indian education through advocacy academic courses tutoring mentorship leadership training workforce internship opportunities and cultural enrichment programming.

UNEA launched Clear Sky Academy in partnership with Yellowwood Academy in 2020. We are now in our third year of providing high school credit courses for indigenous students.

To date 100 percent of our students have earned credit for these classes and that is matching our Clear Sky track record of successfully earning high school diplomas.

Students earning those diplomas.

Our Clear Sky Academy and interns are achieving high honors accolades leadership positions and most notable contributing members of our society.

We recommend Seattle Public School Remove barriers currently in place that are obstructing students access to these academic options.

We recommend Seattle Public Schools have bi-yearly reports on Indian education in open public meetings.

At one time they did this and it was very helpful for transparency and accountability.

We recommend that the school district update the Huchoosedah website so that we have access to the latest that's happening with Title 6 the meetings the minutes the activities.

Please restore the data dashboard renew Seattle Public School resolution to dedicate March 9th Martin Luther King Day.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

Wow.

That's on my mind civil you know civic service.

So renew Seattle Public School resolution to dedicate March 9th as Billy Frank Junior Day.

Yes.

Another civic rights hero.

Yes.

Commit to decolonizing your approach to working with community and healing trauma inflicted by past and current Seattle Public School leadership.

And definitely support these students and community and families by adopting the Missing Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Day proclamation.

Thank you so kindly.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Lynelle Jenkins.

SPEAKER_30

Hello.

My name is Lynell Jenkins.

I'm Anunnak Aleut Alaska Native.

I have two children in Seattle Public Schools and I'm a board member and treasurer at Urban Native Education Alliance UNEA.

And my daughter is a senior at Ingram High School and is currently an intern at UNEA and a student at Clear Sky Academy.

She has been with UNEA and Clear Sky Academy since 2020 and has excelled in school because of it.

She's an honor roll student and is waiting to hear back from colleges.

She'll be the first generation college student in our family and she would not be where she's at today if it wasn't for her involvement with UNEA which has gotten her connected to her culture traditions and community which has been an important pillar for her as her culture has been lost growing up in our urban community.

As a student-led program with UNEA the students decided to do a Seattle Public School proclamation for murdered missing indigenous people which has been a serious issue here in Washington State of having the most cases compared to any other state.

We wear red to symbolize a call for attention to the invisible missing and murdered indigenous people.

I fully support these students and their proclamation to declare that May 5th be a day for MMIP Awareness Day at Seattle Public Schools.

It will help bring this much needed awareness to our schools on this national and local crisis.

Please consider this proclamation that these students deeply care about and support them.

We would also like you to support the renewal of Billy Frank Jr.

Day on March 9th with the Seattle Public School resolution without having an expiration date.

Billy Frank Jr. was a Nisqually tribal member and a legendary activist for environmental protections and treaty rights.

He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Obama.

A statue of him will be replacing Marcus Whitman at our U.S.

Capitol in D.C.

and the Capitol in Olympia.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Savannah Marie Briggs.

SPEAKER_14

Hello my name is Savannah Briggs VL.

My tribe is Blackfeet and I'm an intern at UNEA and a student at Clear Sky.

SPEAKER_13

I have a proclamation for MMIP awareness day.

A proclamation of Seattle district number one King County Seattle Washington declares May 5th as a missing or murdered indigenous person awareness day the MMIP.

MMIP Awareness Day is an opportunity to rise in awareness to the national and local crisis of the missing or murdered indigenous people.

Whereas on May 2022, Joe Biden proclaimed May 5th as National Missing or Murdered Indigenous Person Awareness Day and a day for action calling for justice.

And whereas, indigenous women, girls, men, boys, and two-spirit people are most likely to be targeted with voracious violent crimes such as trafficking, murdering, homicide, and sexual assault crimes.

And whereas, research indicates one to three women are sexually assaulted or raped in their lifetime, and four in five women are experienced with violence in their lifetime.

And whereas a recent study found that AI and an AN woman are murdered at a rate ten times higher than the national average.

And whereas Seattle has the highest number of the MMIWG cases according to study by Urban Indian Health Institute of 71 cities across the United States.

And whereas MMIP is an acronym inclusive to all indigenous relatives including the LGBTQ plus two spirits.

Recent data reported 393 ingenious people went missing in Washington in 2022. Currently there are 134 actively missing ingenious people, 58 male and 76 female.

Whereas Seattle School Board recognizes Ingenious People Day as the second Monday of October and Seattle Public Schools knowledge the vast impact and internal historical trauma including health and interconditional disparities, homelessness and other social, emotional, political disadvantages experiences by many Indigenous students and whereas Seattle Public Schools is indicated the eliminating racism and proving educational outcomes and providing the safe environment to support every student.

Seattle Public Schools is an educational institution as a moral and ethical responsibility to inform all students and justice issue to promote values of equality, respect and dignity to all.

And therefore Seattle Public Schools declares May 5th as an MMIP awareness day.

MMIP Awareness Day is an opportunity to educate and inform a rise awareness to show unity for justice and call to the MMIP.

Seattle Public Schools will encourage district wide discussions, lessons, presentation in classrooms and in homes throughout not only this day to continue conversations throughout the year.

SPEAKER_17

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker is Benjamin Ryan Iwaki.

SPEAKER_03

Bonjour.

Hello my relatives.

My name is Benjamin Iwaki and I'm a board member of the Urban Native Education Alliance.

I also speak to you as a recent migrant from Minneapolis, Onoga-Hennepin school district number 11 which happens to be one of the most racist school districts within the state of Minnesota.

I stand before you in support of the proclamation to honor and recognize Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day.

Washington State, in many respects, is on the frontier of advocacy for Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons, and awareness is vital to the protection of our people.

You have the ability to raise that awareness with our youth with support of this proclamation.

I cede the remainder of my time to Paula Marroquin.

Miigwetch.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_11

Good afternoon everyone.

My name is Paula Mata Marroquin.

I am also a board member of UNEA and I am here today as a domestic violence survivor as a daughter of political refugees.

And I want to say thank you to the youth here for making this proclamation.

And I hope that Seattle School District honors their request.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Marita McBride-Saskowski.

SPEAKER_34

Hello my name is Marita McBride-Saskowski.

And thank you in advance for allowing me to share my testimony on the importance of Native American education and supporting the MMIP proclamation.

We personally are a blended household of Native youth and my son is an enrolled member with the Stillaguamish tribe in Arlington Washington.

And I just want to share personally a little bit that my son he's a high school student now.

He's really struggled with his education on his education path not knowing if he was going to graduate or not.

He is a neuro divergent learner and experiential learner and he is a native youth.

And just so everyone can have an appreciation on the widespread impact of how community word does travel and make an impact.

I'd like to share how we came about finding Clear Sky Academy and UNEA excuse me.

It was from an educator in the Marysville school district as well as educators from both Bellevue North Shore and Lake Washington school district that had guided us to Clear Sky Academy and they shared with me about the amazing supportive native youth opportunities that were happening within Clear Sky Academy and UNEA.

We are residents with the Everett school district and we do not have access to native youth organizations such as these that do reside within the boundaries of the Seattle school district.

So we went to check it out in October and I must tell you in that a really short amount of time Clear Sky Academy has impacted my son tremendously and he has grown in his self-esteem and confidence and he's excited to be there and learning and being a part of that community.

So it's really important that we do work together to lift barriers to access Native American education.

Additionally my son is a student and a part of the UNEA Youth Leadership Council and he is learning and developing an understanding around social issues that impact our native community especially MMIWP.

And that is why I'm here today to advocate for the MMIPW a proclamation and that it be humbly requested of you guys to unanimously help support these youth and adopt it from the Seattle School Board.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Giselle Jenkins.

SPEAKER_33

On a song Giselle Jenkins a cook.

Hello again.

My name is Giselle Jenkins.

I am a senior at Ingram High School.

I am the Ingram's Urban Native American and Alaska Native Club president and an intern at UNEA and a Clear Sky Academy student as well as a sexual assault survivor.

MMIWG, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Since the onset of colonization, indigenous women have experienced violence with reckless abandon.

Today, it is a health emergency, an epidemic, and a crisis of over 500 years.

The root causes of this injustice include colonization, historical trauma, racism, and sexual objectification of indigenous women and girls.

Our systems have failed our lives of our indigenous sisters while benefiting men and allowing the violence to continue.

Indigenous women are murdered at a 10 times higher rate than all other ethnicities.

The crisis must be addressed and we need allies to continue in making it visible so we can all take action.

We need to hold non-natives upholding these systems accountable.

You can't be absent in these issues.

You must engage to make effective change.

It is not native.

It's not enough for just natives to care.

We are literally only 2 percent of the U.S. population.

I urge Seattle Public Schools to take action to restore power to indigenous survivors.

Please take part in restorative justice raise awareness to call on justice for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls by supporting and embedding UNEA's MMIWP proclamation with no date along with.

Ingram High School ASB's leadership and counselors support.

Every statistic represents a native woman.

No more stolen sisters.

Native woman and girls deserve safety.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Gerilyn Hamley.

SPEAKER_44

I'm very worried about speaking.

SPEAKER_36

Hi we can hear you.

Jerilyn if you're on the line go ahead.

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

We'll circle back.

SPEAKER_40

The next speaker on the list is Landon Zyskowski.

Hello my name is Landon Zyskowski.

I'm with the Siligwamish tribe.

I'm a student at Clear Sky Academy and an intern at UNEA Youth Leadership Council.

UNEA has helped me with a lot of things.

Number one, it connects me to my heritage through learnings, especially with the group learning sessions.

It gives me real-time practice in the projects where we make drums, rimma skirts.

It's just stuff for events.

These projects also introduce life skills like working with leather, sewing, imagining what the design is, et cetera.

It's difficult and inspiring at the same time.

I didn't know many people when I well, throughout my school career.

And this has really connected me to a lot of different things, a lot of different new people.

I didn't know there were so many of us from such diverse tribes.

We are all different, but all similar.

It is impressive learning from my peers and with my peers.

Some folks have been with the class longer, so they help guide me.

It's a community that is strong and growing.

Overall, this opportunity has created a new, better balance in my life by connecting me with my peers, and it has strengthened my fortitude to grow, teach, and improve daily.

When I am struggling, they help pick me up.

It also teaches great life skills on a weekly basis.

Additional opportunities that would be important are.

Well I think it's crucial these classes continue and grow.

I think there's a definite future for high school when there is a full curriculum to inspire grow and connect with leaders like myself.

Hold on I sent a text to myself.

It is extremely important that we band together as a community to address this pressing issue that affects all of our brothers and sisters as we are all vulnerable and at risk.

No more stolen sisters.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker is Michelle Brewer.

SPEAKER_27

Hi there.

Thank you for letting me speak.

My name is Michelle Brewer I'm representing the Salish Kootenai tribe of Montana.

I'm very grateful for Clear Sky Academy and the educational and educational and cultural opportunities it has offered my son and his Clear Sky classmates.

This program has offered an experience that he would not have gotten otherwise in public high school.

It's been a profound experience for my son.

Clear Skies interactive immersive approach to Native American culture history and arts made learning fun and enriching.

COVID was a lonely time for kids and my son struggled during COVID like many of them.

Many of the kids and I'm just grateful for the connection with the Native American community that he receives in this program and the mentorship that he's gained through this program.

He's also a member of UNEA as well.

He's gained an elevated respect for others and respect for elders and society and I just feel like that's huge.

It's a virtue that's invaluable.

My ask is that this program is more accessible to students as I found that we had to jump through hoops to get him registered.

And I and I don't know why that was the case.

My hope is that SPS remove the red tape and prioritize programs that serve the indigenous youth of Seattle.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker is Landon Brewer.

SPEAKER_43

Hello.

My name is Landon Brewer.

I am Bitterroot Salish Kootenai Shawnee Spokane Colville and Cree as well as a student at Nathan Hale High School.

And I am a son a brother a cousin a grandson and yeah and I am As well as I'm a junior at Nathan Hale High School.

And what you need to know about MMIWP is that it's not just another another social media trend.

This issue affects us indigenous youth firsthand.

A relative of mine from the Flathead Indian Reservation Jermaine Charleaux-Morgeau went missing from Missoula Montana in June of 2018. Jermaine was 23 at the time of her disappearance.

Her killer, who is believed to be the father of her sons, is still a free man today.

As well as being a free man, he also has custody over her two young sons and is keeping them from visiting family.

At the time of her disappearance, she was 23 years old.

There are so many stories similar to Jermaine's story throughout the Native community.

This is a nationwide epidemic.

Across the US and Canada, We us and young indigenous students and in indigenous people as a whole have to live life in fear not knowing that if we get kidnapped or murdered that our lives won't get them as much effort put into.

Into.

Into justice.

And.

It's hard being a young indigenous person living in Seattle knowing that we live in the city that has the highest amount of cases of MMIWP and as well as just being from the largest or the most common demographic to go missing.

But to know that if we do go missing or if we do get murdered, that we might not get as much attention paid to our cases as other kids are, is a scary feeling.

If you look around at any one of us, many of our families have been victims of MMIW cases.

Any one of us could be next.

Any one of our families, our family members could be next.

It is important that this gets taken seriously.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Chiny Little Sun.

SPEAKER_09

Good evening my relatives.

My name is Shiny Little Sun.

I am from the Montana tribe Northern Cheyenne Nation and the Crow Nation.

I am here today to speak about Indian education.

I am a single mother of three children who are in Seattle public school districts.

I have a fifth grader a third grader and a first grader.

Whom all love school.

They're also part of UNEA and Clear Sky and the NWA programs.

Coming here into Seattle in 2020. we felt I felt alone not having community coming from a small town into an a bigger urban city setting.

We found UNEA and it has it's been great.

Big impact on my children.

Not only do they get to learn about community they learn about cultural they learn about raising awareness and and how important family is outside of your own family.

I'm not only a single mother, I am also a third year PhD candidate at the University of Washington in the biomedical field.

Also the academic student success coordinator for UNEA.

We offer tutoring virtually and in person twice a week.

And as the academic student coordinator it would be helpful for SPS to make a greater effort or make an effort into offering those services to students and bring an awareness of the programs that the UNEA offers.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Norman Zaskowski.

SPEAKER_02

Seed my time after I briefly thank you on a very related note for holding out as long as you did to protect the homeless at Broadview from the mayor's violence.

SPEAKER_04

Hello my name is Florence K. Fidler.

I'm Pembina Bando Ojibwe out of Turtle Mountains and I'm here to talk about the MMIW.

I'm going to tell you first my niece's name is Alyssa McLemore.

April 9th 2009 she went missing.

And there was no help not from the police not from educators not from well-meaning elected officials.

And even to this day the family has to struggle and fight to get information and support.

This is like coming to see a school board every day.

Elected officials when you go home at night you're just you.

When we go home at night we're still missing.

our children our mothers our fathers.

And this didn't start yesterday.

I didn't start the MMIP movement that started way back when Christopher Columbus I guess got off a boat and stole our families and put them to work on farms and put them to work in sex slave camps.

And that is still happening.

These container boats down here.

They put them children on those boats and they rent them out.

That's what's happening to our people.

And we don't have a good answer for how to stop it.

But I can tell you a good answer for how to not stop it is to try to silence our children when they come with the issue.

That's one way to not stop it is to make them feel unsupported and unloved and unvaluable.

That's one way not to stop it.

That hand across the mouth on that poster is not supposed to be our hand.

We are supposed to be lifting up their voices and inviting them to come to your training or your program.

You go to them.

They've been coming here for years.

They've been asking for your support.

It is time that y'all stepped up.

You earned those elections that you got.

You earned them.

And you paid that price.

These kids are paying that price.

That's our babies that are going missing.

That's our babies that are being murdered.

And I know a lot of you come from communities that suffer from similar things but nothing like the rate that our babies are suffering from.

So I want to encourage you as a grandmother.

I want to encourage you all get down off the high horse cross the aisle shake a hand.

You don't like any of these adults working with these other programs but it is your job to support these children.

And when you won't even work with the people who are volunteering all that time and energy.

When you won't even cross the aisle to say hello.

Then what are you telling them children.

This program that supported you and brought you all this way is worthless.

We're not even going to talk to you because we don't like this person.

We don't like that person.

I don't give a hairy rat's left foot about your feelings.

I care about their feelings.

I have to take my grandchildren out of your school district.

being attacked by your staff couldn't get support because I wasn't in with your in crowd.

I pray to God none of my babies ever have to go to your school district again.

And that's a sad thing.

I'm an educated woman too.

But I hear you talking about your education.

I want to hear about their education.

These kids have to dual educate.

They have to learn everything about their Sundance or sweat lodge, whatever ceremony it is they do.

Then they have to learn all about your ABCs.

You stretch that school year out longer and longer every year.

You steal them so we can't bring them to the ceremonies.

You get nine months to brainwash them.

We get three months to brainwash them back.

And we got this little program trying to support not only their cultural identity as a Native person, But their identity is a citizen of your country.

So they can get that education.

So they can take your chairs.

And they're going to do a better job.

You're doing better than your mom and dad maybe.

But your job now is to support them in doing better than you.

So I hate to come and chastise y'all.

You haven't gotten rid of me yet.

And I'm going to outlast every one of you.

So I'm just saying as a grandmother I'm expecting better of you guys.

There's no reason a power struggle should be going on.

There's no reason your Indian ed program.

Y'all are the boss of that school district.

If you don't know that I'm going to tell you.

You're in those positions.

You have power.

You have that power to say our school district personnel is going to work respectively and energetically with any program that is producing this.

Because this is the best you got.

And you all need to just stand up, take a stand, be the grandmother, and tell people do your job.

I tell these people do your job.

Don't doubt it.

I stand up to who I need to stand up to to protect their lives.

That's what I'm saying, that's your job.

And if you're not up to that job, step aside.

Because our kids don't have time.

When you treat our children like they don't matter, they don't have value, then they're out there.

And the world sees how you treat our children.

And they treat them the same way.

I need you to set a better example to the world.

I miss my niece.

I'll never see her again.

I may never live long enough to get an answer.

Her mother is sickly.

Three days after she went missing, I went to the funeral for her mother.

She was on her way home, she said.

She never came home.

And that could be anyone of these babies.

I know you're not babies.

You know, it could be.

This is our babies that are going missing.

And so I want you to, first, I want you to start by supporting.

I don't care how your process is supposed to be.

Find a new process.

If it doesn't work for them, help them.

Don't wait for them to come to you.

Y'all can go to them.

They don't have cars, our chauffeurs.

Go to them and help them support this May 5th April 9th.

You say a prayer for my niece.

We find her one day but not just with this MMIP program.

You support them through all of it.

Make the world know these children have value and their voices count.

And I'm a lend my voice any time they need it.

Anyhow, that's who I am.

I quit.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker on the list is Aiden Carroll.

The next speaker on the list is Mylika Chantel Webster.

SPEAKER_25

Hi I'm going to make this quick because I'm going to cede my time but my name is Mileyka Webster I am Hidatsa of the MHA nation.

My daughter is a sexual assault survivor and while she was in the Seattle Public Schools I had to remove her from the schools because the teachers were not equipped to handle someone of her Trauma which is what I was told.

So I moved her into a different school district.

I think it will be greatly beneficial to bring awareness to MMIP not only for the children before the staff so they can notice the signs and step in and help before we get to this point which it shouldn't have.

But I would like to see the rest of my time to Dakota.

SPEAKER_32

Hi good evening my name is Dakota Murray I am Bad River Chippewa and Rosebud Sioux and I was raised on the Puyallup tribal reservation and I work for the equitable development initiative at the office of planning and community development here at the city of Seattle and I am here today because I have an internship that I have been working in partnership with UNEA to create high school internship here at our department for students to connect with indigenous planning and culture and then also to get an idea of what an experience in city governance and to kind of bridge that gap and that barrier.

And I would like to state my support for everything that's been mentioned today and in support of the proclamation.

And I would also like to say, even as an adult, it's very scary to speak right now.

So I want to say a big thank you.

And it's really amazing that you students have been able to come up here and speak.

So that's a really big feat, and it's impressive.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker is Zachary Joseph Jenkins.

SPEAKER_01

I know but he seeded it.

Hi my name is Jesse McFerrin I'm a teacher in the Seattle area.

I was lucky enough to invite UNEA to visit my high school a couple years ago.

Our old mascot was was racist and they have since helped us to change.

The biggest takeaway that I have had in the last four years of knowing Sarah and the other members of UNEA and the student interns is that this organization in particular is worth listening to.

What they fight for needs to be heard.

I am so appreciative of the education and direction they have given me and how they put students first and I am amazed at how courageous they have been tonight.

This is just one opportunity that the students are provided with through the organization.

They are constantly given leadership opportunities.

And I have been able to witness growth out of students over the course of years.

This program is amazing.

Please listen to what they have to say.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_36

Before moving on to the waitlist I want to go back and check on those who may have missed their turn.

The first is Lisa Bean Ingram.

SPEAKER_06

Hello this is Gerilyn Hamley and I am with Clear Sky Academy and UNEA and I would like to cede my time to Emily Yen.

SPEAKER_10

Hi, thank you for your time.

I am Emily and I'm part Cherokee.

I am the teacher of Clear Sky Academy.

It has been an immense honor getting to be part of the UNA community and witnessing indigenous youths learn about their heritage, grow in confidence, and become passionate about issues that are vital to address in our communities.

The statistics listed in the missing or murdered indigenous persons awareness day proclamation proposed speak for themselves.

These sorrowful and violent acts must come to a stop and in order to prevent injustices from reoccurring education and awareness must take place.

I stand in firm alignment with this proclamation and I will continue to support my students at Clear Sky Academy.

SPEAKER_36

Moving on to the waitlist.

The first on the list is Jesse McFerrin who I believe already spoke.

The next speaker is Haley Bruce.

Haley Bruce.

The next speaker on the list is Jean Bostosch.

Jean if you're on the line please press star 6 to unmute.

The next speaker on the list is Arthur Doros.

SPEAKER_23

Thank you, and it's good to see you all back here.

Last meeting, not everybody's here.

I left a page for you that has an outline of a lot of what you've heard before, the key points.

I wanted to expand a little bit today.

It was great to hear all of you.

The district gives lip service or words towards Native American awareness, Indian awareness, but it's different.

action and people.

And it reminds me also of one of the issues that we've been talking about before, which is the giant school of 500 to 650 only schools.

small programs small groups of people get lost a lot of times those big institutions and there are smaller institutions and smaller groups that are going to be severely impacted by this possible move to consolidation that's being now considered that since it's been acknowledged that the district is getting Smaller in population, it would be nice to preserve smaller programs and not institutionalize in grand ways and in hollow buildings the programs.

In the case, I wanted to just focus on one of the points that I'd made before, which I haven't expanded on before.

which is transportation and safety, which we were talking about today.

I think a lot of this idea that, oh, a school for 500 or 650, that's economical, and so therefore good, it doesn't allow for transportation costs.

It also doesn't allow the costs, the outcomes for students.

When students are moved out of their communities, these folks have built communities, And so have many others at their local schools.

There's been a long movement towards local schools and smaller environments for students.

And I'm hoping that you all can have the courage to stand up and say, maybe we need to turn the ship a little bit and just mildly and not make giant institutions that actually are not cost effective when you factor in transportation and other lost cause.

Thank you for your attentions and for your courage.

Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_36

The next speaker is Mashallah and Jerron Hall.

Mashallah and Jerron if you're on the line please press star six to unmute.

This concludes today's testimony.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you very much.

Why don't we take a 10-minute recess just to give folks an opportunity to speak with the students before they go on to do amazing things.

So it is currently 546, please, and I say this every week, but please be back at 556 Sharp.

I will be starting at 556. Yeah, thank you, before I call your parents.

SPEAKER_07

I got a quorum, so I'm gonna roll.

SPEAKER_08

So what you trying to tell me is that we got the superintendent and all the board directors in the room at 557. Nah, nah, I got it.

I got it.

Brent, stop shaking hands and kissing babies.

You can do that after.

Come on, man.

Director Harris, come on.

I promise, if y'all come up here, I'm going to get y'all out quicker so y'all can go back and do what you're doing with as much time as you need.

Right.

So again, just thank you to all the community members who share time with us this evening.

We greatly appreciate it.

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

May I have approval of the consent agenda?

SPEAKER_22

I move approval of the consent agenda.

SPEAKER_07

I second the motion.

SPEAKER_08

All right.

Thank you.

This has been moved and properly seconded.

All those in favor of the consent agenda or wait.

Hold up one second.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

OK.

Approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Vice President Rankin and seconded by Director Sarju.

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

Cool.

All right.

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

Aye.

All right.

Senate agenda passes unanimously.

We will now move to the introduction items on today's agenda, of which we have only a few.

So introduction item number one is appointment of disciplinary appeal council membership for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year.

Approval of this item would reappoint members as attached to the board action report to serve on the disciplinary appeal council through the end of the 2022-23 school year.

In the event that new members have not been appointed prior to the start of the 2023-2024 school year, existing appointments will remain active until no later than October 1, 2023, to provide DAC continuity as new appointments are finalized.

I will now hand it over to Director Sarju, who has been leading this work.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, President Hersey.

This is board member Michelle Sarju.

I am sponsoring this board action report along with my colleagues, President Hersey and Vice President Rankin to extend our current disciplinary appeal council appointments through the school year.

Their terms are set to expire on March 15th, 2023. This is important because the Disciplinary Appeal Council, also known as the DAC or the DAC, is our appointed body that hears secondary appeals for certain types of exclusionary discipline.

Exclusionary discipline means suspensions, emergency expulsions, and expulsions.

When a student is suspended or expelled, they have a right to conference with a school leader regarding the discipline action.

And if they disagree with the school leader's decision, they have a right to appeal to a hearing examiner.

If they disagree with the outcome of that first appeal to the hearing examiner, they have a right to a secondary appeal to the Disciplinary Appeal Council, also known as the DAC.

Our students deserve a transformation in how we approach discipline.

We have persistent and persistent disproportionality in our discipline system for black students and other students who have been marginalized.

The disciplinary appeal counsel is not the lever.

Let me say that again.

The disciplinary appeal counsel is not the lever where we are going to make the greatest impact.

With just a handful of appeals having been heard over the course of several years.

But the Disciplinary Appeals Council serves on our behalf, i.e., the board's behalf, and it is our work to reshape the council to best serve students most impacted by our discipline system.

We do not have that policy action before us tonight.

And because of timing, we need to keep this action on track to ensure our disciplinary appeal council members remain ready to hear appeals.

I am already working with staff to develop a board action report for our consideration this spring to amend the policy and procedure that drive our disciplinary appeal council appointments so that we can have that in place for our next recruitment and appointment period.

I invite all of my colleagues ideas and partnership in that policy work.

Please reach out to Ellie, to Director Ellie, to help us coordinate within the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act if you want to engage or have ideas.

Director Ellie is also here if there are technical questions in staff.

I think what this is trying to say is Ellie is here and staff from Coordinated School Health.

This doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm just going to read it as is.

Ellie is also here if there are technical questions and staff from Coordinated School Health and legal have been supporting this work.

I just think there's a little typo there, so don't, yeah, if you're a little confused, it's okay.

You get the underlying meaning of what I was trying to say there, correct?

Okay.

SPEAKER_08

Awesome.

Do directors have any questions on this introduction item?

All right, thank you Director Sardieu and staff for bringing this item forward.

We look forward to taking action at the next opportunity.

Moving on to introduction item number two, annual approval of schools per WAC 180-16-220.

Approval of this item would approve each school within the district and that Each has a school improvement plan that is data-driven, promotes positive impact on students' learning, and includes a continuous improvement process as required by WAC 180.16.220.

Dr. Pedroza, by all means.

SPEAKER_18

Hi, good evening, everybody.

I'm actually here to actually introduce Dr. Mike Starosky, who is the executive director of schools there online on teams, as well as Dr. Sarah Marabueno, who will introduce the and ask questions about this information.

So I will pass this to Dr. Starosky.

SPEAKER_42

Good evening, directors.

So this is the last of a three-year approval process that we began three years ago when we moved the CSIPs from being every single year that we would come with brand new goals brand new measurements and we converted it to a three-year process.

about recognizing the importance of having a continuous school improvement plan that reflected the actual work that needs to go on in schools and the supports that central office needs to create in order to support those efforts.

And we've done an extremely good job I would say with the support of directors.

And I'm going back to Director Harris pushing us to align.

Be clearer about what it is that we're trying to accomplish.

Have public facing documents that are consistent among schools.

And so what we did three years ago we approved and with the school board support you approved the CSIPs for a three-year period.

So this is the final year.

So we're pretty much you know two and two and a half years through this process.

These CSIP plans have been updated last fall.

Some of them are actually being currently updated for the upcoming school year.

But for this year that these plans meet all the requirements of WAC 180-16-220 that these plans do exist that they've been updated they're aligned to our goals and guardrails.

Midway through this process the goals and guardrails were shoehorned in to our existing structures and our next round of CSIPs have the alignment of the goals and guardrails.

But we will be coming to you in the fall of this upcoming school year for the next three years.

But what we're introducing is that these plans do exist, they've been updated, there's consistency, and we have answered some of the questions that were put forth by some of our board directors last week for your information as well.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you very much.

Directors do we have any Well let's go to Director Summers and then we'll go to Director Sergey.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you.

I just have a clarifying question.

So there was actually a variety in terms of the CSIPs that I looked at what years the goals were.

So for the ones that are stated for the 22 23 school year next year are they going are those CSIPs good for the next three years or are we going to just do a clear reset next year.

SPEAKER_42

Great question.

We're going to do a clear reset for next year.

And so when we come to you this fall, it will be for the next three years.

So whatever schools have, how they're reflected, some of them change the dates to reflect the current school year.

But when we come back to you in the fall, you're going to see a new interface.

You're going to see that they look different.

Hopefully, less wordy and more consistent in the language and then definitely aligned to our assessments and our goals and guardrails.

So when we come back to you in the fall, it will be for the next three years.

SPEAKER_20

Before you bring the CSIS back to the board in the fall will there be opportunity for board directors to see some draft versions to provide some initial feedback?

I think my concern here is that some of my comments and the questions I want to have assurance that they will be resolved before we see them and need to vote on them in the fall.

SPEAKER_42

Sure.

So Director Marabueno who's on the call too.

She can speak without getting into a whole bunch of detail but we started the process of this over a year ago of trying to redraft and look at the CSIPs for alignment.

And so Director Marabueno can you just speak to that briefly please.

SPEAKER_26

Absolutely.

Good evening directors.

Yes I'm Sarah Marabueno I'm Director of Continued School Improvement.

And so we actually just early February began to launch with school leaders the CSIP planning tool as we're calling it going forward.

And so we've been hosting a series of professional development sessions with school leaders to introduce the planning tool introduce the professional development plan around the CSIPs going forward.

And so school leaders have been directed that their CSIPs there will be a draft.

The first draft of their CSIPs will be due June 30th with the final draft October 1st.

So we can certainly give you the template that we've been rolling out to all of the school leaders that they'll be using to create their CSIPs.

So we can provide that template and any other information that would be helpful or useful before next October.

SPEAKER_42

And one of the things that I think would be exciting for you to see is we'll just send you the template and see what principles are working from so that you can see what it's going to be looking like from an interface if you have.

some feedback or questions you'd like to give us.

We're more than welcome because we're still in the iteration stage and trying to improve what they look like.

And so we can send that to all board members.

We'd love you to see it.

We're very proud of how it looks and how it could be impacting our system.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you Dr. Marabuano for some clarification around the timing.

So the first draft will be in June and then the final approval is October.

But I'm wondering if the how the involvement of the BLT teams will interplay and potentially the membership of the BLT could transition between June and September.

I'm just kind of wondering if you have worked out that part of the process.

SPEAKER_26

Yeah, so we we actually launched the planning tool in the professional development earlier than we ever have to, for example, align it with the budget season.

So as we've been having these launch sessions with our school leaders, we've been discussing with them and talking about the involvement of their BLTs, of course, around the budget development and how that intertwines with their CSIPs as well.

School leaders are one of the good things about the new C-CIP planning tool is that their BLT and or other staff members that are working in collaboration around the C-CIP do have access to be able to update and work on the C-CIP together.

And so school leaders have been given direction on how they can include their different BLT members into the documents to be able to update it.

SPEAKER_42

And also from a practical standpoint is that a BLT membership in the spring or winter spring of this year could be very different in the fall for any number of reasons.

Timing issues members change and is another reason why we do the the approval or the adjustments I should say of CSIPs both in the winter spring and then in the fall as well.

SPEAKER_07

For the purposes of people who don't understand all the different acronyms that we use and rarely ever define, can you please break down what a CSIP is?

And I'm pretty sure people know that BLT is not bacon, lettuce, and tomato, that it is building leadership team.

But I think you should clarify that.

I could be wrong.

I love bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.

SPEAKER_42

Well, if you love those, you'll love the BLT as a building leadership team, which you're exactly correct, which is a representative group of staff and community parents that are a decision-making body on how professional development funds are used, professional development plans, and then continuous improvement plans, which are the CSIPs for that acronym.

SPEAKER_07

The S school is the S school.

Continuous school improvement plans.

C as in sip like a sip of water.

Got it.

SPEAKER_18

Yes that's it's continuous school improvement plans and then building.

SPEAKER_22

Thank you.

This is Vice President Rankin speaking.

My question is about the three years versus the one year.

So just I'm just stating for my own clarification and can somebody tell me if I have this right or wrong.

The WAC the state law requires that school boards basically affirm.

Washington Administrative Code.

Thank you.

that school boards affirm annually that all schools within their district have a continuous improvement plan that is data-driven and includes a continuous improvement process and promotes a positive impact, et cetera, et cetera.

So we're not asked to approve.

what's in them, we're asked to approve that they exist by state law.

So that will still happen annually, even though for SPS, you're doing them on a three-year cycle.

SPEAKER_42

Yes and so effectively we'll still be coming to you every fall to make sure that we're doing this process.

So you won't hear us in the fall and then not see us, hear from us again around CSIF for another three years.

We'll still be coming back annually every fall for your approval.

SPEAKER_18

Okay great and then Yeah.

So just one more thing.

Just similarly, like as we have our goals and our guardrails, and we had the meeting recently, I just want to make an analogy for the community, right?

So we have our goals and we're not shifting our goals drastically.

We're still working towards those goals.

We're still working for improvement.

So those CSIP goals should be in the same vein.

So they'll be looking at data, the principals annually look at their data, they look at their progress towards their goals, and then they make adjustments to those goals based on the data that they have.

They may look at one strategy or two and make a shift But the goal is similar to the goals that we have established.

And so they're long-term goals, similarly.

And then every year, they need to make those adjustments annually based on the data and the progress that they've made towards those goals.

So that's the process.

SPEAKER_22

Well, I think that's great.

And because in my memory, CSIPs at some time were, well, you could look at some schools and some schools still had the template form.

I mean, this is years, you know, had the template form.

And then others, you were like, well, they're doing totally different.

totally different things so I think it's great that these are aligned to that the goals of the building should be aligned to the goals of the district for students.

My question really was about the three years versus one.

SPEAKER_18

Yeah and the one the critical piece about the building leadership team which is really critical is there should be involvement from the teacher leaders on developing those school improvement plans and looking at their data So that's part of the beauty of the building leadership team process, to be part of that annual review, looking at the data, looking at the strategies.

I'll just share as a judgee, I remember one of the best days I ever had was having a three-hour retreat with my school team when we actually just looked at the data and really talked about shifting some strategies.

And it just felt like a great day because we were all in this really synergy place.

And I think that is the beauty of having that BLT component part of the school improvement process planning.

Great.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Also the connection for oversight purposes is you should be rest assured that the CSIPs at each school level are rolling up to the goals and guardrails which in a matter of days I will reveal a dashboard for your public facing dashboard so we can track our progress to that.

So all this all the things that Dr. Swarovski and Director Sarah Marabueno are talking about will roll up to this this public facing dashboard and that will happen within the next I'll give I'll give us a little bit of time within the next two weeks.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_19

Dr. Starosky and Marabueno doctors excuse me have some questions about BLT.

Have we updated the BLT manual in the last five years and what part do the parents on the BLT play?

Is it box checking?

Is it performative?

Is it reviewed by peer leaders?

Is it reviewed by your directors of schools?

As Dr. Starosky very well knows as does Dr. Pedroza there have been times when the CSIPs have come to us and they have been woefully inadequate.

And we've had board directors saying well we just have to say that we got them.

We don't have to say that they're correct.

And we have.

Summon people from home to answer questions from pesky people testifying as to the inadequacies in the past.

So how thorough a process is this?

And can we be assured there is not cutting and pasting just to roll them forward because frankly it's kind of a heavy lift to do it right and time consuming.

SPEAKER_42

Yeah, Sarah, do you want to take that last part first about the cutting and pasting?

SPEAKER_26

Yeah, you can be rest assured there's not going to be cut and pasting.

Just to give you just a little highlight in terms of discussing the three-year and one-year, for example, that you can't necessarily cut and paste where there's a big difference between our last round of CSIPs and this coming round of CSIPs where schools will, well this part is similar, schools will continue to develop their what we're calling their priority goal, their three-year goal.

So that's directly linked to the Seattle Excellence ESPA goals, the third grade reading goal, the seventh grade math goal, and then the college and career readiness goal.

But what we have done as well as we have one-year goals.

So we have interim goals to support the priority goals.

So schools will be year by year, also taking a look at their data analysis and their needs assessment around the one-year goals as well.

So that was a shift, whereas we didn't have that necessarily before in the last round.

So that's one example of not necessarily being, you can't just cut and paste because there's a definite process.

We're trying to get more of the CSIPs being a needs assessment and a data analysis on a consistent basis.

SPEAKER_19

And the BLT questions, please.

SPEAKER_42

Yeah, well, so every year we do BLT trainings.

Dr. Pedrosa used to be one of those folks who would work with BLTs.

And so they have a yearly opportunity to bring BLTs to get training on what BLTs, the form and functions of them.

Some BLTs are higher functioning.

Director Harris, as you know, more than others.

Some are more inclusive than others, but what the expectation is, is that all BLTs, which include family representation, sign off on those CSIPs, designating and authenticating that they have been included, that they're aware of what's in those CSIPs, they understand what's going on there, and that it's been an inclusive process with the opportunity for parents to have input.

And so one of the things that I think is definitely reflective in this current state is that there are less variants about the quality, as you're referring to.

But for the BLTs, they do have the opportunity to have trainings.

The building leadership teams do have the training.

And with each iteration of a collective bargaining agreement, we have more and more responsibility as a system to provide that training to our schools, school leaders, and teachers, and representative groups.

So that's a yearly process, and it's dependent on the school opting into it.

But all schools have the opportunity to have that additional BLT training.

SPEAKER_19

So my last follow up question then is is there some sort of ledger that talks about schools availing themselves to opportunity because there's a big difference between availing oneself to opportunity and having it

SPEAKER_18

To be part of the building leadership team?

Yeah.

So, well, as part of the building leadership team, I'll just, as being at one of the schools that had very few parents that were part of it, but we actually had a separate family engagement process, right?

We had a family engagement action team.

We did utilize that process because that was a more active family parent process.

There are ways to get that.

It's something that we can talk about in supporting the principles in making sure that they think about how to be more inclusive with parents on their building leadership teams.

It's not something it's part of the training by the way we do.

So we I was part of the original team that developed the building leadership team training with SCAs as partners the Seattle Education Association the district we did that.

And so that's that part of that training tool and there is guidance to work through how to bring in parents.

through the training.

There's a little component around that and really thinking about having a diverse group within your building leadership team structure to make sure it's reflective of the school community and the students that you serve.

Equity is a theme throughout the whole process for building leadership teams.

But we can always do more.

Director Harris we can work with our principal coaches we can work with folks to make sure that that there's some more conversation about how to be more inclusive with parents on this process.

SPEAKER_19

Well I guess what I'm asking is there some sort of a document out there that says of our 106 schools availed themselves for the VLT training because we have a lot of turnover of our building leaders and we hear from community and parents on a regular basis that they want a voice at the table.

SPEAKER_18

So let me that's the building leadership training training is housed under human resources.

So that's something that we'll have to work with them.

They're not here.

So we'd have to talk about how to do that.

SPEAKER_19

OK super.

SPEAKER_18

And I just will remind everybody through the budget process parents also have to sign off on the budget for approval as well.

Anything else.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08

Director Rivera-Smith has a question.

SPEAKER_18

OK.

SPEAKER_15

I thank you.

I'm sorry my voice isn't very good.

Can you hear me OK?

SPEAKER_37

Yes.

SPEAKER_15

All right.

Thanks.

Dr. Stavsky thank you for for noting that you are very wordy.

They're very dense documents and very not very readable.

So I don't know if there's anything can be done about that in the future.

But it's a doctor Sargent's point about acronyms.

Multiple of these contain also another acronym that is nowhere noted what it means CCSS.

If stuff like that, especially since it's in multiple CSIPs, could be spelled out, I think that would be incredibly helpful for people reading these.

And I'm going to go back to one of the questions I did ask and submitted that you gave an answer for about the posting dates.

And you just kind of answered with the same question I asked you, which you told me that they're revised multiple times a year.

um I really feel a desire that these need to have at least a posting date on them because well you can you can tell me are they are they updated online every time they're revised or is it sort of an annual updating like not that'd be annual posting are we are we seeing are the public seeing each revision and how do they know that because there's no dates on them yeah so I'm gonna ask or answer uh part of the question and then I'll let

SPEAKER_42

Director Marabueno speak to some of the infrastructure.

So some of the issues have been the infrastructure for our system to be able to even get these posted yearly was a huge effort.

and then let alone how they get updated within our infrastructure.

So what we move towards and what we're moving towards Director Rivera-Smith is that when CSIPs are updated at any time you'll be able to see it.

I think what you're asking is for maybe something like a time stamp like revised on and I'll let Director Marabueno speak to that.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_26

Yeah, so as far as the schools consistently updating their CSIPs, we can certainly implement a time-stamped piece to that as schools are going in and updating those.

And then I do also want to address the piece about the acronym.

So when you are able to review the CSIP planning tool, you'll see that there are acronyms.

But then next to the acronyms, there's parentheses that spells it out as well.

for each of them.

SPEAKER_15

Okay, I must have missed that one if it's in there, but thank you.

SPEAKER_08

All right, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Moving on to introduction item number three.

BTA V Approval of the Buildings, Technology, and Academics Athletics BTA V Capital Levy Implementation Plan.

Approval of this item would approve the Buildings, Technology, and Academics Athletic BTA V Capital Levy Implementation Plan as attached to the Board Action Report.

Mr. Podesta and Mr. Best have approached the podium so please take it away.

SPEAKER_44

Thank you President Hersey, Fred Podesta, Interim Deputy Superintendent.

I'm just going to say a few words about context for this action because this is a new process that the board hasn't seen before.

And then I'll turn it over to my esteemed colleague Richard Best to actually introduce the substance of this.

In 2020 the board took on some work to clarify its expectations around facility planning and capital planning.

which resulted in the creation of a new policy and split those two subjects facility planning and capital planning.

And there was a new requirement that after a successful levy election that staff bring to the board for approval an implementation plan for capital levy.

And again this is a new action and I just really for the public and for the board just want to clarify We do a lot of work on capital planning.

We bring levies to the board that you approve and then we send to the voters and that's the what.

That's the what are the projects we're going to do.

This document is really the when and the how.

And there's a lot of things to balance to build particularly in a BTA levy and again acronyms building technology.

academics and athletics it's a bit it's a bit of a tortured acronym since we overload a but be that as it may so we need about we operate our levies on a cash flow basis so we think about how the levy funds are collected we have to think about our capacity to take management in a in this type levy well over a hundred projects we need to think about school operations you know when the timing for that can be, we need to think about the bid climate, we don't want to be competing against ourselves by having too many projects so it is not a small task to lay this all out over a six-year levy.

We are very fortunate to have a great leadership in Executive Director Best and a very strong planning function in our capital group.

And so this again is the first time we've brought these kinds of plans forward for board approval.

They've always existed.

Again this is complicated and so the work has always been done.

This is the first time the board has got to see one.

And so I'll turn it over to Richard Best and thank you for support of the levy and on supporting ongoing support of our capital program.

SPEAKER_08

All right.

Is there more.

Are we ready for questions?

Anybody got questions?

Director Samaritz, take it away.

SPEAKER_20

Thank you.

One of my questions is I think it's very helpful to have this in front of the board and for the public information and I'm wondering if there is a similar process for how the board will be informed if there is a significant change or deviation from this six-year plan?

SPEAKER_41

So Director Song-Buritz, Richard Best, Director of Capital Projects and Planning and Interim Assistant Superintendent for Facilities Operations.

So we do bring to the board and when you had an operations committee we would bring those changes to the operations committee.

At the time we'd be making the presentation of the annual capital projects budget.

I think that's a nuance that we still need to work out with the with the school board but yes we bring information to you as we plan our annual capital budgets if we're making changes as the projects that were going to be implemented in the cash flow or the implementation plan we bring those to you at that time and highlight those to you.

I will also say this is a document that capital projects and planning has utilized for the nine years I have been at Seattle Public Schools and well before I got here.

So we are very familiar with this document.

Our planning team is very good at laying out cash levies.

You heard all of the kind of variables that Fred talked about.

The important ones being can't exceed our revenue.

we need to collaborate with our Department of Technology services because this is a B for building, T for technology and then also with academics and athletics to make sure that we put this together so we're not so that we have a good cash flow.

SPEAKER_19

So I was catching up on my 25 linear feet of paperwork the other day and I came across a technology plan that was never passed by this board.

And certainly superseded by a mile because of COVID because we rolled out one to one computer devices which was going to take four years and we did it in six months which I still I think is one of the proudest things that this district ever did.

And to have to ask Carlos whether it was the best use of his time to run.

individual computers out to schools.

But that showed the depth of his commitment.

And again something that we can be incredibly proud of.

Do we have a technology plan?

Are we contemplating having a technology plan?

These are the sorts of questions that we would ordinarily have in committees but obviously we have reconnoitered in the interim.

SPEAKER_44

I had a conversation with Executive Director Del Valle about this exact topic this morning and just we were talking about this agenda.

And there is a plan, just as Mr. Best said, that team always produces a plan.

based on the levy, because the issues that technology has to manage, which are a bit different than Richard's and how we fund technology really in three-year increments, they're not balancing quite as many issues.

So the board approves the levy which really sets the stage for these are the projects we're going to do.

And then those are prioritized by the Department of Technology services who again builds a work plan just like our capital group has had.

There isn't a policy that brings that to the board.

But those plans.

SPEAKER_19

But we spend more than a million dollars on it.

Correct.

SPEAKER_44

We do.

SPEAKER_19

And we.

SPEAKER_44

allocate that funding in the levy process which the board spends a lot of time developing that.

So that's really the place where you decide what to do.

This step because of the complexity of capital and the pre-existing policies is just another step where to prove the kind of the order that you do it which is a little bit more complex in the construction world.

And so I think that's why there's not an analogous step in technology.

SPEAKER_19

Might that be a conversation we might have in the future.

SPEAKER_44

You know those are absolutely the board can decide you know what it wants to spend its time on and and what how that fits in.

We would be agnostic against staff would be doing the work regardless.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08

Certainly appreciate any additional questions at this time.

All right, seeing none, thank you very much.

Continuing on through my massive stack of papers.

Time use evaluation.

Yo.

Director Hampson, you did it for us this month, right?

SPEAKER_21

Yes.

Well I did it for this month and then I did a cumulative.

Hold on let me get this.

SPEAKER_08

Take your time.

SPEAKER_21

I put in my 60 letter password.

I wasn't kidding.

SPEAKER_08

We've got all the time in the world.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_21

OK, well, now because people want to go home.

SPEAKER_08

You don't live here?

SPEAKER_21

Y'all don't live here?

Dang.

So cumulatively, where we are after the February 28 meeting, we are at 13% of time spent focused on goal setting and goal monitoring.

SPEAKER_08

OK.

SPEAKER_21

And I'm happy to walk through the other categories so you can know where we spent our time elsewhere.

SPEAKER_08

Please do.

SPEAKER_21

So board time you wait 2 percent on board time use evaluation 1 percent on board self evaluation 3 percent on voting.

And.

82 percent on other.

SPEAKER_08

Jesus.

OK.

Well we've got to start somewhere right on.

Eighty two percent.

We're going to have other sessions public testimony.

SPEAKER_21

No it does not include public testimony.

Oh it doesn't.

OK.

Public testimony.

Yeah.

The work sessions kill us.

SPEAKER_38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_21

Because they're long and we let them go long.

Yeah.

I guess in looking back at it I would comment that As much as I've appreciated the progress we've made in our work sessions and our ability to ask the hard questions and connect the use of resources to the student outcomes that we intend to monitor.

It's still a.

great deal of time that we spend that we could probably prep for better.

Yeah.

And write more of our statements down and come you know doing our homework.

I don't know how I'd love to hear from other directors if they feel more prepared as a result of us getting our questions in in advance.

SPEAKER_38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_21

But yeah, so that's just something to we can talk about that now and then obviously I think we have we had our first Ad hoc committee meeting today.

So that will also Be included I believe committee meetings are included That's Not going to be a positive, but when we start doing community engagement, at least that percent will go up to a community engagement is how you get credit.

So.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08

I mean, that's helpful.

I mean, I think the thing is just, again, knowing that there's not going to be an instance.

Again, our goal is not 100 percent.

It's 50. Right.

SPEAKER_21

Yeah.

To get to 50 to get the monitoring.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_21

And we don't have all the interims yet.

Right.

Right.

So we're.

If you factor that in, that we don't have the interim goals and guardrails completed yet, that will.

SPEAKER_08

I wonder if it would also be helpful to understand, out of a possible score of X percent, how close did we get?

I don't know if that's really possible or if it would be helpful.

Also what's in my mind is just reiterating the fact that, and I'm doing a poor job of this right now, but if we write our statements down and also just take super deep consideration in the fact that by not wasting time in other ways, it pushes our percentage up, because there's not going to be a lot that we can do in terms of like budgeting work sessions and other things, right, that will add us into that net positive percentage, but we can bring it down in terms of just time we spend in meetings that is not utilized, right?

So, I mean, I don't know, maybe we should set a goal for ourselves so we hit 13% this month,

SPEAKER_21

Well, sorry, that was January and February combined.

SPEAKER_08

That was January and February combined.

That's the cumulative, yeah.

Okay, cool.

So 13% for January and February.

March, does it make sense?

Well, I'm trying to think of the cadence of that.

We also have a meeting, so like maybe it makes sense to do like the cumulative piece over the course of two months instead of a month.

Is there an opinion there either way?

for those of you who are still listening.

SPEAKER_21

I just set it up to run cumulative and then each meeting is in there separately and then you could take it and slice it and dice it however you want.

SPEAKER_08

Okay, let's set a goal for 15% and just keep that in mind and I'll remind us and especially when we have our norms set up.

SPEAKER_21

Oh, you were talking about your goals for 15% for March, is that what you're saying?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_21

That's gonna be hard with the retreat.

SPEAKER_08

I know.

SPEAKER_21

Okay.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, it's a goal.

don't have to meet it, but it will help us be cognizant.

And I think that a big part of that will also be when we have our board conduct discussion at the retreat will be super helpful.

So with that being said, thank you.

SPEAKER_21

And yeah, I just kept thinking, since I was tracking it all this time, sorry, Director Rankin, I kept thinking, oh my gosh, this is time we could be spending doing two-way community engagement and that we need time for as we drone on in our, is that the right word?

In our meetings, you know, and listen to ourselves talk.

Droning.

SPEAKER_08

I mean, I love the sound of my own voice.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_21

I mean, I'm speaking for myself, criticizing myself.

SPEAKER_22

Oh, I would, Composite that if we looked at a meeting from a year ago before we submitted questions ahead of time I think like for me Submitting the questions ahead of time.

Yeah does a lot to Minimize time spent in meetings going into things that are yeah You know I mean they're things that might be important, you know, that are important to know, maybe before we make a decision on something, that it does help us keep our time here.

SPEAKER_08

Succinct.

SPEAKER_22

Yeah.

And knowing that that work is already, you know, We have to do our approvals of things and certain things, well, basically everything in front of the public as a group.

But we do have our own work that we do in preparation.

And having those questions come ahead of time means that we do less of that work also here.

Also I was going to say so I'm going to do the time use evaluation for today's meeting.

I will do it.

I did not do it during the meeting.

There's no way I would be able to do that.

But I'll look back at the video and I remembered and apologies to Director Rivera-Smith and Director Hampson for not remembering this until now since you've already done the time use evaluation.

I found my.

guide from when I participated in the study on how to code things.

And it breaks it down into all the different topics and helps.

I was thinking it was just part of a dropdown menu when I was actually submitting the information, but there's actually a whole sheet on how to code different things.

And so I will send that to everybody so that we have that kind of consistent.

Because I'm sure there's some kind of Personal interpretation of things as we're coding.

And as we do more of it, we're going to get better at it.

But I also will send this out so that we all have the same.

There's times when you're like, is this this?

Or is it this?

And having this common definition is helpful.

SPEAKER_08

That's great.

If we could get that also added to the SOFG page on the website in some capacity, I think it would be great to just have it there in some way where people could download it and look at it for themselves.

And I invite those who might be following along at home to check us if we are not.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_20

I think for me, the submitting questions in advance is very helpful, but I would be interested to know what the feedback from the staff is.

And I'm not going to put Dr. Jones on the spot right now, but it would be helpful if he would check in with his staff and make sure that that process is working for them, too, and if they have feedback for directors.

SPEAKER_05

I'll just say that my initial response in talking with staff about it is the first go around was very difficult obviously but then as we've been maturing collectively on the process has become a little more streamlined.

So I think we've just been we've been in a continuous improvement mode and I think we've all been trying board and staff to have that process be a little more efficient.

So I think it's working.

That's bottom line.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_20

Anecdotally, I have gotten feedback from community members that they appreciate having the questions available on the website with the answers.

So I encourage us to do regular periodic check-ins on that process.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah.

And that's honestly what this time could be used for as well.

And so just if nobody is giving you a pat on the back for getting your questions in, this is your pat on the back.

Y'all are doing a great job.

OK.

With that being said, and no further business on the agenda, Going once, going twice.

What time is it?

I don't have my watch.

647, oh.

SPEAKER_21

Sorry, there is, on the informational items, I just wanted to note, because we don't have finance committee meetings, so we do have the monthly budget status report, and I'm gonna check in with staff about getting the aggregate contract, or the, We used to get a report for between $250,000 and $500,000 for contracts.

So I'm going to check in with Superintendent Jones and see if we're still required to do that, that we get that added here as well.

SPEAKER_08

I also believe that questions submitted in advance of today's meeting by board directors and the staff responses received are in posted earlier this week, so thank you for bringing that up.

Okay, there being no further business to come before the board, the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 648, or is it still 647?

648 PM, thank you very much, see y'all next time.